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Lightning Strike and replacing surge protectors

197 Views 2 Replies 3 Participants Last post by Adamg (Ret-Navy), Sep 24, 2019

jmanderson10

Discussion Starter · Sep 24, 2019

Hey Guys,

Long time lurker and rare poster. Have a quick question I am having a hard time finding reliable information and wondering if anyone out there had thoughts/opinions. We had a direct lightning strike onto our irrigation controller that managed to damage a lot of the electronics in our house. I'm slowly testing/replacing/submitting to insurance but I wondered about all my surge protection equipment. Depending on the area some were just simple strips, my home theater has a Panamax power conditioner/suppressor and my networking equipment were on an APC battery backup/suppressor. Equipment from all of the above were damaged. So do I/should I replace those? I know with a whole home suppressor on the main board one strike will trip the unit and it needs to be replaced. I just am not sure about what protection the smaller units now offer (not that it matter having them anyway

)

Thanks for taking the time to read the post

J

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Michael Sargent

· #2 · Sep 24, 2019

I had a lightning strike 5 years ago that killed $10K of electronics. I replaced every surge suppressor in the house. Most are only good for a single hit and have no indication that they are no longer protecting you.

Replace them all and bill the insurance company. (In case they ask "Think of how much more would have been damaged without these surge suppressors.")

Mike

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Adamg (Ret-Navy)

· #3 · Sep 24, 2019 (Edited)

^^^^^This is excellent advice. If they all feed from the Same Main Feed into the House. They ALL need to go!^^^^^^

From no longer providing surge protection to major chance of now causing a Fire! Just for Fire prevention safety. Scrap them ALL. I also highly recommend you hire an Electrician to come test the resistance on every wall receptacle and associated wiring. Insurance should cover this. But they won't offer this up front. You have to ask. Your biggest concern now is any damaged internal wall wiring. It is possible that some of the jacket insulation material was damaged and is unsafe to use now. An Electrician can run resistance tests to locate and replace any damaged wiring/receptacles/switches/breakers.

The average Lightning Bolt pushes a "Billion" Volts into the home's 120 Volt capable wiring and piping (if metal). It can cause extensive unseen damage behind the walls.

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