Well Think Im done for a while.

[storch]

Originally posted by Creamo
Beetle, I'll try to post pix later, but my Dads machine was just scorched by a lightning strike, on a power strip recently. He took it to the local computer guy which sold him a power supply, no go.

When he shipped it to me, as soon as I opened the case, I could see the scorch marks. The pictures are laughable; how that guy could miss burn marks that big I dunno.

 Is there a strip you can buy that has a guarantee on lightning? His certainly did NOT work.

The only way to insure a no hit during electrical activities is to pull all the plugs and phone connections out.  Or for about $1800 for your typical home install lightning protection (lightning rods) and provide a safe path to ground.  Our home was hit once a few years back and I had about $6000.00 dollars in damage (phone system and three puters)  The lightning protection has worked fine.  Florida is the Lightning capital of the world Tampa gets hit by Lightning more than anywhere else IIRC.

[Nash]

Originally posted by Creamo
Give the guy a honest reply already.  I give him some sympathy for....

Uh Creamo?

Yeah it was a joke alright... Because nn746890's first post to the O'club evar is to tell us he's leaving us? I coulda swore he posted this to the wrong forum.

But uh, go Creamo to the rescue. Holy christwagons you are getting sensitive. You and Deja are obviously not getting to spend enough quality time together, and the frustration is showing. Why you gotta take it out on me?

[rpm]

I think he was doing the right thing by going to the library. North Central Texas College has cheap classes, too.

[TweetyBird]

God forbid should someone crack a joke. There's far too much humor in this world...

[Scootter]

Originally posted by beet1e
Like I said, our power supply lines are under ground, and are not vulnerable to lightning strike. Occasionally a substation goes out, and it's a few seconds before the backup starts to supply power. Plus we also get brown outs, where the voltage drops significantly for a second or two. But in 17 years of PC ownership, I have had no electrical storm damage. We used to unplug the TV if there was an electrical storm, but I don't know anyone who bothers to do that these days.

Underground feeds are not protection from lightning. If lightning hits near the point where the mains transition to underground the strike will follow the wires with no problem. If the house or a tree nearby is the target, the house wires and even the copper plumbing pipes will conduct and transfer the strike to ground and if your PC is in the way, good by . A near strong hit can also send out a sort of  E.M.P. of energy and can kill things with a connection to ground and the wiring in your home makes a nice antenna. Think about the people killed when only near a tree when it was hit, not them. I had an 1990 Bronco once and was on a job site when lightning hit a tall pine tree 40 yards away, the strike burned out the radio and the computer, I had to be towed to the garage.

The surge suppressers help with this kind of hit but not direct hits. Remember lightning can jump a gap of dozens of miles with no conductor, it can easily leap through a turned off power switch or a 50$ SS with not much problem.

Best is all is have all the protection and unplug, but don’t be led into security about underground lines, the reason they are better is trees falling don't take them down, lightning has nothing to do with it. In fact a tree strike near an underground line will send energy into the under ground line (better if the soil is dry) then a lightning protected (look up "air terminal") overhead line.

I also recommend a whole house lightning arrester added to the breaker panel of your home as the first line of defense. These can be added for less then $100 dollars and can be purchased from Home Depot and the like. Then a good UPS at the point of use or a GOOD surge suppresser (plan on spending over 50 bucks for this) then unplug when you can.

I am a certified lightning protection specialist as required to be licensed to install lightning protection on public structures (golf course structures mostly) in Florida and was trained in Tampa the lightning capital of the world.

[rpm]

You install lightning? And I thought bottled water was a scam.

[Scootter]

Originally posted by rpm371
You install lightning? And I thought bottled water was a scam.

fixed .....happy?

[storch]

Originally posted by rpm371
You install lightning? And I thought bottled water was a scam.

I install access control systems.  There is a need for peeps like scooter here.  Most systems are are protected against spikes however here in Florida we find that if we add lightning protection we greatly reduce damage incurred by lightning strikes, while more of an art than an exact science providing a safe path to ground for lightning to follow does indeed work.  Go ahead and keep drinking chlorinated water too.

[beet1e]

Thanks for that post, Scootter - very interesting, and now I admit to being a little worried. Sure, I can see that if lightning were to strike my house, which is built of bricks and mortar, such a huge current passing through it would melt the mortar holding my bricks together and cause all manner of porkage. In Britain, tall structures like all our old Church spires, are protected with lightning conductors which, as you know, allow charge to leak away - known in the US as ionizers? But the risk of a lightning strike like that is small enough for me not to worry too much.  My TV aerial/antenna is external, and is mounted on the roof. How well would this function as a lightning conductor as seen on many of our tall old buildings?

The surge protector product that I have is made by a company called Belkin, and is described here.  This Surgemaster II™ is almost exactly the same as mine. It claims to offer protection against lightning strikes. Now I don't for one moment suppose they're suggesting that it's going to protect my house from actually being struck by lightning, but rather that it will protect my equipment from surges induced by lightning strike elsewhere in the vicinity. Notice the substantial £40,000 Connected Equipment Warranty that comes with my model, which is supposed to protect my kit from a maximum spike amperage of 39,000 amps.

So what do you think of these units, Scooter? Do they do what they claim to do, or is the lightning protection claim just BS?

[Scootter]

These type suppressers do indeed help with many of the transient spikes that are found in the electrical system. The causes of these spikes are many and lightning is but one, a large draw motor shutting down (A/C compressor) can cause these spikes. If lightning strikes some distance you will have many devices in the electrical system to reduce the danger to allow the suppresser to handle the transient. It is important to remember the electrical system is designed to protect itself from damage not to protect you.
Remember they are called surge suppressers not lightning preventers.

Lightning is very unpredictable and can do the weirdest things and therefore the best defense is to isolate from the line as much as possible during time of high activity.

The antenna on you home will not provide any protection and may indeed add to the risk of a hit unless it has a dedicated air terminal attached to it. An air terminal is a sharp pointed rod or a many strand conductor (think fuzzy lollypop made with stainless wires) and well grounded with 17 gauge wire to an 8 foot copper clad rod or other suitable ground. The air terminal bleeds off the pre strike streamers to lesson the potential difference between the ground and the cloud. The lightning rods contrary to popular belief are not really made to take a direct hit, although this happens it can damage the connections and standoffs and is only good for a small to medium hit. I have seen a large hit melt the cable and the terminal like an arc welder.

http://www.lightningrod.com/manual6_disasters.html



Another common myth is that because a car is on rubber tires it is insulated from lightning and is safe. A car or any metal structure is safe but it is due to you being surrounded by the conductor and therefor not in the path to ground it is also the reason birds can sit on a wire. You will not see a bird on a high tension wire however but for a different reason having to due with the very high voltage and the electrical field generated by it.

There are more people killed by lightning every year then any other weather related cause, I for one would rather swim with sharks (most people have and never know it) then be outside during a lightning storm.  


some of the suppliers I have used

http://www.harger.com/

http://www.lightningrod.ws/

http://www.erico.com/products.asp?folderid=47&OVRAW=lightning%20protection&OVKEY=lightning%20protection&OVMTC=standard


oh I also wanted to add the average home can be protected by a lightning rod system for less then $400 US if done as a do it yourself project, and it will be done in a weekend or less.

[hawker238]

I think you're all off topic.

[Scootter]

Originally posted by hawker238
I think you're all off topic.

1. I think the topic was partially about lightning striking his PC and thus had to say goodbye because of it.

2. The discussion, as happens in these sort of things has shifted (ever had a discussion they can do that)

3. But thanks for your help (Mr. topic police)

[Leslie]

Not only that, but every answer on this  thread is now logged into the public library.




Les