Ed Pawlowski wrote:
We had a near lightening strike that sent a surge though the power lines.
Not sure where the hit was, but I did have some damage.

My wife called me at work after a thunderstorm and said she saw a big red
ball in the driveway and then some of the lights went out. The doorbell
rang and would not stop ringing. I told her to take a wire off the chimes
and they stopped, but a breaker was tripped and would not reset. The bell
button has a diode in it and that may have taken the hit.

When I got home, I took the two wires off of the breaker and it still did
not reset so I replaced the breaker. One of the circuits was OK, the other
had a short and tripped the breaker. Since it was not getting dark and it
was still raining, the hunt would wait a day. Next day, I went out to the
(detached) garage and found an X-10 module I use to control an outdoor light
was blown apart and burnt. The plastic cover was gone, the insides were
soot covered. I'm wondering if the jolt came in that way or out, it was
the furthest away from the electric panel.

I'm going to replace the receptacle it was plugged into also. I've not
pulled that out yet, but I'm not taking any chances. Once replaced. I'll
hook the wire back to the breaker.

Losses we HD TV, Surround sound receiver, X-10 module, computer router,
doorbell.

The good news is: I now have a 47" TV with far better picture than my 5
year old 32" and a better sound system.
More stuff is on surge protectors too.


Hi,
Just curious, is your utility lines(power, phone cable) all underground?
Any overhead poles? None at my neighborhood. All underground.

Tony Hwang wrote:

Ed Pawlowski wrote:
We had a near lightening strike that sent a surge though the power lines.
Not sure where the hit was, but I did have some damage.

My wife called me at work after a thunderstorm and said she saw a big red
ball in the driveway and then some of the lights went out. The doorbell
rang and would not stop ringing. I told her to take a wire off the chimes
and they stopped, but a breaker was tripped and would not reset. The bell
button has a diode in it and that may have taken the hit.

When I got home, I took the two wires off of the breaker and it still did
not reset so I replaced the breaker. One of the circuits was OK, the other
had a short and tripped the breaker. Since it was not getting dark and it
was still raining, the hunt would wait a day. Next day, I went out to the
(detached) garage and found an X-10 module I use to control an outdoor light
was blown apart and burnt. The plastic cover was gone, the insides were
soot covered. I'm wondering if the jolt came in that way or out, it was
the furthest away from the electric panel.

I'm going to replace the receptacle it was plugged into also. I've not
pulled that out yet, but I'm not taking any chances. Once replaced. I'll
hook the wire back to the breaker.

Losses we HD TV, Surround sound receiver, X-10 module, computer router,
doorbell.

The good news is: I now have a 47" TV with far better picture than my 5
year old 32" and a better sound system.
More stuff is on surge protectors too.


Hi,
Just curious, is your utility lines(power, phone cable) all underground?
Any overhead poles? None at my neighborhood. All underground.

99% probability his lines are overhead, unless he is in a rather new
development, and even then they will be overhead outside the
development. There is very little underground in the northeast.

"Tony Hwang" wrote
Hi,
Just curious, is your utility lines(power, phone cable) all underground?
Any overhead poles? None at my neighborhood. All underground.

All overhead. Just down the street from me they do have underground wires
and a different feed from the substation. We get a short power outage maybe
once or twice a year, usually a few minutes to an hour. They fare only
slightly better than us as the lines to that group of houses is all overhead
anyway.