ronvp 92 Posted May 10, 2015 Share Posted May 10, 2015 I thought I share this with the community: 2 weeks ago I had lightning strike my house. My house is ok, but my electrical equipment not so much. I do not know where it exactly entered my electrical system, but it did, I had most of my stuff on multiple UPS's. here is a list of what needed to be replaced 2 motherboards, including my server, system drives and Graphics cards. 2 Print boards for my AC furnaces Pool equipment (pumps are ok), but my heater and main control board were done 12 volt transformers on my yard lights F-8000 series samsung TV Yamaha Aventage 810 receiver All GFI's in the house HDHomerun Prime (x 2) Ethernet-over-power modem wireless land line phone system Vonage modem Other bits and pieces Damages varied from completely dead machines (AC's, PC's) to TV HDMI ports fried, Receiver HDMI port with ARC no longer working, Amazingly, my Main Router is OK I noticed that my Ethernet-over-power unit took the biggest hit, it had lose parts on the inside.. All in all, I am at 9,500 USD with replacement parts and still counting The good thing is that I got to upgrade: New Z97 Asus Motherboard with I-7 for the server (with 980 GPU) and a little less fancy/noisy for the media pc in the living room. A new Sammy JS series SUHD 4K TV, and some other bits and pieces.. On the PC upgrade: My system SSD (60gb) was fried, but my raid 5 drives survived. All it took was move the drives to the new MOBO and the Intel rapid storage system did the rest. I still had all my stuff!! I also decided to go bigger on the SSD and bought a 250 GB Samsung 850 EVO M.2 SSD, Using the M.2 socket on the MOBO it gives 500 to 550 MBS read/write speeds and I now had enough room to move my EMBY cache over to the SSD (I used to have it all on my RAID drives) When it comes to EMBY, it loves the SATA 6 speeds. Every machine that is attached is just much more responsive.. Lesson to be learned here: UPS's did not do a thing to save my stuff... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chef 3749 Posted May 10, 2015 Share Posted May 10, 2015 Holy geez! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeremyFr79 228 Posted May 10, 2015 Share Posted May 10, 2015 Sucks to hear, but let's be honest about one thing, there isn't really anything that's made to take a direct hit by lightning. What I would recommend looking at is a whole home surge protector, they link to your main breaker panel and will typically cover 75 to 150k in damages so you don't have to file a claim on home owners insurance. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronvp 92 Posted May 11, 2015 Author Share Posted May 11, 2015 Sucks to hear, but let's be honest about one thing, there isn't really anything that's made to take a direct hit by lightning. What I would recommend looking at is a whole home surge protector, they link to your main breaker panel and will typically cover 75 to 150k in damages so you don't have to file a claim on home owners insurance. I will check this out.. I hear it is very costly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeremyFr79 228 Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 I will check this out.. I hear it is very costly Not sure if you're in the US or not I believe it's around 700-1200 bux I may be off on that though. Make sure you get a good one like an Eaton/Cutler Hammer a reputable company and one that we use quite a bit of in the Datacenters I work in for power stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koleckai Silvestri 1150 Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 (edited) In California, the whole house protection costs between $1500 and $2000 installed. Since many people are getting solar panels these days, those costs may fall. Have to protect that $30,000 power investment. However compared to the cost of losing all your appliances and electronics, it isn't that much. Or even a fire where water and smoke ensures everything is lost. Plus you can get a discount on your insurance if you have one. Edited May 12, 2015 by Koleckai Silvestri Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pir8radio 1292 Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 (edited) @@ronvp the whole house surge protectors are not that expensive: LINK HERE you can install yourself, they basically hook to a two pole breaker neutral and ground. I would look into your ground rod, and grounding setup.. that usually get overlooked in a home inspection. Your home main disconnect (where ever the switch or breaker is for the whole house closest to the meter) is where the neutral and ground will be tied together, this is the single point of the ground. Follow it make sure its not broken anywhere and make sure your going to a good long ground rod, not just the water pipes. I would contact your utility and let them know what happened, ask if they can check out the line side grounding.. they will do it for free, faulty grounds are a safety concern. You don't live in the UK do you? I know they have some funky ways of dealing with their neutrals that can cause issues to customers if the utility goofs up. Edited May 12, 2015 by pir8radio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gthrift 57 Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 That sucks. I hope your homeowners insurance is coming through. Have an electrician, or if you're up to it you can install a while house surge protector like pir8radio linked. I have one in my house after my parents had a surge take out all of their electronics, including appliances, garage door opener, A/C and home entertainment equipment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronvp 92 Posted May 12, 2015 Author Share Posted May 12, 2015 all, thanks for all the help, I do live in the US and will take a look at a whole house surge protector.. I am still collecting bills, but I will try to have my insurance to share in the pain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pir8radio 1292 Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 @@ronvp Check that ground out i mentioned... You dont want them saying you had something faulty and not pay your claim. Though they can still pull the "Act of God" card... i bet acts of god are not covered.... :-) just be prepared. all, thanks for all the help, I do live in the US and will take a look at a whole house surge protector.. I am still collecting bills, but I will try to have my insurance to share in the pain 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now