Posted: 6/11/2008 8:17:34 AM EDT
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Lightning struck my chimney yesterday while we were at work. Blew bricks all over the backyard. The worst part? The phone and network appears to have taken the brunt of the damage. Most of the networking equipment is fried, as is one laptop docking station, a desktop PC, a TV and the old X-Box. Of course, it could have burned the house down, so I'm not too torn up. Electronics are replaceable. I'm just annoyed because it's already listed for sale, so it's just one more PITA to deal with while I'm trying to sell the joint. So, anybody wanna buy a house with slight chimney damage? I'll drop the price for immediate offers... |
Sucks dude. Get professional grade fused suge protectors...worth the money living in thunderstorm land. |
Everything was on surge protectors, but the main ground for the phone system was disconnected when I went out and looked at it. All that juice had to find a ground path somehow. |
Sue the installer! It's the American way! |
Although good ideas for surges and line strikes, a direct lightning strike will bypass all of that. I saw a 7-inch fuse completely jumped and blow a PBX in a grounded multi-million dollar datacenter from a direct strike. |
| I feel your pain. I had a lightning strike last year. Punched a hole straight through the roof and the side wall of the master bedroom before jumping into the electrical. It took out every breaker switch, jumped from the power to the cable via the signal amplifier, routed back from the cable box, cable modem, router, firewall, network hubs, 3 dead computers and Xbox. Also ended up with dead garage door opener, phones, and dampener control computer for the HVAC (original builders never installed the fuse). Luckily I was home to pull the burning insulation out of the drywall before a fire caught. Unluckily I was using one of the three computers at the time so I got shocked through the mouse from the strike. I wasn't injured but it did knock me back in my chair. Lesson learned.. put everything - power, phone, cable, network - through a surge protector. Ounce of prevention is cheaper than a pound of cure. |
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Man, sorry to hear about that. Lightning does some really crazy stuff when it hits a house. I have seen the end result of a lightning strike on several houses and all of them had different stuff fried out on them. Be sure to pull the wall plates off and check the wires (Coax, CAT-5 etc.) typically the wires will melt at any service loops, fittings or connections. If you had all that stuff hooked up to a Panamax surge protector and it got fried, they would replace it all for you and replace the surge protector. Here is a link to an authorized dealer: www.panamax-sales.com/index.htm I saw a very effective demo on a Panamax serge protector (versus other name brand S.P.'s) when I worked for Dish and I have to say they work very well. They effectively burn out to protect the equipment plugged into them and will not let any power pass after that. |
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Well, the insurance guys came out and replacement shouldn't be an issue since it's obviously a lightning strike. I just got the DSL back up so now I can go shopping for my replacement value for the destroyed stuff. So much fun... On the plus side, I will be doing some things differently on the new house. That's for damned sure. |