Sorry for a long post.
In approximately May of last year we came home after a brief thunderstorm to no electricity at the house. What was unique about it was we were the only house without electricity. Every house around us was fine. Once we got electricity back, we realized our living room tv was fried. It was plugged in to a surge protector, but oh well. I actually found a website that sells the replacement boards and fixed it myself. The whole thing seemed like a random event and I didn't think anything of it.
Fast forward to three weeks ago and another heavy thunderstorm with a lot of lightning rolls through and we lose power. This time it was 2 or 3 in the morning and we were home. It sounded like lightning either struck our house or very near to it and there was a burning smell in our living room. Again we were the only house around us without power. The tv was fried again along with our WiFi router, DVD player and our DISH receiver has power, but won't display anything on another tv we have. All of this is plugged into the same wall in the living room. The transformer on our sprinkler system on the garage is also shot. It's plugged into a GFCI outlet.
We went on vacation right after this happened so I am just now addressing it.
My main question is why has this happened twice? Is it just freak randomness twice? Or is there something fundamentally wrong with my home or the wall all of those devices are plugged in to? What do I need to be checking for and how? My initial thoughts are to ensure my home is properly grounded and look into installing a lightning rod and whole home surge protector. I'm not electrically proficient at all so I would need to hire an electrician. Is there something I am missing or I am going overkill? The first time it was just the tv and I actually fixed it myself for about $100. This time it has fried quite a lot of stuff and the website I used before to get parts doesn't have my tv components in stock so I may be buying a new tv. If that's the case I want to make sure I am protected from this happening again.
Thanks for the replies.
In approximately May of last year we came home after a brief thunderstorm to no electricity at the house. What was unique about it was we were the only house without electricity. Every house around us was fine. Once we got electricity back, we realized our living room tv was fried. It was plugged in to a surge protector, but oh well. I actually found a website that sells the replacement boards and fixed it myself. The whole thing seemed like a random event and I didn't think anything of it.
Fast forward to three weeks ago and another heavy thunderstorm with a lot of lightning rolls through and we lose power. This time it was 2 or 3 in the morning and we were home. It sounded like lightning either struck our house or very near to it and there was a burning smell in our living room. Again we were the only house around us without power. The tv was fried again along with our WiFi router, DVD player and our DISH receiver has power, but won't display anything on another tv we have. All of this is plugged into the same wall in the living room. The transformer on our sprinkler system on the garage is also shot. It's plugged into a GFCI outlet.
We went on vacation right after this happened so I am just now addressing it.
My main question is why has this happened twice? Is it just freak randomness twice? Or is there something fundamentally wrong with my home or the wall all of those devices are plugged in to? What do I need to be checking for and how? My initial thoughts are to ensure my home is properly grounded and look into installing a lightning rod and whole home surge protector. I'm not electrically proficient at all so I would need to hire an electrician. Is there something I am missing or I am going overkill? The first time it was just the tv and I actually fixed it myself for about $100. This time it has fried quite a lot of stuff and the website I used before to get parts doesn't have my tv components in stock so I may be buying a new tv. If that's the case I want to make sure I am protected from this happening again.
Thanks for the replies.