Lightning Crashes

It's a dark and stormy afternoon, and it reminded me of a storm a couple of months back that produced some frightening lightning. The lightning that day hit an oak tree next to my home. It split the bark on the tree, exploded my telephone box, split the sprinkler system pipes and damaged the sprinkler pump, took out the ethernet jack on my iMac, destroyed one network switch, one wireless router, and a network hard drive. Some of these were plugged into light surge protected strips, and even a couple of old APC UPS's. Up and down the street, it took out several TV's, telephones, and computers.

Lightning is a frequent phenomenon here in Florida. High ground makes a home more vulnerable, as do trees growing close to the house. I chose this home partly due to the higher elevation after Hurricane Ivan washed away my last home on a low elevation lot. Nature will get us in the end. In addition to lightning, the power company and other power users are always introducing spikes and brownouts. Power is never a pure and controlled as we would like. Electronics are fragile. Insurance often limits payments on a category such as electronics, and comes with a high deductable. In addition, using homeowners insurance can cause a rate hike, or even a cancellation. Guarantees such as those accompanying the power companies surge protector, or on a brand name surge protector are difficult to collect on. It's far cheaper and much more convenient in the long run to protect your electronics with quality surge protection products.

What struck me personally about my lightning strike is what wasn't harmed. My two large TV's, VCRs, DVDs, DVR, Media PC, Xbox, Shelf Stereo, and more were not harmed. These items were plugged into some Tripp Lite Isobar Home/Business Theatre Surge Suppressor 10-Outlet Power Strips (Model #: HTPOWERBAR10). This power strip has an eight-foot power cord, ten three-prong power outlets spaced for a few large power blocks, two coax cable connectors, and a telephone line connector. The only thing missing is an ethernet connector.

This is the one Tripp Lite product I like and would recommend wholeheartedly. I have had bad luck with other products of theirs. I prefer APC UPS's over Tripp Lites. However, no UPS has an adequate joule rating by itself, and should be combined with dedicated or power strip surge protectors.

So, what made the difference. I believe it was the joule rating. This is how much of a power surge the "suppressor" can handle. While nothing is lightning-proof, the higher the joule rating, the more likely the product is to stop a surge.

The Tripp Lite HTPOWERBAR10 has a joule rating of 5700. This is exceptional.

The iMac was plugged into a Tripp Lite SmartPro Digital UPS (Model #SMART1000LCD) with a joule rating of 480.

The other products that were hit, with the exception of the sprinkler system, were connected through an APC Smart-UPS 700 (model #SU700NET) AND a Tripp-Lite outlet strip (model #TLP810SAT). These has joule ratings of 480 and 3570 respectively.

There was no surge supressor connected to any ethernet lines. The wireless router was connected to a cable modem. The cable modem box was right next to the telephone box near the lightning strike. So this is likely the source of the main surge.

However, I still credit the strong power line surge supressor with protecting many of my electronic items. There is no doubt, that I needed a surge supressor for the ethernet lines, and for my outside TV antenna which I use in addition to the Cable TV connection.

The CAT6 10/100/1000 Base-T Weatherproof PoE Compatible Lightning Protector is an industrial grade surge protector for a single ethernet connection. There is no joule rating available, but the design is impressive. This is available at: http://www.hyperlinktech.com/item.aspx?id=949 This company offers many quality surge supressors including quality gas discharge tube surge protectors for coaxial TV cables.

For my outside TV antenna and my Cable TV input, I use a surge protector bought on eBay from seller drop-amps. The TII Whole House Broadband Coaxial Surge Suppressor is simple and high quality, as are this sellers other products.

I recommend using a Google Shopping search of the model numbers for the best prices. Provantage is a little higher priced than some but has warehouses all over for fast delivery.