We had lightning hit the house yesterday. I was home when it happened. We were in the middle of a typical afternoon thunderstorm, the kind we have every afternoon in the Florida summer, when the entire outside lit up blue and there was LOUD thunder.
I later noticed that we were missing a channel from our surveillance cameras. Reviewing the footage showed a bright flash in every camera, and all of them went blank for about 5 seconds. When they came back up, channel 4 was missing. I assumed it was a failed camera. but changing the camera didn't fix the issue. Luckily, my DVR is a 16 channel model, and we are not using all of the channels, so I simply moved the camera to another channel.
Upon further investigation, one of the arc plugs on one of my HAM radio antennas is blown. The radio equipment and other electronics are all fine, thus proving that my house is as EMP protected as it can be.
Twenty+ years ago, there was a guy writing books about computers and how to build them, how to select sub-systems for them and talking about software. Dr Tom, or similar. Anyway, one of his suggestions was to tie a snug knot in the power cord of all home based electrical/electronic objects, for lightning protection.
ReplyDeleteHe claimed that a significant bolt would blow out the knot, and would not reach the powered object to cause damage, other than destroying the sacrificial cord. Supposedly he lived in a high lightning activity location, and verified it's utility on a number of occasions. IIRC, he lived in the South East, maybe FL?
On the surface it sounds bizarre, but lightning is a very odd subject for study, so applying normal electrical properties to it may be incorrect.
If it were that easy, companies would not spend thousands of dollars for lightning protection.
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