There is a whole house surge protector from Amazon that is only $86. You have to find space for it on the panel near the main breaker. I think I will have an electrician do it because I hate messing with panels. I would hate to fry in order to keep my appliances from frying.
Eaton home surge protectors. You can put them in yourself if you shut down the entire panel at the mains just to be really safe. Then you don’t have to worry about any of the side buses being energized. You just need two adjacent spaces free because it protects each 120v bus.
And also it does not have to be right next to the main breaker if you can’t do it easily. It will still protect the house further down the panel. If it is not hard to put underneath the main, then do it. But if the open spaces are down a bit, that should be okay.