[Lightning]

Originally Posted by Skip2MySue

So I started this post with good intentions because you just never know what's gonna happen. And then Friday night the storm moved in and decided to rock me out of my chair with a large boom and the sky lit up. Figuring it was about time to shut everything down and head for bed I didn't give it further thought. Then Sat. morning arrived and lots of clocks were blinking and I noticed the coffee pot didn't come on. Now that's major early in the morning but I found that was just gonna be the beginning of a fun day. I then began the chore of checking various outlets and then out to the panel box to reset a bunch of breakers. Hoping that would be the extent of the damage I continued on with the inventory and found the garage door opener not working, the irrigation controller blank, no cable, no internet, no landline phones and the search continued. My first call was to SECO who had a repair truck out the house in 1 hour. I did have surge protection on the meter and that was blown out. They'll be back during the week to replace the surge protector and a settlement on our losses will be forthcoming. How much will be covered is an unknown as of now. But what a great company they are. Next on the list was to call an electrician to check out the damage and advise repairs. He came out and assured me the house wasn't going to topple over and that most of the power was available. He would be back on Monday to replace 3 GFI outlets in the kitchen and 1 circuit breaker to the tune of $285. Then it was off to contact the other contractor's to repair A) Garage door opener $380 which was completed on Monday, B) replace irrigation controller $175 on Tuesday, C) repair ethernet connection on computer and clean up cookies and download new virus protection on Thurs $120. The problems with the phones and computer couldn't be resolved until the Cable Company arrived. The real fun was trying to get our beloved cable provider Comcast to come out to restore the 3 services that I pay them for. I called the first thing Sat. morning to arrange for a repair person ASAP. I was told someone would be there on Thursday. I explained to them that that was 6 days from now and that was unacceptable. They told me they'd see what they could do. I called again Monday and they had now moved me up to a Wednesday repair appointment. I explained to them that I had no cable, phone or internet and I felt that they should certainly be able to provide me with repair service sooner. They told me they'd move it thru upper management to secure a better date. I then called Tuesday because of course they hadn't called me back again. They confirmed I was scheduled for the Thursday appointment. To say that I wanted to jump thru the phone would be an understatement but I realized that all the different people I had been talking to where only small spokes in the massive cog. Finally I got to a supervisor who then moved my repair appointment up to Wednesday with a time period of 8 AM until 7 PM. So the wait on Wed. began and of course you're all expecting another horror story regarding this appointment. Nope, not to be. Repairman showed up around 2 PM and 2 1/2 hours later I had cable. My phone system was shorted out so that went in the garbage and the computer needed outside help. To say Comcast was the least helpful of any people or companies I dealt with would be putting it very politely. So now back to the original message of this post......Based on I didn't suffer any damage to 2 large screen TV's, refrigerator or the AC system.........Lightning Rods or not
Skip 2

Thank you for sharing your experience as it may be helpful to others to think about surge protection living here in the Lightning Capital of the US. These events are usually caused by an indirect lightning strike to a nearby tree, flag pole, wall, house, or even the ground. This is in contrast to the more powerful but far less frequent direct lightning strikes that was experienced in the Village of Pinealls last month and Calumet Grove last year.

You reference that you had SECO surge protection on your electric meter that is intended to protect hardwired (that which you do not plug into a 120 volt wall outlet) equipment such as the A/C. This is frequently misinterpreted to mean "whole house" surge protection. SECO also provides a starter kit of secondary surge protection devices or point of use plug in protectors for any piece of electronic equipment that has a microprocessor and is of value. TVs should have surge protection that includes the coaxial cable that comes out of the wall should pass through the surge protector before going into the TV. The same concept usually applies to computers with a telephone connection. And do not let a Comcast contractor tell you that this isn't necessary because there is surge protection on their box outside of your house.