Protecting Your Electronics When Lightning Strikes
Protecting Your Electronics When Lightning Strikes
Lightning strikes at power lines can send a surge of electricity down the wires and into your appliances. Household appliances running on 120-volt alternating current can handle momentary voltage surges up to 169 volts, but surges beyond that point cause damage. Lightning also causes problems with telecommunications equipment and facilities. The box, often referred to as a NID (Network Interface Device) on the side of your house or perhaps in your basement, is there to prevent lightning from damaging the wiring. The lightning protectors in the box are designed to route electrical surges in excess of 300 volts to the ground, thereby protecting the wiring. However, surges of less than 300 volts are more than sufficient to damage or destroy any electronic devices such as phones, fax machines, or modems that are connected to a phone.
There are various ways of protecting your devices from lightning. A surge protector is highly recommended as a way of prevent surges in electrical current from reaching your equipment, whether that surge comes over the phone or power lines. The best ones have a warranty that will pay for damage to any equipment plugged into the surge protector. It is of great importance to note that surge protectors generally protect from lighting strikes that are of a less intensity depending on capacity. Consumers should focus on two specifications of any surge protector: at what voltage it ”clamps down,” or opens a bypass for excess power, and at what voltage it loses its ability to protect.
Another important piece of technology that can safeguard your device from lighting strikes is the lighting rod. The purpose of lightning rods is often misunderstood. Many people believe that lightning rods “attract” lightning however what happens is, the system attempts to carry the harmful electrical current away from the structure and safely to ground. The system has the ability to handle the enormous electrical current associated with the strike. If the strike contacts a material that is not a good conductor, the material will suffer massive heat damage. The lightning-rod system is an excellent conductor and thus allows the current to flow to the ground without causing any heat damage.
Unplugging computers and other electronic devices is the best way to prevent damage to those pieces of equipment. If you hear a possibility of thunderstorms in the area, a good practice is to at least turn off any electronics to avoid damage from power surges during the storm. Unplugging the devices from the electrical power and the phone line, if applicable, is the best way to avoid damage from lightning. Once the storm has passed, plug the equipment back in, turn it on, and make sure it works as it did before the storm. As much as we hate giving up our electronics during a storm, unplugging them is the absolute best method of protecting them against surges or lightning strikes. For laptop users, take a particularly aggressive lightning storm as an opportunity to calibrate the battery by allowing it to run down, waiting five hours, and plugging it back in.
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