Your system struck by lightning? What did you learn?


I'm really curious to learn from anyone who has suffered a lightning strike.  Did you use surge suppression? What survived? What did not? Were your neighbors worse or better off?

Anyone pay for the electrical service's monthly surge suppression in the meter?
erik_squires
I had a ground-fault catastrophe.  It destroyed every SS piece of equipment that was hooked up (two cd-players, a sub ... [along with the oven fan; the coax cable for internet melted]).  Tube equipment SEEMED unaffected, but a blown capacitor showed up later in the summer in one of my amps--I assume that's what caused it.    I also had a lightning strike years ago that took out my VHS (not anything in my sound system).   What struck me as odd is in neither case did a circuit breaker blow; and in none of the burnt out equipment did the fuses blow.  Maybe someone w/ more expertise than I have can explain why not? (I didn't really expect a tiny fuse would stop a lightning bolt that had already travelled five miles to my house, but I wouldn't have expected it to survive either.)

Yes; have been stuck twice and had power surges/dips from heck (those can fry electronics too). 

Whole house surge protection is in. Inexpensive to do all things considered. 

Robust power conditioner in use.

Unplugging when away or when thunder is around is standard procedure around here. 


What struck me as odd is in neither case did a circuit breaker blow; and in none of the burnt out equipment did the fuses blow. Maybe someone w/ more expertise than I have can explain why not?

Speed, and current. You can fry solid state equipment with microamps. Just have to have the high voltage there for a microsecond, and poof.

The fuses and circuit breakers never have time to respond.

Fuses don't respond to voltage. 

To give you an idea, I used to work in a place that assembled solid state audio gear, most of it op amp based, and a certain manufacturer's parts, perhaps Fairchild?  (1980's)  was super susceptible to static during assembly.  The little zap that a human could apply, sometimes unnoticeable, was not enough to harm the technician, anymore than say rubbing your shoes across carpet and zapping an unsuspecting family member.

The fuses however don't go until there's enough current to melt the metal inside them.
@jdane 

Your situation reminds me of lightning strike incedents I had. 

1. My Levinson no.39 CDP was damaged while connected to a satellite decoder by SPdif coax cable, to play the digital music channel stations. Very expensive repair required upgrade to a no.390S.

2. My 'extra view" decoder connected to main decoder for' heart-beat' by coax, was blown, though not the main decoder. But Levinson no.36 DAC connected to DVD player by RCA cables for sound and RGB cable for picture was damaged, though not the TV conneted by HDMI Cable to the decoder and neither the DVD player!

3. My 'extra view' decoder blown again connected by coax cable to LNB on satellite dish (one coax goes to satellite dish and one goes to the main decoder for 'heart-beat' transmission). This time the LNB on the satellite dish got blown, the decoder digital HDMI Cable output got blown, the TV HDMI Cable input no. 1 got blown, the BluRay player conncted by HDMI Cable cable to TV blown. 

All this to me clearly indicates, that by very close lightning strikes, the strong magnetic field created, lifts the ground in the cable shielding for split seconds by so much voltage, that practically all equipment connected by coaxial as well as HDMI Cable will be affected and at least partially damaged. 
The connected BluRay player is a total 60-70 meters! away from the damaged satellite dish LNB, and the lifted ground connection still destroyed the HDMI Cable connected side of the player. 
Though it now still can play CDs via optical TOSLINK feeding into my Levison DAC! 

I'm not sure at all, if I had disconnected the decoder power supply, which is a 'wall-wart' 12 Volt power supply, connected to the 220 Volt house supply, would have prevented these recuring disasters.?!? 😕😭🙄
The lightning strike will tell, as now I disconnect the power to the decoder, when ever we have thunderstorms in the offing. 

None of these issues so far ever have been caused by the power mains 220Volt supply, as there seems a pretty go lightning protection provided by the municipal power supply.
This, during lighting, often causes intermediate power drips followed by pretty fast power resets. 
Sorry for the long winded story 🙏
Michélle 🇿🇦