Thunder, Lightning and your audio system

[jhwalker]

I live in North Central Texas, and we get *lots* of thunderstorms, especially this time of year. We get close lightning strikes several times per year, but I haven't had any damage until just recently.

 

We came back from running some errands (in the middle of a torrential downpour with lots of lightning) to a home full of dead electronics. Oddly, none of the surge protectors or UPS's were damaged / tripped in any way; instead, it appears the damage actually came from an electromagnetic pulse (i.e., close strike that simply transferred energy through the air instead of down the power lines). Much of my Ethernet and HDMI components were destroyed, including a Gigabit Ethernet switch and most of the attached electronics, a new Onkyo receiver, etc.

 

So even if your equipment isn't turned on, or you don't get a strike directly to the electrical system, you can still suffer damage from near-hits

[jhwalker]

Sounds like it came in via cable or phone line.

 

No phone line, but cable is possible, I suppose, though none of the cable-attached devices (e.g., cable modem, cable company DVR, TiVO) were impacted. I'm just guessing about the EMP, but I read a lot about how both Ethernet and HDMI are very sensitive to EMP, and those were the only components affected, so sounded like a good theory to me

[jhwalker]

If a storm is brewing and I'm listening I'll bite the bullet and power down. While everything's plugged in to surge protectors and there's one on the main panel, nothing's more important than making sure you've got the right insurance coverage. I made sure to confirm that our homeowners covers full replacement value, not a depreciated value, and I keep a list of the models and serial numbers along with scans of the receipts.

 

Bill

 

If I shut down every time a storm is brewing, I'd never get any listening done We get violent thunderstorms at least once a week, and lesser storms (still with lightning, though), 3-4 times / week.

 

Admittedly, that's less than some locations (my home town got severe thunderstorms virtually every evening during the late winter, spring and early summer when I was a child), but I've learned when to worry and when not to. The only damage I've experienced over the past 35 years or so was when a freak storm sprung up when I was away from the house and apparently caused some sort of EMP due to a close lighting strike.

 

Off topic, but it's the same with tornado warnings: if we went to our shelter every time they went off, we'd spend half our lives going in and out of the shelter We don't duck and cover until we see a funnel.