You don't have to be hit by lightning to have a power surge. A few years ago, my house along with 2 others got nailed by a huge power spike. The surge was so intense that it tripped a breaker. I lost a surge strip made by Monster Cable and that was it. Monster went ahead and replaced it free of charge. They asked if they had to start a claim for any attached equipment that were damaged. Fortunately, the strip did its job so no claim was needed. The strip got nailed so hard you can smell burnt electronics inside of it.

My neighbors didn't do so well. One of them had a sat receiver box hit so hard it was smoldering. All in all they lost thousands in damaged electronics. I contacted the power company as they've been providing some pretty unstable power and this was the final straw. They opened up a claim for me and investigated. I got a letter a few days later stating the surge was due to someone's work truck hitting a utility pole. The power lines crossed which caused a spike on the feeding circuit to my cul de sac. The power company provided the insurance information for the owner of the truck. My neighbors tried to claim against the insurance company but was rejected. I forget the reason.

After that episode, I installed a whole house surge suppressor. The one I got is from SquareD. Installation was pretty easy. Now I have blanket protection for everything in the house.

With regards to filing a claim against your home owner's insurance. I wouldn't do it. I would save it for something really huge. The current state of home owner's insurance is not like it used to be. Insurance companies are cracking down on people filing claims. One claim probably won't affect your coverage but if you happen to have another, you definitely will be at risk for higher premiums or even being dropped altogether. If you are dropped, good luck finding reasonable insurance. Claims histories follows the home. Insurance companies have a database they can view to see if a particular property has had any history of claims. I've heard of house sales not going through because the buyers couldn't get the home insured due to past claims history. Also, inquiries to your home owner's insurance also count against the home's claim history. So don't even think about asking about a potential claim unless you are serious about putting it all the way through. All this information relates to insurance policies in the US.

Just some FYI.