surge protectors who knew?

[Barry barker]

Thought i had my TV's protected from power surges and lighting. When you have 4 TV's and a computer for your business you want them protected. Our friends a few miles away are also in the cabin business and recently got hit by lightening, it took out 4 TV,s in 4 seperate cabins. This is the second time for them in 5 years.:ummm:
I only installed power surge protectors and not power, cable, and phone surge protectors when we built our cabins a couple of years ago. I just replaced all my surge protectors with power, cable and phone surge protectors, so hopefully i am really protected from surges on all fronts.

 

[Gargoyle]

It was my understanding that surge protectors are only guaranteed to work on "power company" level surges... Lightning does what it wants regardless of a plug in unit surge protector. I could be way off here but I thought the surge protectors to get are those big 5 grand things that ground everything and even they do guarantee protection from "all" lightning strikes..

Lightning is pretty powerful stuff.

 

[Rollie]

If you could manufacture a product that could prevent lightning strikes / surges , we could all retire on that kind of money. Nothing can protect / prevent damage from a lightning strike. unk:

 

[DMAN999]

^ That's what Lightning Rods are for.
A lightning rod should keep the Lightning from ever getting to the House Electrical system.

 

[ouchez]

ITW Surgegate products, if installed per instructions, will stop lightening, surge, or they cover the damage. This product is all we use on our data and comm systems as well as a UPS behind it in some applications.

O

 

[naughtyG]

AFAIK a lightning rod will (hopefully) get hit first and direct all that electricity straight to the ground.

BUT, the ONLY way to protect your equipment 100% from lightning is to unplug it from the wall during a storm. If a house gets hit it's so much power so fast that everything connected to the electrical system will fry, even before any fuses/surge protectors etc have even had the time to react!

 

[Barry barker]

AFAIK a lightning rod will (hopefully) get hit first and direct all that electricity straight to the ground.

BUT, the ONLY way to protect your equipment 100% from lightning is to unplug it from the wall during a storm. If a house gets hit it's so much power so fast that everything connected to the electrical system will fry, even before any fuses/surge protectors etc have even had the time to react!

Great, at least i felt better for a few hours, and only spent $60 dollars this time.:bang head:

 

[Rollie]

^ That's what Lightning Rods are for.
A lightning rod should keep the Lightning from ever getting to the House Electrical system.

:rofl_200::rofl_200::rofl_200::rofl_200:

 

[gamorg02]

AFAIK a lightning rod will (hopefully) get hit first and direct all that electricity straight to the ground.

BUT, the ONLY way to protect your equipment 100% from lightning is to unplug it from the wall during a storm. If a house gets hit it's so much power so fast that everything connected to the electrical system will fry, even before any fuses/surge protectors etc have even had the time to react!

Could u also just trip the main if you wanted to? Or kill certain circuits?

 

[Redbone]

AFAIK a lightning rod will (hopefully) get hit first and direct all that electricity straight to the ground.

BUT, the ONLY way to protect your equipment 100% from lightning is to unplug it from the wall during a storm. If a house gets hit it's so much power so fast that everything connected to the electrical system will fry, even before any fuses/surge protectors etc have even had the time to react!

+1, I run APC UPS's on my tv/ bluray/ DVD and computer. Nice clean regulated power to the equipment but if a lightning strike ever got into my elctrical system the UPS's would not help.

 

[DMAN999]

I don't know why you thought that was so funny Rollie.
I have a friend that Installed a Tall Flag Pole / Lightning Rod at his Beach house on the NC coast and that thing caught multiple Strikes over the years and his house never got touched.
And I'm sure the Newer Lightning Protection systems for Houses do a good job as well.
Or why would they Install lightning protection on Commercial Buildings in high Lightning Strike areas of the country if it didn't work.
I know it is first and foremost meant to Stop Fires from getting started but as long as it is properly installed and maintained it "should" direct the lightning into the Ground thereby saving the house's electrical system as well.
Obviously nothing is 100% guaranteed when dealing with Lightning,
but If I lived in a high strike zone that would be the First thing I put in.

 

[Rollie]

Sorry, shouldn't have laughed . $ is the main reason behind products that claim to be lightning protectors . Strikes & surges don't have to be direct. They can affect low voltage / phone lines from miles away. I've seen lightning rods on every corner and rise of houses . Lightning may or may not go to the rod. If it does fine , but the next hit could be 3 ft. away and the rods cannot always control it or what it may do to the electrical system .

I've been in many a electrical storm while working on gates & electrical gate operators. While waiting out one particular bad storm in my truck , a strike hit the asphalt pavement my truck was parked on and followed the water / path to the house and blew up TVs , stereo equipment , and the house to gate phone system for the 4th time in a year. After the 3rd strike with damage the homeowner put in about $ 5 K in surge suppression / protection , rods etc. The fact he had a copper roof and the property was sitting on a small mountain of granite probably never dawned on him .

 

[Rusty McNeil]

The newer " lightning rod" systems consist of a whole lot of small rods tied together in a huge "mat" system that are supposed to disapate the charge and difference in potential preventing the strike from occurring in the first place.
They are effective and quite common in commercial applications, but nothing is going to be 100% effective.
The protectors that include the phone and tv cables are a good idea.

 

[PDWeyand]

If you are truely worried about lighting strikes, contact The National Fire Protection Agency, they provide a risk assessment worksheet in their lightning protection standard and can be for your area, if you really just want to be sure your protected go buy a lightning rod and protect yourself and after you have it installed contact your insurance agent it will lower your home owners policy. lightningrods

 

[TurcoLoco]

A kite with a really long string and a metal key attached to the string closer the the kite end could also prevent lightning. =)