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Dangers Of Electrical Storms

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13oots2

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2001
Location
Dorchester UK
We have been unfortunate to experience a few big electrical storms in my area. Being the coward that I am, soon as I see a flash thats it all power is turned off and electrical equipment unplugged. Power and leads go back in half hour after I see the last flash. This almost certainly saved me last year, after the biggest storm I have ever seen. Big bang overhead we awoke to find our appartment building intercom melted.

Like many people I was always under the assumption that anti-surge would protect me if hit. A recent trip to my local computer store soon convinced me that this is not the case. After a big strike the "bolt" came in through the phone lines and possibly the earth. Everyone visiting the store thought that they were safe using anti-suge, but dead components lay scattered around the store, mostly modems, but a few CPU's and motherboards. Why risk damaging your equipment or even worse your heath by leaving electrical gear left plugged in. Don't think that just because the sky clears up its safe, it is thought lightning can strike up to 15 miles from a cloud

You can find simple guidlines on safetyHere . I would rather see someone lose 2hrs "playtime" than a computer or worse and sadly its that time of year again:mad:
 
mine stays plugged in 24/7 even during storms. i'm safe.

if my computer takes a hit... APC will be paying me $10,000. and i doubt that will ever happen.. getting hit that is. my backups cs350 is sweet.

btw. surge protectors are a f'ing joke. you need a uninterruptable power supply that regulates the power to make any attempt at stopping lightning strikes.
 
dragon orb 3 said:
well if u have broadband then u don't have to worry about somethin goin thru the phone lines and fryin ur comp......

Do a web search and see how many protection devices are available for ADSL. If its a wire into your computer, its a risk. I have ISDN and still turn off the box at the wall, let my phone co replace the box, they sure are not going to replace the computer.
 
dragon orb 3 said:
well if u have broadband then u don't have to worry about somethin goin thru the phone lines and fryin ur comp......
what do you think dsl travels on? phone lines... yep.
 
dragon orb 3 said:
well if u have broadband then u don't have to worry about somethin goin thru the phone lines and fryin ur comp......

And cable can't conduct electricity either? Highly unlikely but possible (fiber optics don't conduct very well but it is possible to have a surge in the cable line). ISDN, DSL, Cable, phone line, lightning doesn't discriminate. Like 13oots2 said, if it's a wire into your computer, it's a risk. Personally I just assume not to screw around and tempt fate.
 
I just replaced a NIC for someone here at work. They said they had there puter unplugged during a t-storm. Only thing I could think of was the card either gave up the ghost or a small charge fed back through the cable modem. At least it was only a NIC and not their processor.

*edit - On a side note, cable will conduct electricity. The small sattelite dishes use a small amount of voltage to power the LNB on the dish. How do I know you ask? While climbing antenna pole to get on roof to run cable and so as not to fall and break my neck.......I stuck the cable in my mouth so I would have both hands free.
 
I tend to power down most of my equipment. My phone line is now out of the modem since I'm on cable internet.

Only my main rig stays up unless it is a bad storm. I have a GOOD surge-suppressor connected into my UPS. even the internet connection has good protection. I have another powerbar that runs my networking equipment, which has cable connectors on it, and then the ethernet for my main rig passes through the UPS.

My main rig has been well tested too. Took a massive surge recently and had several things blow out, including a pulsator for an electric fence (circuit board completely fried, had to it completely rebuilt), a timer switch in a grain mixer, and an old VCR that someone forgot to unlug no longer records... Main rig still runs as well as ever.

I'll unplug most electronics, except what I have on my UPS, and then I'll shut down my laptop and an old system that is only used for folding (join team 32 please). I shut these systems down because if the power goes out, I want to have as much battery time as possible for my main system.
 
An UPS won't protect from a strike either. The insurance policy will protect your wallet but you can still kiss your computers goodbye. I have a couple of APC SmartUPSs here and they stop smaller transient surges but the enormous voltage and current a bolt of lightning brings with it will make those quarter-sized varistors (surge suppressing components) incandescent in milliseconds.

Unplugging is just about the only answer. But the chances of a lightning strike are pretty slim. I leave mine plugged in, but ultimately it's obviously your call.
 
it depends on the quality of the surge supressors / UPS.

Actually the chances of getting a massive surge from a stike are not all that slim. I have changed several modems, and replace a few systems over the last couple years that were hit by a surge caused by lightning. The chances of a direct strike on the line are very slim though. I agree, if a bolt of lightning stuck the powerline outside my house, the my system would probably blow out, but as I said, only my main rig stays up unless it is a bad storm. I'm confident enough with my protection that I'll chance a surge coming in off the lines, but I will yank the remaining plugs if conditions get really bad.
 
The insurance company probably hates us, but my work has been struck FOUR times in the past year and a half. The first two were within 2 weeks of each other, the third was about a month ago, and the fourth was about a week ago.

The last storm struck BOTH of our buildings... the main building had the antenna (looked like a satelite dish) blown to pieces, we found parts of it all over the parking lot. It also hit our second building, where employees were having a meeting... they saw a blue light streak across the ceiling.

The first 3 weren't so bad... did about $2-3,000 damage each time. But this last one screwed up a LOT. Got a $3,500 projector, completely fried 3 computers, destroyed EVERY NIC on the network, destroyed EVERY switch/hub, destroyed the cable modem, and the router. Melted a LOT of wiring in the walls, destroyed our dimming/lighting system, a lot of audio equipment, and a few pieces of TV equipment.

I'm still in the process of having companies out to fix things... but it looks like we're gonna be well over $10k for this one. The funny thing is... the first incidents, I did the work myself, and wanted to charge the ins company $22.50 an hour... they decided they only wanted to pay me $8.50 an hour, since I worked for the company (even tho I get paid more than $22.50/hr when you figure my salary).

So, this last incident I called up outside people to repair things;
electrician: $55/hr
computer repairman: $80/hr
TV engineer $120/hr
audio tech: $45/hr
lighting tech: $55/hr

plus, since the outside people's rates were so high, it ended up having most things replaced, rather than repaired, since the hourly rates were so high.

We have just put lightning arrestors on each building (looks like a giant capacitor), and have always had surge surpressors... The only thing I can think of that's left would be the cable line into the second building. If we get struck again... I'll know for sure.

But believe me... it's not worth the hassle of trying to get an insurance company to pay... play it safe and unplug on major storms. And not just power cord... network, telephone, cable, etc... the only wire you're safe with is fiber, it carries optical (light) signals rather than conducts electricity.
 
donny_paycheck said:
An UPS won't protect from a strike either. The insurance policy will protect your wallet but you can still kiss your computers goodbye.
apc's insurance pays what you paid... which in the world of computers... say i have a strike that wipes me out after 6 months of use of new hardware. same dollar amount = much faster components! :D so... its all good either way.

so far ive left my computer running during an ice storm here that caused millions of dollars in damage to the power system... and the apc was clicking pretty often showing there was a power surge, etc. but never had anything get my computer.
 
few things people who are wishing for a lightning strike to happen to their computer might want to consider:

1) READ CAREFULLY your UPS/surpressor's warranty. Most of them (even the ones that on the front say they're warrantied) like to put in a little loophole about lightning. This goes for other little tricks they like to pull. always read the fine print.

2) Backup your data often. Even with frequent backups, it still takes up a full 2 weeks of my time to go around and fix/update new computers. Having to re-enter or otherwise regain data would take a LONG time.

3) Plan on waiting a while for your claim to get paid off, if the company will pay you for it. also plan on having to put up a fight to get anything period.

4) make sure you know how much of a deductable you have to pay. It doesn't do you much good to have a $800 computer get toasted if you have a $500 deductable.
 
Hmm...I've got some of those "nicer" surge protectors at work. I find them funny becuase they claim a $15,000 garuntee that equipment plugged in will not fry.

I always shrugged it off figuring they've got 65 ways to weasel out of ever paying a dime.

Think you could ever get a new system out of a $25 surge protector?

I doubt it...what do you guys think?

Mike
 
I don't know. I have read through the fine print for one of my APC surge bars, and they seem to be fairly straight forward. I had one blow out a while ago in a storm, and it only cost me $10 to ship it back to them. I had a replacement for it within a week. The poor little thing sacrificed itself, but save my equipment (the bar was protecting a $20,000 control panel for a grain mixer)

I have doubts of the $25 bar, but for the $100+ ones, I would expect it to do it's job against lightning, just like it's advertised to do, or else the company replace the equipment. I've currently got a client who is dealing with FuturShop to get a modem replaced after a surge went through their bar.


in case you care, I work on a farm, but also as a computer technician, and programmer)
 
Surge protectors are a must-have IMHO, but they are worthless against a lightning strike. A good, $100 surge protector can disperse, maybe 5000 joules? The cheaper $20-30 ones usually handle 2000 joules or so.

A lightning strike can deliver ten million joules.

uh oh :D

Sure it won't be 10 million joules by the time it hits your computer, but you can see that a surge protector is really no defense against lightning.

The poor little thing sacrificed itself, but save my equipment (the bar was protecting a $20,000 control panel for a grain mixer)

This is the main idea for lightning defense: let it kill something cheap instead of something expensive :D

Here in Denver the power grid is relatively new, so we don't have many surges or spikes. Still, sometimes the lights flicker, and I always unplug my machine to be safe! My surge protector should be able to handle it, but I can't quite trust it.
 
I haven't tested this myself but supposedly tying overhand knots in your power cable will insulate your devices from lightning. Apparently having overhand knots causes the lightning to loop back on itself and it burns out the power cord, not the actual device itself. My tv's got overhand knots in it's power cord just incase.
 
my friend dials up to access the web and one time there was a storm outside all he head was a loud thunder and his 56k modem capped out =(. i usually leave mines on my phone lines are underground and well protected from things like this i belive. (i live in NY) bu better safe then sorry? *shrugs*
 
There was a big storm flowing through my area just now (it's still here but it's down to a light rain) I never, never had such a crappy experience with rain as this. It wasn't rain, it was mud. There was sooooo much crap in the air today (the polution index on the news was at 342, which has to have been a typo) that when the rain started to fall it actually made the air smell worse. Yeeessh!
 
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