Electrical Question

Lightning strikes are probably less frequent than localized transformer problems on your local power poles transformers.

I tree once hit a pole in my neighborhood. It destroyed the services at several houses and fried many gadgets(computers, etc.)

The person who owned the tree paid for all of the damage through her insurance.

Ask Lee Trevino. If lightning can strike a tree and then jump or arch to the person standing several feet away, it should be pretty safe to assume a lightning strike can easily jump the switch inside the amp and cause serious damage or explosion.

Kinda' funny, I saw a picture recently of a mattress torn apart and charred because lightning went thru the roof, attic, ceiling straight down to the mattress where nobody was sleeping. It looked like a grenade exploded inside the mattress. I guess nothing is safe when it comes to lightning as it always depends on it's intensity.

Some electrical companies offer as an option a whole-house surge protection mechanism. These may or may not work, but if you have one and your things are damaged by lightning, they typically reimburse for $10k to $20k of the damages.

Kinda' like an insurance policy and I do not believe these protectors affect sonics. I had one installed 4 years ago for $5 per month.

A few years back I was working with somebody whose house was on a hilltop. His chimney was struck by lighting and exploded. Half of the appliances and electronics in his house needed to be replaced as a result. He had the whole-house surge protector installed. And the electrical company reimbursed him for all damages.

So at least we know the insurance part of the whole-house surge protection system works.

-IMO

Check out the www.brickwall.com website. These guys are very helpful.

A 75 foot blue spruce tree 50 feet from my house was struck The tree exploded!

Electricity came under the ground, throwing 100 pound stones of a wall 50 feet, and broke the corner of the house foundation. Every fuse in the house was blown, but not a single breaker opened. TVs, VCRs, Microwave, computer surge protector, TV cable distribution amp, computer modem card and refrigerator control panel were blown. There was no damage to the fuse-protected audio gear, but my FM tuner station memory was scambled, and had to be reprogrammed!

Insurance bought new of everything.

Switches have NO effect on lightning surges. At one time (before the power company updated their equipment) all our lights would flicker, and sometimes the bulbs would blow during lightning storms.

Forget about surge protectors if lightening strikes between the pole line transformer and the wiring to your house! David Blair (Custom Power Cord) told me of a revealing experience. He had a piece of gear plugged into the power outlet, but the internal fuses were removed. The next morning, after a violent electrical storm, he found that lightening had hit something nearby. The piece of gear WAS FRIED; the lightening surge had jumped the gap between the two sides of the EMPTY fuse holders. If there is lightening activity in your area, UNPLUG YOUR EQUIPMENT. I will unplug my gear when the strikes approach one mile away (5 second delay between the flash and thunder).