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Thunder, Lightning and your audio system


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So good of a read. Thanks for mentioning Brick Wall as I've never heard of them till now.

 

A bit different and don't mean to go off topic...About 1.5 years ago we moved from Denver to a small town (10,000 people) in Wyoming. The first year the power went out over 20 times. Was actually a record here as reported by the local paper. Over 10 times this year so far. I run a record label out of the house and on my pcs constantly. I ended up getting 4 UPS (Cyberpower 700VA) to run my entire setup so now everything keeps going while the power goes on an off.

 

My concern is how bad are the power failures and are the UPS keeping my gear safe? Those Brick Wall surge protectors look interesting but is it possible to use a Brick Wall from the AC outlet then connect all 4 UPS to that?

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I fortunate to have a brothern-in-law who owns his own electrical business. When my brother-in-law was installing some new 20 amp circuits for my computer/audio room he also installed an industrial surge protector that connects to my main fuse panel. He swears by them and said they are becoming popular in newer high end home construction. The surge protector is made by Siemens and is not cheap but provides a good piece of mind. I doubt it will completely protect against a direct lightning strike but it may lessen the severity enough that the secondary "plug-in" surge protectors may stand a better chance of stopping the remaining surge.

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Note, that some people report that MOVs are not good for sonics...

 

I forgot to mention that. It's the main reason I don't use surge protection. Specifically, that they negatively affect dynamics.

 

I've always assumed that everyday over-voltages are not really a concern in higher end components with their robust power supplies. Yes/No? I wonder about my Panasonic plasma, however. Do you think the everyday over-voltages will shorten the life of my plasma (or Mac computers)? I have a Panasonic plasma+2 channel setup all plugged into the same Cable Pro power strip. Any benefit in using a surge protector with just the plasma and/or Mac, or just leave it the way it is? I've considered a dedicated line. That would eliminate all concern? Thanks barrows!

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chg: I do not really know, TVs and computers are powered with SMPS, and I just do not know enough about their supplies to know how vulnerable they are to over voltage conditions. Generally speaking, not considering lightning, most over voltage conditions happen when the power comes back on after an outage, even a very brief one, and stress on electronics are cumulative in nature. If one has a frequent outages at their home, it probably is a good idea to have some surge protection on most electronics.

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Luckily, I'm not in an area with frequent outages. I was referring to the small surges/spikes from appliances (fridge, heat, A/C) cycling on/off and how much that might affect A/V components (maybe I shouldn't have said over-voltages). Either way, I suppose I will continue to take my chances and just hope my plasma lasts the projected 10+ years that they claim.

 

Any knowledge on dedicated lines? Would that eliminate nearly all negative interaction with appliances, if any?

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SMPS's are sensitive to over voltages. Some autoswitch to 220 and then fail due to overheating. Others just fry at much over 130V AC for very long. To meet standards like CE they will have MOV's on them. Most homes have a pretty well distributed network of hidden surge protectors in the electronics.

 

If a surge protector is not also protecting cable and network connections the "other" connections will get zapped as a surge* passes through the AV products on its way to the protector. If you can, pass all the signals and power through a protector before they connect to your stuff.

 

MOV's actually work extremely well at suppressing surges. They can absorb an enormous amount of energy for a very short time. They will burn up if the overvoltage lasts for a while (5-10 seconds). They are used extensively by utilities to protect the system. Most current domestic surge protectors are UL1449 rev 3 compliant which means they are unlikely to catch fire if they get overloaded. The whole house versions are similarly rated and will also disconnect if overloaded. The BrickWall protectors I have examined work pretty well for line to neutral surges but don't have line or neutral to ground protection. Some newer ones have MOV's in them.

 

I think the negative rap on MOV's is not based on MOV's at all but cheap surge protector construction.

 

*Surge is defined as a pulse usually no longer than 100 mS. A spike is very short (microseconds). A longer overvoltage is called a swell. The terminology from from the Ocean. The Swells are what really breaks things. What can happen for example is that the lightning fries something upstream or on the pole and your voltage goes high for a while until the utilities protection cuts in.

 

UPS's can also get cooked so protection upstream is a good idea. There is a technology for disconnecting main power when a storm is nearby but the mfr's of surge protectors don't dare offer it for two reasons. First is an admission that their protection is not bulletproof (reality sucks), second the annoyance from a false alarm.

Demian Martin

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  • 4 weeks later...

Funny this topic should have been raised. Our house was recently hit by a lightning strike. The house is fine, some of the home automation is toast, and while our audio system is operational, we're now hearing it as very bright. It could be a setting somewhere or it could be damage from the lightning of some sort. Anyone have any suggestions, short of having a technician crack open and inspect every component we own? I know the insurance company would cover that but it will be a major pain. I don't want to take advantage of the insurance company on the one hand, but on the other hand, I'm going to feel plenty bad if something goes out shortly after our claim is closed.

 

Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

Joel

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File a claim and be done with it --to eliminate any issues down the road, making you wish you did.

Funny this topic should have been raised. Our house was recently hit by a lightning strike. The house is fine, some of the home automation is toast, and while our audio system is operational, we're now hearing it as very bright. It could be a setting somewhere or it could be damage from the lightning of some sort. Anyone have any suggestions, short of having a technician crack open and inspect every component we own? I know the insurance company would cover that but it will be a major pain. I don't want to take advantage of the insurance company on the one hand, but on the other hand, I'm going to feel plenty bad if something goes out shortly after our claim is closed.

 

Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

Joel

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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

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Mac Mini->Roon + Tidal->KEF LS50W

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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.

John Walker - IT Executive

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I wanted to thank everyone for posting their experiences in these situations as I have always been curious what the rest of the world does when this annoying problem occurs.

 

I just had a very nasty lighting storm occur last week that caused enough of a concern for me to pull the plugs from the wall for the first time in a long time. Interestingly enough, the moment the prongs of the power cord left the wall socket I had an event occur that blew out a circuit breaker in the house which powered the lights in the room I was standing in. It happened to be the only room in the house which had the lights on at the moment of the event. All other circuits in the house remained fine.

 

So it seems that lighting is definetely more attracted to circuits pulling active power over others thus leading me to believe a high powered amp which is turned on durng a storm could have the potential for beng a very big bullseye. No thank you, looks like I'm going to be shutting down from this point forward.

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It depends on what I am using. If I am listening to music on my best system, I turn it off and unplug the power supply. If on a lesser setup, I soldier on and hope the APC brand surge suppressors I use with all my electronics will protect it from danger.

 

The only actual problem I ever had was not from an electronic storm but when a California utility company was playing with their lines without any warning and the resulting spike (no surge suppressor in those days) killed my TV, VCR and integrated amp. My Cassette deck played noise ever after. Of course, the utility proclaimed no liability for their screw up.

I have found you an argument; I am not obliged to find you any understanding – Samuel Johnson

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  • 4 years later...
Hello,

 

I was curious to know what the majority of folks do when they have a thunder storm brewing over there area while in the middle of a jam session. Do you shut down your setup or do you soldier on thru the storm and continue enjoying the music?

 

I was always kind of curious to know if you take two homes next to each other, one that has a big amp and high end system playing and the other home having an off the shelf Best Buy special playing during a thunder storm which one would be a bigger target.

 

Does a house that draws more power from the Pole provided by your electric company make for a bigger target and results in being more likely to be struck by a lightning bolt more so than a home drawing an average amount of power?

 

My theory on it is that it makes no difference so I just keep on listening and hope for the best. I understand that mother nature can be a powerful b1tch and a lighting strike can hold an enormous amount of electrical power that can turn even the most sophisticated power conditioning setup into a smoking pile of dung but I feel we are no more susceptible than the next guy in this situation and it's nothing more than bad luck if you get hit and it melts your equipment.

 

Not sure if there are any electrical engineers or astronomer's on the forum that can offer a technical answer on this but in any case I'm curious to know what folks do in this situation.

 

Thanks

 

To keep it short....

 

End the Jam Session, and turn off ALL of my equipment (including the Power Conditioner/Surge Protector), then unplug the Power Conditioner/Surge Protector (which is where a majority of my equipment is plugged into) from the AC Outlet, the Preamplifier, and Power Amplifier.

 

Audio Equipment (and especially Mid-Fi and Up Equipment) is TOO expensive to risk an encounter with Mother Nature.

 

And I have a Medium Priced Power Conditioner which protects my gear from over and under power surges from the Utility Company, but I don't think it will hold a candle compared to a "cloud-to-lightning" strike (which has more than enough electricity to destroy my gear if it is still plugged in when the lightning hits the Utility Pole and fries an electrical line which can send huge surges of electricity into the Power Outlet into my wall and will probably destroy the first thing it catches on to).

 

I had to replace a PC a few years back because of a Severe Thunderstorm. Destroyed my PC, a Microwave Oven and a DVD/Blu-Ray Player on top of that.

 

And had to throw out a lot of food as well, my Refrigerator was down for three days (but thank God it still worked when the power was finally restored).

 

--Charles--

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