Wow, lightning take N+1

[johnridley]

Some of you may recall that we had a nearby lightning strike in late summer 2007. You may recall this photo that I posted when I discovered in November that the dog's containment system had taken a pretty direct strike which had blown up the transformer and left the inside of the box a smoked-out slag pile.

(clickable)

I was just doing the final buttoning-up of the wire reinstall, and I built a little bracket to hold the new transmitter in a permanent location (the ebay sale I got it on didn't include the bracket). In the new location I had to plug it in to the same place the old transmitter was plugged into for the wire to reach. I hadn't used that outlet before because it's hard to get to (I put it there years ago for the transmitter, but it now has a stationary tool box in front of it). I hadn't looked at it since the lightning strike. When I dug back to it, here's what I found:

(click me too)
Note that even the plastic over the ground plug is fractured away. I guess that's what you call a fairly direct hit. It's no wonder we had some equipment damage.

Anyone have any experience with whole-house surge protectors?

Comments

[traveller42.livejournal.com]

I installed one in the AC service disconnect when I did the rest of the work involved with the backup system.

In that case, it was a module very similar to a breaker, but with no switch. I have a Square D QO style breaker box. The surge device installs into a double pole space in the panel. A wire is run to the ground bus.

Of course, there is really no way of knowing how effective such an animal may be.