Lightining

[Mike Bushroe]

Kevin,

  on mt house in Tucson I have put a whole house surge/lightening arrestor
on the main panel box outdoors and giant clamp on ferrite beads on each
circuit feed line coming out of a circuit breaker. The surge suppressor
does not kick in until a higher peak voltage than the ones in a power
strip, but they are rated to take LOTS more power. They slowly degrade
damping minor transients from the power lines since they are always active
and need to be replaced when the 'still working' led goes out. I have also
put grounding blocks on the coax input to the house with a copper line
going straight to a ground line/grounding stake, and similar items for the
internet and phone lines. That way there is a first line of defense for
EVERYTHING in the house, and also reduces the chances of an unprotected
device killing a connected, protected device.

If you look on line you can usually find an add-on whole house suppressor
for under $100. Mine mounted to a punch out hole in the main power panel
and is wired in parallel to an existing circuit/circuit breaker. It only
traps such high speed transients that it doesn't matter which breaker it is
across it will come and go faster than the breaker can trip. And if the
strike is so close that it is sustained that long then the main panel
breaker should already be tripped. The ferrites are my own addition, rather
belt and suspenders but the ferrite beads make it very hard for the really
fast spikes to make it passed the beads and get inside the house.

If you took such a close hit that it melted part of the antenna then even
this level of protection may not have been enough. But it anything could
provide enough protection then it would almost have to be a layered
approach of very high energy blocking at every wire that enters the house,
the ferrite beads to further blunt the spikes going in while the MOV is
giving it's all to protect the house, then individual surge protectors on
all the valuable equipment, and try to have everything connected to the
central device plugged into the same surge protector strip. They also make
branch circuit surge suppressors and protecting circuit breakers, but I
think you get less 'lack of bang' for the buck from them.

  And of course consider lightning rods on the roof and above the tallest
things (trees or antennas) on the property. No guarantee that ALL of that
would have stopped such a close strike but I think it would have greatly
reduced the damage, especially the collateral damage.


Mike



> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>
> From: KevinO <kevin at kevino.org>
> To: plug-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org
> Cc:
> Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2016 17:08:24 -0700
> Subject: Re: Darn lightning....
> On 06/01/2016 04:31 PM, Michael wrote:
> > The modem and the tv computer. The modem is on the sure protector
> though....
> >
> >
> >
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> I took a direct hit to an antenna mast attached to the back of our house
> last
> September. (It melted the top of the antenna and sent molten sparks across
> the
> roof and onto the ground. A neighbor was looking directly at it when it
> happened)
>
> Most of my computers continued running unscathed. But.... A lot of stuff
> got
> fried. A big screen TV, A/V receiver, Cable modem, Caller ID box, two
> ethernet
> switches, the USB port of one printer, the video card in a workstation,
> the power
> supply in a computer that was turned off (and on an elaborate surge
> protector),
> the custom-made controller for our swamp cooler... Too much to list. It
> even
> killed the compressor in our refrigerator! My neighbors on both sides of
> me took
> some damage too. A least it didn't set the house on fire. ;-)
>
> The antenna and mast were both grounded at the time.
>
> A surge suppressor won't do much good if you get a direct hit.
>
> --
> KevinO
> Creativity is intelligence having fun." — Albert Einstein
>
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