Lightning Strikes!

[Rosaboobie]

Yes indeed, 27,000 homes were without power in Scotland today - we have been lucky so far, but I have all my "toys" charged up just in case!

[Jude]

Hold on, Rosaboobie!

[draclvr]

Batten down the hatches so you don't blow away...

[Rosaboobie]

Well now, Phlebas, did what you said and unplugged the telephone line but duh, of course that makes the landline unusable in case of an emergency, and in this weather the mobile phone signal is not that reliable, so I think I will have to take a chance in future and leave the phone plugged in!

[RaytheBear]

Going back to the subject of Surge Protectors that is why I bought the one that also protects your Phone lines and coaxial cables, depending where you buy it from they are not that expensive (although you don't want to go too cheap), here is an example of such a S.P.:

http://www.staples.ca/en/APC-11-Outlet- ... CA_1_20001

Note: This is not the one I bought since mine is older and no longer available.

Good luck Rosa and may never ever need the use of a S.P.

[Jude]

Yeah, I had one of those when I used a dial-up modem. The trouble is, for lightning strikes, there's a good chance that no surge protector is going to help. :(

[draclvr]

If it's close enough, you're right! We had one hit a tree about 20' from the house - I actually saw it. It traveled down the tree, through the roots to an old galvanized water pipe running from the house to the barn. It blew a hole in the pipe in the basement and toasted the phone lines. Luckily all electronics were unplugged at the time.

[RaytheBear]

Jude and draclvr you are both right, if a lightning strikes close enough or directly on the power source there is not much you can do to protect oneself from a Strike if your appliances are plugged in, but a good SP also helps for what is called Spikes in your Hydro supply and that happens more often than one is aware of especially during storms, even if the storm is relatively far away. I bought a SP for this purpose (hydro spikes) especially at the cottage where we have older hydro wires and spikes happen quite frequently more so than in the city, although we do witness spikes during a big storm or in the winter when there is Freezing rain.

[Rosaboobie]

Thanks for that advice Ray - I just realised that the surge protectors I use seem to have a line down the middle for phone sockets, duh! By the way your link did not work for me because it asks for my post code.

[Phlebas]

Based on the URL I think it was this one, Boobie:
http://www.amazon.com/APC-Power-Saving- ... B002XDQAC4

[Rosaboobie]

Thank you Phlebas, that one looks very smart - will try and see if I can get similar here in UK.

[RaytheBear]

Thank you Phlebas for posting a Link that is more accessible to all, I didn't realize that the link I posted was only country specific, again a big TY for correcting my mistake.

Take care and have a good day
Ray