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What a freggen deal


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Well came home from work two weeks ago and found a major storm rolled thru the area and lighting hit a pole down the street and just so happen to blow out the modem, router, droid box, 60" lcd led tv, 50" led tv, digital cable box, and fryed the eathernet on my mobo WOW what a friggen deal

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Well went down a bought all new tvs got a 70" uhd 4k and another 50" for the bed room, and new router, called the cable co and they replaced the modem and digital box, got tvs back on line.

 

old tv stand won't work with new tv, bought $260 tv stand to fit 70" and went to assemble it and one of the doors has a hole in it, so back to the store it went, and gess what? it was the last one in stock, went to outher store in area and they are out of stock as well, Got money back, It gets better from there The tv for the bed room 1st one was a lcq or roco tv or some sub brand 55" 4k tv, went to unbox it and had spider webb crack in screen, back to the store it went, Ok 1st modem lasted for 2 day went dead, called cable co got another outher modem, computer back on line again after ordering new pci lan card,

 

Then came from work friday modem fryed again, new lan card fryed again, Glad I ordered 2 of them. back on line again after getting the cable co back out again for 2nd or 3rd time can't remember now.

Edited by Athlon64~SPARTA~
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Oh I left out all the rebooting and driver installing, and rebooting and reseting to get the dam wifi to the phones and tablets and all the wifi shit to work again for the second time in 2 weeks I think I would rather shoot my self in the foot rather then to go thru all that shit again

Edited by Athlon64~SPARTA~
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yeah... lightning strikes can be problematic.

 

Often, even after replacing everything that was instantly fried by the power surge, there are still other components within the network that got hit that are still failing in that typical "cascading failure" mode.

Those other components can be part of the house, part of the cable system, etc.

This can continue causing problems until everything finishes failing.

 

But at least you do have an upside... all new stuff! :thumbsup: but it is very frustrating.

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Ya and even better upside is that I learned how to repair the new led lcd tvs . Inprocess of repairing the 60", If one can build a computer, one can repair a flat screen. Have new main board on order for it now. When the 60 is fixed, then return the 50 for a refund. Talked to the cable guy and he said he has sceen lighting go thru the best serge protectiors.

Edited by Athlon64~SPARTA~
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Actually... Forrester has a point.

 

In some areas where lightning strikes are common, the power company's typically have a Meter/power box you can get that essentially dumps any surge in the lines to ground at the box.

I am unsure what that would cost. You could call your power company and ask what they have to help prevent lightning damage to your home.

 

It is quite possible your homeowner's insurance would pay for such a box.... it is cheaper for them to do that, than to keep buying new appliances and electronics.

 

But even that is not a guarantee.

 

I had one friend who's house was struck 3 times one year. His insurance had the power company put a special box on his house.

This helped... but about 2 years later he got hit a 4rth time and the lightning bolt was so powerful it overwhelmed the main surge box also... and wrecked all his electronics in the house.

 

But you can minimize the potential of damage.

Edited by Zathrus~SPARTA~
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Also, to put this in perspective, part of the problem in areas like Florida or Arizona is thunderstorms that produce 1000+ lightning strikes per hour are not uncommon. this increases the odds that any surge protection you have installed will be tested harshly.

 

I saw one storm here in Southern AZ where they measured 4500 lightning flashes in one hour... that is 75 lightning bolts per minute. Storms like that thankfully are rarer... But Florida actually has storms nearly identical in ferocity of lightning to Arizona.

Florida has more lightning strikes per year, but only because their thunderstorm season is longer than the Southwest's season.

 

Both Florida and Arizona tend to produce the same types of thunderstorm that can be prolific lightning producers.

Storms producing 1000 to 2000 lightning flashes per hour are not uncommon in either area

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thats why most of the cables here are underground, and to be honest we dont have such ferocious thunderstorms.....

the only cables above ground are the big power lines and they are well protected, as are all tall buildings like churches and so on.... mandatory to have a lightning protector....

Edited by Forrester~SPARTA~
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All of the cables, power lines, etc. are underground here where I live also.

 

That actually does little to protect them from lightning. The surges still occur as lightning hits ground near where they are buried.

 

Most of the problem is the shear intensity of lightning that occurs in these areas. There is only so much even a very high grade surge protector can absorb or deflect.

Edited by Zathrus~SPARTA~
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You can think that if you like Forrester, but it is not correct. I think you are forgetting that there are three types of lightning present in all thunderstorms. (1)cloud to ground (2) cloud to cloud (3) ground to cloud.

If you think about that a minute... "ground to cloud" is going to affect buried cables in close proximity to that discharge.

 

I talked to an Electrical Engineer here who works for a large power company in designing their grid. I asked him a few years back about why power companies don't just bury all power lines everywhere. He said that essentially burying power cables only protects them from wind. It does not protect them from lightning at all. He said they bury them for aesthetic reasons and in areas where wind is a constant problem of knocking power poles down. He said cloud to ground still produces problems in buried cables and ground to cloud can produce huge problems.

 

It does not matter if they are buried 15 feet underground in a bunker. the lines will carry the spikes created by potentials and discharges of an intense thunderstorm forming in the ground around them.

 

As a suggestion to see what he is talking about try this.

Next time a very intense thunderstorm comes through your area... Put a voltage meter on one of your power outlets and watch your line voltage as the storm rages.

 

You will be stunned what is happening to line voltages during an intense thunderstorm. they are very short duration spikes, but they are certainly there and usually very high.

 

It really does not matter whether power lines are hanging from poles, or underground if lightning is in close proximity there is potential for problems.

Edited by Zathrus~SPARTA~
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well I cant remember one outage due to lightning, too many solar panels on the grid cause more problems here....

I experienced like 1 outtage every 5 years, mostly due to overloads in the dispersion centrals nearby. And since pour grid is smart (more lines and re-routes possible) an outtage takes at most half an hour.

Overloads on the grid have never affected my local hardware and such, my meter has protection for that. Lightning strikes tall buidlings that are guarded nearby, or trees. Undergroudn cables are no-go areas for trees. Bigger cables (like 25 feet under ground) have mostly christmas tree plantations on top of them, no forests or bigger trees allowed

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Yes I have never had a power outage from lightning either here... actually I have had one outage in 7 years... about 6 years ago. Everything in this area is fairly new and underground. Much of this area was developed in the 1990's the town was established in 1974... so the infrastructure is new.

 

There is usually not an outage when people get electronics blown up around here other than some house breakers trip on the house affected. Lightning can cause outages around here once in awhile. But the grid is compartmentalized so problems are isolated as they occur and bypassed so that a failure affects one small block in the grid. I think that is similar to what your describing over there. Honestly homes on fire because they were struck by lightning is not uncommon in the lightning rich states.

 

Typically the surges that blow up peoples TV's, computers, appliances, etc. don't really affect the grid at all, it is equipped to handle them...

 

Like you we have a huge number of solar panels feeding into the grid (AZ is one of the sunniest places in the country) it is common for businesses, homes and power companies to run solar panels all over the place around here.

We have at least two solar power stations... and I think another large one coming on line.

 

Even with a state of the art power grid like that:

I can assure you, a voltage meter in your wall outlet will surprise the hell out of you during an active thunderstorm with strikes occurring regularly within a mile or two..

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Ya I have been here 17 years and this is the first time I got hit, anyway I got the 60" vizio tv fixed, replaced the main board and back on line with that tv, now works great. now on to the 50" LG I think it needs a main board as well. Now I can repair the big flat screens as well

 

I will start checking voltages from the power supply and see if all that is in order, and if it is then it maybe need a main board as well. As the power supply in the 60" was ok, and the main board blew out from the cable tv line connects right to it, as to the reason I think it came thru the cable not power

 

Anyway I be a tv repairman as well.

Edited by Athlon64~SPARTA~
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well.. those APC backup systems are not very good at surge suppression..they are good at keeping your system on until you can shut stuff down properly. those are only guaranteed to stop a surge up to 330 joules.

 

I use this one for my computer systems/equip. http://www.tripplite.com/isobar-6-outlet-surge-protector-6-ft-cord-3300-joules~ISOBAR6/

That one has a 3300 joule surge suppression rating. They are kind of expensive considering they are surge suppression only... no back up capability... BUT

 

They are in a steel case for a reason, if it does exceed 3300 joules it will self destruct to protect the equipment downstream. This can be explosive so it is encased in steel.

That is how they can afford to give anyone who registers one that they will replace any equipment lost down stream of it up to $50,000.

 

I have used this tripplite since I first got it in about 2004 or 2005. It has no backup capacity so it has lasted a long time... it is tested often out there in Arizona by very intense lightning cells.

 

While I was living in Indiana using it (about 9 years ago), it completely protected my system from a lightning strike that hit a tree next to the light pole outside my house which blew

a TV, Refrigerator and some of the control components on my airconditioner system.... it also blew the transformer on that light pole that was for across the street... I never lost power but it toasted the components I listed.

I use cheaper ones on TV's and stuff that are much lower ratings, but for my computer equip. I use that thing and I think they are worth it.

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yep, and most of them you might as well not even buy.

 

In my opinion, if your worried about lightning, anything under around 2000 joules of suppression is a waste of money.

For my equipment I prefer over 3000 joules of suppression.

 

For a cheap flat screen... 1600 joules is fine. but yeah......

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our flat screen is like $600 so no surge protection needed, I guess all my hardware together might reach the 10K mark but that's it.

But we hardly experience lightning strikes in electrical cabling since there are enough trees and tall buildings with lightning rods nearby. I guess the avaliabillity of tall buildings with a lightning rod clears most of our risks....

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Yes, and as far as I know, that part of the world does not have the intensity of lightning that we have here. 500+ strikes per hour are very common here during a thunderstorm. 1000+ strikes per hour are not uncommon.

 

I did record one storm here that was producing nearly 3000 strikes per hour.... those are a bit less common, but I usually see one or two per year.

Edited by Zathrus~SPARTA~
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