On Oct 9, 9:19 am, mm wrote:
On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 23:23:59 GMT, "Toller" wrote:

"lee h" wrote in message
et...
chicagofan wrote:
My house is 20 yrs. old, and I'm tired of leaving parts of these 3
pronged cable plugs in my outlets, because I can't remove them without
so much force. Living in the SE I have to unplug my computers, and
video stuff *frequently*, and just today destroyed another $50 surge
protector pulling it out of the wall.

In the last sixty years, I've unplugged many an AC cord, but I've
yet to 'leave parts of the plug' in the outlet! I hope you mean by
'pulling it out of the wall', you aren't pulling on the AC cord itself?
Rather than grasping the plug near the outlet and gently but firmly
unplugging it?

And wiggle it if it is hard to get out, pull on one side, then the
other. Most plugs from computer stuff are really big and easy to get
a hold of. I have lamp plugs that are 50 years old and only a
half-inch deep and they might be hard to grip.

Just wondering.

I was wondering about that also, I have never heard of anything breaking off
in the outlet!

I'm wondering too. And what is a three-pronged data cable? What kind
of data cable is plugged into the wall in the average house?



30 years ago lighting struck the building across the street from my office
and destroyed one of the 9 computer monitors in my office. That is the only
damage I have ever seen from lighting, despite never unplugging anything. I

I don't unplug anything either. I may have lost an internal modem via
a surge on the phone line, or maybe it broke for some other reason.

But I did have a girlfriend who lived on a wooded lot with a lot of
trees just outside her property, in Baltimore. She said that she lost
two fancier than average telephones, a fancy microwave, and the
refrigerator in one lighting storm. I replaced the electronic module
for the microwave but it was expensive, 30 to 50% of the cost of a new
microwave. 60 to 100% of the cost of the microwave used, but I've
never understood that comparison since she had no way to buy it used,
unless she wanted to spend weeks going to yard sales and looking at
ads etc.

Despite all that she lost, no one moves the fridge to unplug it in
every storm, and the odds are so low that I don't blame them.

Oh, I may have also lost the control panel for my home burglar alarm
because of lightning, but maybe it was some other cause. One morning
when I was leaving for work, there was a little smoke coming out of
it.

Lightning doesn't usually hit the house, or its damage is really
visible. It hits a tree outside and induces currents in a wire going
into the house.

Lighning rods don't conduct the lightning to ground. They are so thin
they'd melt. IIRC they conduct to ground the negagive charge that
would build up at the top of the house, and the lightning isn't
attracted to the house anymore. Something like that.

am wondering just why she is unplugging everything. (I expect it did a bit
more damage in the building it hit; it is also the only lighting strike I
have ever seen hit.)

Hi,

I thought that a lightning rod system *would* conduct a lighting bolt
to ground. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_rod. I had a system
installed on my house by these guys and the cables looked sort of
chunky in size. http://www.alrci.com/faq.php.

Warmest regards, Mike.