Power surges and Lightning strikes...how to protect?

[WarDaddy]

So apparently we had a good lightning strike on our street. One neighbor lost 2 TVs and another had their water heater catch fire.

I cam home to a blown circuit. No biggie, it was a nothing circuit.

BUT I noticed my lights were not on... ***?

so I did a little looking around. My AC3 screen back light was on, but the screen was blank... I power cycled the unit and it came back up, but my lights did not fire.

So I began the trouble shooting... I have power on both circuits.

I plug the lights into a power strip ant they fire.

I move the HDDC4 to another plug, still no fire.

I move the lights to the DC8 and change my program, they fire.

I may have lost my DC4, odd that.

What can I do to prevent this?

 

[CMcNeil]

TECO has some kind of surge protection plan,it might be worth checking that out.

 

[alizarin]

Buy a descent quality surge suppressor. (Some of the all plastic ones aren't so good).

 

[ReefArtist]

Yep the power companies can ground your whole house or your can DIY it if you know enough about power. The surge suppressors work great also like alizarin said but make sure you purchase a larger one but then it only protects what's plugged in to it. The whole house protection is the best way to go (If I give details here - disclaimers would be needed).

 

[GreyHawk1968]

Tho it's not highly recommended , you could stand on the neighbors roof with a long metal pole . That would keep your house from getting hit.
Just kidding. Please don't do that, I would feel bad, for the neighbor.
Seriously tho, I had a bolt come down here and it shot the power out and killed the cable modem but that's all it did. I do have the Power Sentries on my tank. They are the largest ones you can buy, go for like 30.00 each.

 

[Kubi]

check these guys out. I use it on my house and never lost a thing from near by strikes to transformer blowing right in front of the house.

http://www.ditekcorp.com/product-details.asp?ProdKey=6

 

[mflamb]

I can't make the link work, but I can go to the home page and look at products. What's the product/part number?

 

[WarDaddy]

DTK-120/240HD3 Home Surge Protector

 

[WarDaddy]

I have seen lots of those whole house solutions. They require an electrictian to install it.

I was talking to a co workers and apparently, if you are in a Progress Energy area, Progress offers a product that they will install for $4 a month and they insure the items in your home when you have it.

I need to check with my power company.

 

[MC Lighting]

I second the whole house surge suppressors as they tend to be far more capable of handling higher surges. The thing though that is often missed with surge suppression is that if you do not protect other paths of entry ie: cable, antenna, telephone, network etc just because you have protected power you can get a transient jump off of the unprotected line onto the protected and still causing the failure. If you do buy a power strip many like APC will actually give you a level of protection guarantee and replace the devices that fail if their product does not protect it. Just a few thoughts.

 

[WarDaddy]

So here is what I am doing.

My electric company for $40 to install and $6 a month will install Surge Stopper that goes in the meter. It only covers motor driven appliances, fine. It will adsorb a good amount of the extra jewels that enter the home. i will then place Belkin devices where all my electronics are and use their warranty to cover the electronics.

I will also place surge device on the cable and telephone lines in the wiring panel, this will prevent stray voltage from hoping in on the coper in those systems.

This should cover me from all surge issues, and if something still fails, I will have the belkin insurance to fall back on.

Florida sure has a lot more issues than California. eesh!

 

[mflamb]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10419676#post10419676 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by WarDaddy
Florida sure has a lot more issues than California. eesh!

Hold it there buddy...We don't have earthquakes of Nancy Pelosi to deal with!

 

[WarDaddy]

HEY, don't you speak badly of Nancy, Barbara or Diane! California power there!

 

[adnup]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10419622#post10419622 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MC Lighting
The thing though that is often missed with surge suppression is that if you do not protect other paths of entry ie: cable, antenna, telephone, network etc just because you have protected power you can get a transient jump off of the unprotected line onto the protected and still causing the failure.

I have the whole house surge protection, it works great because my house was hit earlier this week. BUT like MC lighting said above, I lost my wireless router and NIC card on one of my computers through the cable. Just got back up and running...

 

[mflamb]

I ordered the TECO whole house surge supression, and I already have the surge protection from Bright House. I'm planning on going to Verizon FIOS. Do they have a system???

 

[WarDaddy]

FIOS is cool... they bring fiber to your house, no electricity there.

So if you use all 3 services, I think all you really need is whole house on the electric.

They convert from fiber to Cable and telephone in your house, so your cable and telephone lines never leave your home. In theory you should not have to worry about them bringing stray voltage into your house.

 

[MC Lighting]

that is correct no worries with fibre cable plastic does not make a very good conductor

 

[ShawnJones]

I have been off the map for a few months but I am starting to get back and I thought that this would be a good thread to comment on.

Lightning is not concerned with too many things, it has the power to go where ever it wants. As far as the fiber optic is concerned, it is made of glass and plastic and will not carry a stray voltage/current. This does not allow voltage to come to the house from the network. The equipment that is installed on the house for the FiOS system is grounded either to the MGN of the house, power meter, or we will install a ground. Feel free to PM me with any questions of the system, I'm not going to get into it right now.

Thought that I would give some links to some different electrical videos, not so educational, but impressive. Just remember these when you take on an electrical DIY.


Open switch
Transformer Explosion
480V 3Phase short


Have a good one,
Shawn

 

[magnoliarichj]

get somthing in the line of a power conditioner for home theater use. get somthing from panamax that has active voltage monitoring and disconnect. it will shut off your outlets and surge supress and give you about 20% more life from your bulbs.