House hit by Lightning (how much would Surge protectors help this issue ???)

[john25]

So im talking to a friend from the US and his house got hit by Lightning a couple of days ago and I was thinking that if he had surge protectors he wouldn't have lost 2 xboxs and a couple of other less important electics. But I was thinking that it's not the Voltage that does the damage but the Current it's self (Basically Im of the mindset that for someone to get an Electric shock or for a piece of equipment to blow up Electricity needs some where to go (obviously to the lowest piont of resistance) so I said to buy some Surge protectors and that would eliminate the problem but I got few people saying that Surge protectors would not stop electrical equiment from Blowing up from a lighning Strike ??? so am I right in saying that surge protectors would elimiate this problem or am I just talking **** ???

 

[nickblake]

they do protect from lightning , my pc is the living proof of that , surge protector was melted mind and this was due to a lighting bolt , with the one i experianced way back in 2005 a lightning bolt hit an old school bell tower blew a hole in the roof and the bell to bits, transformer litterally off the pole , manhole covers off the ground i have never heard a bang like it, telephones TV's PC's , infact the phone points were melted ,all the street lighting were destroyed and had to be replaced , 2 pc's in the house were destroyed mine was ok but the surge protector was melted , the bolt happend and the stray arcs from the lighting hit power cables and phone lines causing the surge , and the transformer on the pole litterally ended up on the floor in a huge fountain of sparks well impressive ,as my PC was the only one to survive i would say yes , but i may have been lucky

 

[john25]

Cheers for the reply Nick I was thinking that they act the same way as Domestic RCD's where if a (Earth Fault) current of more than 30mA comes across the load then the RCD trips disconnectin the load and then no what current comes across t it would niot reach the Load due to the RCD severing all ties with the load as Electricity needs some where to go to give someone an electric shock.

 

[IQ Electrical]

There's a lot more to it, I did a PIR for the Local Authority last week after a lightning strike on the TV aerial, the coax ran behind a radiator in the living room and that's where it seemed to find the earth path, the radiator was 'flash damaged' like you wouldn't have believed was possible!

The TV was wrecked (I didn't see it as apparently the insurance company had taken it?) but that was it as far as damage went-the electrical installation including main protective bonding was in perfect condition!

 

[Engineer54]

I'm a little surprised that your American friend doesn't have surge protection in his DB, especially if he resides in a high risk area, as the Yanks have been using surge protection for many, many years now.

Surge protectors/arresters work by blocking, or taking lightning strike voltage down to earth, or a combination of both, upto whatever the units are rated at. So in theory you shouldn't have appliances blowing up and starting fires etc!!!

There is i understand, a new section within the new BGB on the use of such devices. It'll be interesting to see what it has to say, and how deeply it goes into the subject....

 

[nickblake]

Cheers for the reply Nick I was thinking that they act the same way as Domestic RCD's where if a (Earth Fault) current of more than 30mA comes across the load then the RCD trips disconnectin the load and then no what current comes across t it would niot reach the Load due to the RCD severing all ties with the load as Electricity needs some where to go to give someone an electric shock.

i wouldnt say 100% that they would work but with the bolt we had it did ,and to blow a transformer off the pole was some bolt , but what i will say is dont buy cheap and check the specification they may well say lightning strikes some do

 

[john25]

yea a few people have said to always leave the coax unprotected but (but Coax aside would Surge protected devices be safe from Lightning strikes