How can the voltage be higher at the load than at the panel? The knock against panel protection is because the MOV's in a larger protector have a higher cut-over voltage and may not protect against smaller surges that a surge-strip would catch.
Also, surge protection at the panel protects things like dishwashers, ranges and fridges that are not normally on a surge strip. I have seen many appliances damaged by surges.
Mark
Surges will burn houses down, too.
True scenario: Wind blew hard enough to slap a couple disty lines together. When they came away from each other, tranny surged. Surge turned a night light into a heating element. Light caught fire, which spread to a curtain, which started a fire that completely destroyed a 350,000 dollar real log home.
We got the EC work on the new home. Whole house protection was mandatory by the HO and strongly recommended by the insurance company and the POCO, who admitted that the fire was the fault of their equipment being affected by a storm. The unit we installed at the main was cheap, about 100 bucks.
At that time I boned up a bit on surge protection. I found that the surge strips can actually catch fire on their own if not protected upstream by a whole house protector at the main disco.
The 100 dollar one was for a 200 amp service. I have never priced one for a 1200, but if someone can afford a house big enough for a 1200 amp main, I don't think a surge protection device will bankrupt them.