so.... my office got hit by lightning TWICE

Hit twice by lighting?!?

Better buy a lottery ticket!!!



ADG

People seem to forget just how fast electricity is. I used to work for the telephone company and at one point worked in the CO (where you get your dial tone) with the mainframe connecting the outside world to the network inside.

There is all kinds of protection against power surges beginning with springs, carbon and pop fuses. While the springs may pop and fuses may blow, 90% of the time (probably higher) it was a capacitor on the line card that connects the frame to the network that would fry, thus saving the rest of the hardware.

No surge protector is going to help.

im not feeling very lucky.... $1000+ in fried hardware.

and yea after the first hit which left no damage i said "at least it wont hit us twice!"

well, there is a good chance you'll never make that mistake again

interesting read....

Weather Library > Lightning Myths: Surge protectors and UPS devices provide total lightning protection.


By DAN ROBINSON
Storm Chaser/Photographer

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TRUTH: Unfortunately not. A common surge protector will stop voltage spikes and surges, but not the violent, catastrophic burst of current from a close lightning strike. Direct lightning current is simply too big to protect with a little electronic device inside a power strip, or even a hefty UPS unit. If your UPS or surge protector is in the way of the lightning's path, all or part of the lightning will just flash over or through the device - regardless of the amount of capacitors and battery banks involved.

Even 'disconnects', or devices that physically switch off power to a device by activating a set of contacts, will not guarantee protection. A small air gap will not stop a lightning bolt that has already jumped across miles of air. It won't think twice about jumping a few more inches, or even a few more feet, especially if the 'path of least resistance' to ground is across the contacts of the disconnect switch.

Not only that, but not even a full-fledged lightning protection system with rods, cables and grounds will guarantee against damage to electronics and computers. For any system to provide 100% protection, it must divert almost 100% of the lightning current from a direct strike, which is nearly physically impossible: Ohm's Law states that for a set of resistances connected in parallel, the current will be distributed across ALL resistances, at levels inversely proportional to the different values of resistance. A house or building is nothing more than a set of resistors 'connected' in parallel- the electrical wiring, plumbing, phone lines, steel framework, etc. (Even though plumbing and electrical wiring, for instance, may not be physically connected, lightning will use side flashes across air gaps to effectively connect them). In a direct lightning strike, the current will not follow only one path- it will distribute itself across all paths to ground depending on each path's resistance.

Lightning current often peaks at 100,000 or more Amperes. With that in mind, consider if you have a lightning protection system installed, and your house is hit directly by lightning. If the protection system takes even 99.9% of the current, then your electrical wiring may take the remaining 0.1%. 0.1% of 100,000 Amperes is a 100 Amp surge through your lines- which may be enough to take out your computer.

It is not uncommon for 'side flashes' to occur inside a house or building, where all or a part of the lightning will jump across an entire room to reach ground- such as from the electrical wiring system to well-grounded water pipes. If your computer is in the way, it'll be time to shop for a new one, even if you have the most expensive protection system installed.

A 'side flash' often occurs when lightning branches out into several channels as it tries to bury itself deep into earth. So even if the bulk of the current is flowing to ground through the heavy cables of your protection system, there can be small 'overflow' disharges, even if the lightning hits outside of the structure. Such an event was experienced by my Grandmother, who witnessed a 6-foot long blue spark jump across the room from a wall outlet to the kitchen faucet as lightning struck nearby.

Guarantees on the packaging of UPS/surge protection devices are somewhat misleading when it comes to lightning protection, implying that the devices can stop any effects of a strike. In some cases, they will - as long as they aren't in or near the direct line of fire. But in reality, nothing can guarantee absolute protection from a direct or very close strike.

All this doesn't mean that you shouldn't use a surge protector, UPS, disconnect, or a full-fledged lightning rod system. Any device will provide some degree of protection from everyday power line spikes and distant lightning strikes. But when lightning hits nearby or directly, all bets are off.

The best, and cheapest, way to protect your stereo, television, computer, or any electronic appliance is to unplug all power, telephone (modem), and antenna connections during a thunderstorm.

fucking ohm's law. ugh.

ADG

fried the alarm system to and it went off so fire dept came and the damn alarm wouldnt shut off... its still fking going actually just killed power to the sirens til the tech comes.

pretty hectic...

now he has superpowers and enlarged penis....why couldnt i get hit!

Disconnect the battery in the central box... Had the same shit happen once

We got hit a few weeks ago - knocked out an old 500gb western digital external drive.

Went right through a $200 surge bar as well.

It'll power up...but seems to cycle in a loop and we can't access it (yet).

Oddly, the surge was selective. It didn't touch a second WD drive...or the laptop (both plugged into the same bar).

yea same here. thankfully 99% of equip was ok but one of the more expensive machines is dead for now.

That blows.

At least most of the stuff on the WD external was on redundant drives - so I'm not in a panic to get it up and running. Just took it offline for now until I can figure out my options.

That sucks. I have a half dozen APC heavy battery backups/surge protectors for my computers and they definitely help during power surges. I also have had all the outlets in my house properly grounded and polarity corrected since it seems like most houses and apartments here in Florida are wired backwards and/or not grounded. I'm getting my electrician to install another layer protection at the power box just to be extra safe. Data backups in a separate location not connected to the network are key as well just in case a direct lightning strike fries all of that.

Ouch!

Did you have a deductible to cover?

be careful farting around with anything that appears to have broken that has a large capacitor in it. guitar amps, etc.