On May 13, 4:18*pm, Frank wrote:
On May 13, 1:26*am, "Bob F" wrote:





"Ralph Mowery" wrote in message

om...

"Bob F" wrote in message
...
I considered small claims suit but lawyer advised not to as they always get
away with the "act of God" defense.

I've also heard of amature "landscapers" dropping trees across power lines
and being held responsible for hundreds of electronic devices in their
neighborhood damaged by the resulting surge.

I had a power transformer blow during a storm and was told it was "an act of
God" and the home owners insurance would have to take care of it. *There is
nothing with in reason a *power comapny could do to prevent that kind of
damage.

Much differant than when someone cuts a tree over the power lines.

During a storm may be different than this case. (No storm mentioned)- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Homeowners insurance will pay but when working off a $500 deductible
with a $150 microwave oven and $100 worth of surge protectors, it was
not even considered. *That year we had 11 power outages with average
of about one day each.

Delmarva Power admitted that *they had saved $3 million that year by
cutting back in tree trimming. *Me and all my neighbors now have
backup generators.

My cumulative damages were about $600 so insurance was not worth
considering.
My brother had a lightening strike on light pole outside his house
that took out all his electronic equipment so insurance paid.

Well, so far my damages are $110 for the power supply in the air
filter (found online; still waiting on a quote from the guy that
installed it) appx. $200 for the TVSS, and unknown for the dishwasher
(previous owners paid $550 for it, installed.) I'm not counting the
surge strip as it was fully depreciated years ago.

SWMBO called around to various people today as I was too busy at work
to take care of it; they are apparently considering claims for
damages. Sounds like I got off light as a coworker that lives a
couple streets over (in the direction of the transformer that blew, if
my directional hearing isn't completely shot) lost at least a couple
of TVs and he has not fully assessed his damages yet. So this may get
taken care of; we'll see. The only problem is that according to both
the power company and the insurance company, there are a LOT of claims
in my area so it may take a few days for someone to assess it. Air
filter; well I can live without that for a while especially given that
the current weather is such that neither the furnace nor the A/C is
running a lot; the diswasher is another issue entirely - I'm a lazy
*******, goshdarnit, and I like to have menial household chores taken
care of for me automatically!

This experience has got me thinking, though - the furnace itself does
have an electronic control board; would it be a prudent investment to
install some kind of surge suppression right at the furnace to protect
it and the air cleaner should this happen again? The furnace is
something close to 20 years old - I forget exactly when it was
installed, but I did find the receipt for it in some old paperwork -
and I imagine finding a replacement board for that might not be so
easy/inexpensive.

nate