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Post by DavidR on Mar 6, 2016 20:38:56 GMT -5
IMO there is nothing that will protect you from a Mother Nature electrical strike. Certainly not a direct strike. You don't even have to have a direct strike to ruin all the wiring in your house. The best thing to do is unplug anything you value. My grandfather was a master electrician and this is what he taught us all to do.
A few summers ago the skies were very active with thunder storms. A few towns away a house caught fire from the surge the wiring took. The bolt of lightning hit a tree in the back yard. The surge went into the ground and went towards the house. The trench looked like someone dug up the ground with a backhoe. The surge found the electrical line and fried all the wiring in the house then the house caught on fire.
Some companies claim their product will protect you. After seeing this I'm skeptical.
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KeithL
Administrator 
Posts: 10,274
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Post by KeithL on Mar 7, 2016 10:59:25 GMT -5
There is nothing that will protect you from a direct strike (although, arguably, a properly installed lightning ROD will protect you to some degree from direct roof hits). However, the vast majority of lightning "hits" these days happen somewhere on the power grid. When that happens, the lightning arrestors out on the poles catch most of the surge (and the damage), and all you're asking your home system to do is to catch what's left to prevent your equipment from being damaged. ("Protect" is a relative term. What some of the better whole-house systems will do is to increase the likelihood that the protection already present in most modern equipment will be able to do its job without being overwhelmed.) Also, and especially for low current equipment like preamps, consider series-mode protection. Series protectors are non-sacrificial and, since they block a surge rather than attempt to ground it, can withstand virtually anything within their ratings. IMO there is nothing that will protect you from a Mother Nature electrical strike. Certainly not a direct strike. You don't even have to have a direct strike to ruin all the wiring in your house. The best thing to do is unplug anything you value. My grandfather was a master electrician and this is what he taught us all to do. A few summers ago the skies were very active with thunder storms. A few towns away a house caught fire from the surge the wiring took. The bolt of lightning hit a tree in the back yard. The surge went into the ground and went towards the house. The trench looked like someone dug up the ground with a backhoe. The surge found the electrical line and fried all the wiring in the house then the house caught on fire. Some companies claim their product will protect you. After seeing this I'm skeptical. |
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Post by leonski on Mar 7, 2016 14:44:54 GMT -5
I tend to agree with Keith. In my post from a couple days ago, I noted the 'distributed' nature of the grid and that the lightning strike will spread and dissapte thru such a grid.
A direct 'blast' of lightning is a GIGANTIC amount of energy and well beyond the ability of anything man-made to absorb or deflect.
I'll look up Series protection. And yes again with Lightning Rods. Back East, virtually every old building is so protected. Church Spires are an especially inviting target for such blasts.
This was in a pre-electrical age and nobody worried about an induced surge.
Even if the device is OFF and unprotected, it is possible for the ZAP to arc the switch and damage the gear in that fashion. Unplugging is what I did when living in Florida.
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