Lightning Strike

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SteveFord

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Lightning Strike
« on: 19 Jul 2019, 08:57 pm »
Lightning hit my antenna the other day, I think it was aiming for my mother in law but she's pretty spry.
It toasted the modem, router, all of the wiring from the internet provider from the house to the telephone pole, the wiring splitter, the antenna rotator and the antenna preamp.

Luckily, the stereo the old girl was listening to while she watched TV wasn't harmed nor was the flat screen.
FWIW, everything was plugged into an APC-15 power doohickey so it may just have been a weird way that the electricity ran to ground or maybe the APC unit saved the gear.

Elizabeth

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Re: Lightning Strike
« Reply #1 on: 19 Jul 2019, 10:45 pm »
Lucky lucky.   :thumb:

aldcoll

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Re: Lightning Strike
« Reply #2 on: 19 Jul 2019, 11:00 pm »
So the real test is Will that Happen Again?

While having some electrical work done a while back I had a whole house surge device installed on my house main.  I just bought a replacement due to some blowing hay shorting out a pole.  I think the install was under $200 as he was working in the panel and replacement was $85.

No damage in the house.  A lightning strike could change that equation :scratch:

Alan

BobM

Re: Lightning Strike
« Reply #3 on: 20 Jul 2019, 11:04 am »
There is no surge protector made that can do anything to protect you from a lightening strike. Best to check that your insurance will cover damage and update it if not.

cliffy

Re: Lightning Strike
« Reply #4 on: 20 Jul 2019, 02:24 pm »
What did you have your electrician install at the panel?  We will be upgrading our panel in a few months due to a kitchen remodel.

Thanks,

Spencer



While having some electrical work done a while back I had a whole house surge device installed on my house main.  I just bought a replacement due to some blowing hay shorting out a pole.  I think the install was under $200 as he was working in the panel and replacement was $85.

No damage in the house.  A lightning strike could change that equation :scratch:

Alan

aldcoll

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Re: Lightning Strike
« Reply #5 on: 20 Jul 2019, 02:56 pm »
I became aware of the products from a post here on AC.  If i recall the OP even commented they were code where he lived.  I was the first person to ask about one in all his years and his supplier had 1 brand in stock.

I just asked Google whole house surge and Bazinga https://www.schneider-electric.us/en/work/products/explore/home-surge-protection/

If i recall there was a better spec product out there but we couldnt get it easly and in time or something  like that. 

NOTE: My unit has a pilot light, green is good.  Red is tripped/burnt up and requires replacemet.  ( my unit )

This type of surge is IN ADDITION to any computer or audio surge device.

And yes only your mother in law on the roof with a hand full of coppper would possibly save a house.

Alan

brj

Re: Lightning Strike
« Reply #6 on: 20 Jul 2019, 07:38 pm »
Glad you got off with such a minimal impact!

Aldcoll, the "better spec" unit may have been the Environmental Potentials EP-2050, possibly with the additional EP-2750 ground filter.  I had these installed in my mains panel back in 2011 when I added my dedicated audio sub-panel and it's been silently doing its thing ever since without issue.  I've had a couple electrical incidents since then, but nothing inside the house has been damaged.  (No direct strikes, thankfully!)  The EP-2050 hangs off the bottom of my panel (which is located on the side of my house) and the EP-2750 is inside the panel sitting at the bottom.

By the way, if you're going to rework your mains panel anyway, another thing to consider is to move any circuit supporting an electric motor (washer/drier/dishwasher/furnace blower/refrigerator/etc.) or half wave rectifier (lots of things, but often heating devices, such as pool and hot tub heaters, etc.) on the leg opposite of that from which your audio circuits (or other similarly sensitive devices) draw power.

One other thought... when I upgraded my home networking gear to use switches that already had optical ports built in, I had some TP-Link optical Ethernet media converters left over that I was originally going to sell.  Then I decided that I really would rather further protect all of that expensive networking gear and everything connected to it, so I put them between my cable modem and the router, thus severing that electrical connection and ensuring that any surge coming in over the cable line can now only damage the modem and nothing else downstream.  Food for thought...

iFi David

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Re: Lightning Strike
« Reply #7 on: 20 Jul 2019, 10:37 pm »
I think it was aiming for my mother in law but she's pretty spry.

This made my day  :green: