A nearby direct lightning strike (proximity) may hit your neighbor’s house, a flagpole, a fence or wall, a tree, the ground, or some other nearby object. Because lightning is seeking the least resistant path to ground it can cause a surge into your home. Indirect lightning strikes are more frequent and less severe than direct lightning strikes and the need for a lightning protection system (lightning rods). To protect appliances and electronics from an indirect strike consider two tiers of protection. Primary Surge ProtectionPrimary Surge Protection protects the 220-volt “hard wired” equipment that you do not plug into a 120-volt wall outlet including your furnace, A/C, electric dryer. It also provides protection for motors in your refrigerator, freezer, and washing machine. There are two ways to achieve primary protection. You can rent a Surge Protection Device that your electric utility will install behind your exterior electric meter. Alternatively, you can contract with a licensed electrician to install a surge protector on a 30-amp dedicated two-pole breaker on your electric panel in the garage. WARNING! This is not “whole house” surge protection. As good as these surge protection devices are even a small surge may get past it on the electric service. Or a surge can come from the telephone or cable/satellite service. Therefore, you need Secondary Surge Protection.Secondary Surge Protection Secondary surge protection is sometimes called “point-of use” (POU) or “plug ins” that you plug into a 120-volt wall outlet. It is important that the cable or satellite coaxial cable be connected from the cable wall outlet to the surge protector and a second connection is made from the surge protector into the cable or satellite receiver. The same concept applies to telephone lines supporting a computer and a telephone answering machine.The above is the current state-of-the-art, but safety is never absolute. It should be recognized that anything man-made can fail but the equipment discussed above does function as designed an extremely high percentage of the time. Form more information on assessing your lightning risk see The Villages Computer Club April presentation
07-VCC-2020-04-17+04-24-lightning.pdf - Google Drive