Home Electrical Issues

1,189 Views | 5 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by Willis
Willis
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AG
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.

evan_aggie
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AG
Your initial hunch is what i'd remedy first as well...making sure the house is properly grounded. There are code requirements regarding depth of grounding stakes etc. also a little curious if your house is taller than immediate neighbors?
Willis
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AG
My house is shorter than neighbor to my left and about even with neighbor to my right. The pole on the edge of my front yard that brings power into the house is the tallest thing on my lot.
Bregxit
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AG
The only thing I can say is that if your issues are lightning related, a whole home surge protector is not going to prevent that. You would need a full blown lightning protection system, whole home surge, and surge protectors at every outlet...and even then you aren't guaranteed to be protected. Then the fun part, none of that would be warranted against lightning strikes and you would need to replace most/all of it in the event of another strike.
Lone Stranger
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It sounds like you have an overhead service so that is a likely "entry point" into your system. If your house is grounded really, really well you become the easiest path for the lighting to get to earth. That can be a problem if you have a really great ground better than everyone else in the neighborhood. You can reduce probability but not completely eliminate it by considering the following;

-A lighting arrestor prior to your main service. Will operate during a high voltage transient/spike to try to shunt the spike to earth before getting into your wiring. A really big spike can fry it so know you have something to check after a big storm to make sure it wasn't fried and won't operate in the future.

-A category C surge suppressor at your main service. (Sometimes called a whole house suppressor as others have mentioned.) This will take really big transients/spikes and send them to ground/heat in the air or both. The problem with all of them is they have a "let through" level (only clamp down to that level) of between 600 and 1400 volts depending on make/model. That is still too high for your electronics. Think of it as taking the big nasty stuff out but not getting everything that could be problematic.

A Category A surge suppressor on you high dollar electronic equipment. The issue with most of these is they have a maximum voltage above which they will be fried. (typically about 600-100 volts.) They will knock a transient/spike down to a safe level for your electronics as long as the transient/spike isn't above their maximum rating which will fry your category A device.

So you see a potential issue here if your Category C knocks it down to 1400 but your Category A can only withstand 600 volts. A big lighting strike will be knocked down to 1400 or so but still fry your Category A devices. You cannot provide good protection for electronics with just one surge suppressor. You have to have at least two and make sure they are coordinated so the Category C knocks it down to a level the Category A can handle. (Think of it this way....you need a surge suppressor for your Category A surge suppressors to ensure lightning doesn't fry them.)

Some people would consider the lighting arrestor overkill in a residential situation if you go with a good quality/rated Category C at the main service. I would tend to agree. Having both gives you more protection but raises the price. At that point the decision is strictly about cost/benefit arguments about protecting from everything and anything (using both) versus protecting from almost all of the possibilities (using only one).
Dr. Venkman
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AG
How long were you without power? Do you know what the utility did to get it back on?

A surge protector will not protect against lightning. Best thing will be to get a whole house one with a good warranty for stuff that gets damaged.
Willis
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AG
It was out for a few hours until the electric company came out the next morning. There is a big "fuse" or whatever on the pole outside my house. Both times it has happened they have come out and used a long pole to pull the old "fuse" and pop in a new one. As soon as the new one is put in, the power comes back on.
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