Do you unplug during a thunderstorm?

Jimmy_Lemon

Jimmy_Lemon

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Just wondered if anyone goes to the trouble of unplugging all/some electrical devices when a thunderstorm passes over.
You hear stories of items being damaged by lighting, but never thought to unplug my computer or anything...even my backup drive caddy is plugged in (but not switched on) so if we were hit I would be royally screwed.

So, do you bother? or are you just part of the "it wont hit me" group that I seem to be part of.
 
I am part of the it won't hit me brigade, but have lost a cable modem many years ago :shrug:
 
All my pc's tv's etc are plugged in to a surge protector and so far I've never had a problem, maybe I'm wrong but I've always been led to believe that's enough protection
 
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Swissy said:
All my pc's tv's etc are plugged in to a surge protector and so far I've never had a problem, maybe I'm wrong but I've always been led to believe that's enough protection
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All my stuff are in surge protected extension leads, but given they only cost a few £ I do doubt their ability a tad. Something in the back on mind tells me that lighting can be too quick to be caught by circuit breakers and surge protection...but I can't remember where I read that.

...think I might do some googling :)
 
Sometimes. We always did this in Joburg because the storms were incredibly violent, like nothing I've ever seen in this country. The sky would split apart and light up brilliantly, with a crash of thunder that shook the house.

I never used to bother here, but there was a storm a couple of years ago - nothing very dramatic - and it blew out most of the phones, the exchange, and a lot of electrical equipment in our village. There was another minor storm about a week ago which knocked out some phone lines, and broadband connections, so I'm starting to go back to my SA habits. Everything is unplugged now.
 
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If the storm is passing overhead, absolutely.

Have repaired way too many PCs, that was killed during thunder...
 
Always unplug the Mac from the mains and the telephone line and sometimes if the storm is looking bad the televisions.
 
http://stormhighway.com/surge_protectors_ups_lightning_protection_myth.shtml - seems to back up what I remembered about surge protectors as do a few other pages....still seem to be items being sold as protecting from lighting strikes however!

Latest storm seems to have past us now, but it was a close one. I thought I might as well turn big PC off as I didn't need it. Tried to shut down and windows decided to install 40 updates, so was then even more worried as a power cut could have caused some fun half way through an update install!
 
I am with the surge protector lot. Everything's plugged into one.

Once had one blow (the switch blew clean out) but it was fairly old at the time and didn't break anything else.
 
I always unplug the computers when lightning about, regardless of my surge protectors!
 
I'm not bothered about it hitting us - thats what circuit breakers are for - but in a storm my power often goes on and off rapidly , which isnt good for routers and such so i usually unplug them.
 
Where do you stop? Every electrical appliance? The tv aerial? The sky dish?

A direct hit should get stopped at the ups for my computer bits (hopefully) but then that's what backups are for :)

The rest is all replaceable..
 
Well, as I have quite an expensive HiFi setup, plus my ham radio kit attached to huge lightning attractors, YES, I unplug :)

Aerials, and mains plugs, no real need to unplug cable kit as it is fibre optics....
 
I don't bother but my parents do. I remember just going to sleep when lighning struck the phone line and killed my internal modem which went with a very loud bang and lit the room up blue! The modem at work was similarly fired the same night!
 
My cottage in Devon was hit by lightning a few years ago. Actually it was a tree further up the hill that was hit, it travelled down the thick layer of hailstones covering the lane and entered the house through the BT socket. It then blew the router to pieces and travelled down the ethernet cables, blowing a network switch and my ex's PC before heading out through the power socket blowing the surge protector on its way out.

My laptop and external drives were also attached to the network but were unaffected.

I unplug everything every night now :D
 
Nope never.
 
Little storms, nope.
Absolute blinders like a couple we've had in the last week I'm around the house like a crazed whippet pulling them* out.

Edit.....*plugs*!
 
MiL unplugs almost everything every night then wonders why her freeview's all to cock... There's now a sticker over that plug and switch so she can't claim to have forgotten again...

I keep a spare car on the drive with the fuel tank removed and extra high profile tyres fitted and use that as a personal refuge during any thunderstorms in the UK. :bonk:
 
What a coincidence seeing this here. On facebook a friend has just posted a photo of a house on his street that just took a direct hit off a lightning bolt. I wonder if the occupants have had their electricals damaged, it'd really top off their day as their roof can no longer be classed as a roof
 
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I don't feel like I should now though
 
When we were kids we used to have to cover all the mirrors with blankets and everything in the house was unplugged :D

I'm not as wary as my mother. Yesterday during the lightening my missus was panicking and telling the kids to plug out all, they were on the xbox at the time. I left my laptop plugged in as it was charging. I suppose if it did strike the house I'd have to put my hand up ... if I was still able!
 
I like to live dangerously!

In my past life as an aerial rigger I saw a couple of really nice examples of lightning strike damage though. One aerial on a 12' pole 50 yards away from the house took a direct hit, the aerial vapourised, inside the house the tv and vcr both blew up, all the solder inside the guys pc ended up coating the inside of the case and his telephones went west.
 
I knew it was a bad idea to start this thread or even think about it.
Lighting strike somewhere very nearby....luckily it only knocked out the power, but PC was still installing one of it's 40 updates and was NOT happy when I turned it back on :(
 
I un-plug the computer stuff... not that it is valuable, Just a huge effort to replace everything as it was.
All the other stuff would be replaced by insurance.
 
Just wait for the next massive coronal mass ejection, that will make lightning seem like a mere static shock.
Apart from 'direct lightning strike', only 'nearby lightning' has a high enough field strength to be of concern. However a 'hit' on the distribution network can creates a conducted threat needing a high-speed transient voltage suppressor (TVS) together with a LC pi filter.
 
if we could have that again in English please :lol:
 
What would a company do, like an IT company or call centre would they have precautions in place for a strike that an ordinary home doesn't?
 
Jimmy_Lemon said:
...PC was still installing one of it's 40 updates and was NOT happy when I turned it back on :(
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There's a reason for an UPS. Everything to keep Windows happy! :D

Mqta said:
Just wait for the next massive coronal mass ejection...
Click to expand...
Could be, we've seen the last ones?
scratch2.gif


http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/The-Weakest-Solar-Cycle-in-100-Years-216752671.html
 
I had lightning come down the TV aerial once, luckily I had an aerial splitter/booster fitted and that was fried before the TV was affected.
Computers are on surge protectors but I do not unplug.
 
Those of you who unplug - do you unplug everything in the morning before departing for work in case there's a storm during the day whilst you're out? No?
I don't unplug either. Aerial is in the loft but if it was external i might unplug the aerial during a storm.
 
DorsetDude said:
Those of you who unplug - do you unplug everything in the morning before departing for work in case there's a storm during the day whilst you're out? No?
I don't unplug either. Aerial is in the loft but if it was external i might unplug the aerial during a storm.
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I usually unplug the computer when i'm not in - but mostly because the power supply gets hot
 
I had the computer modem (pre-broadband) smoked and then a couple of years ago the router was damaged, then last year the phone socket itself had to be replaced - surprisingly there are little components in there - so three hits via phone lines.
I have a surge protector in it now or I guess the last one would have been worse too.
Unplugging is only practical if you are there to do it and a surge seems to be able to travel at least a mile through phone wires.
 
The only thing I would unplug is granny's iron lung.
 
Won't hit me!

I have surge protection, but that's by accident. I bought UPS for the "server room" (actually the boiler cupboard :P ), the study and the lounge where the sky+ box and freeview recorder are plugged in, as I don't like the idea of them being rebooted by a power dip during disk writes. These co-incidentally also provide surge protection.
 
After loosing the motherboard on an Edit suite about 6 years ago - Yep turn it all off and unplug. Even though we have a separate circuit for the pc's and is all protected - I still dont trust it so All Off is my way

Best policy imho
 
DorsetDude said:
Those of you who unplug - do you unplug everything in the morning before departing for work in case there's a storm during the day whilst you're out? No?
I don't unplug either. Aerial is in the loft but if it was external i might unplug the aerial during a storm.
Click to expand...

If we are out of the house for any reason, then the only electrical things which are left on are: the phone base, fridge freezer and the hardwired socket for the combi boiler (ignition I suppose?). We used to leave the washing machine on, but have been having second thoughts lately, because apparently they are a medium/highrisk electrical item (not that they would be affected by a storm I hope:eek:).
 
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