# Storm Power Surge and Fried Electronics



## jeffjunstrom (Aug 12, 2019)

Severe thunderstorms in Pittsburgh Sunday night...one particular strike hit very close to the house, causing a power surge and frying some electronics. I'm beginning the slow, arduous process of filing an insurance claim, but we had an electrician come through and confirm that the following items were zapped:

- 85" Samsung TV (2.5 years old)
- Irrigation system HUB
- Garage door motor
- Surround system, both indoor/outdoor
- Outdoor lighting transformer

Assuming insurance will cover the replacement (fingers crossed), is there a secondary market for these items, for parts or otherwise? Would I even want to do that, especially for items that might have personal data loaded (assuming it survived the surge)?

Has anyone gone through this process before? I've dealt with both home and auto insurance claims before, but nothing to this level (multiple products, multiple vendors, etc.).


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## FlowRider (Apr 7, 2019)

I had lightning strike a huge red oak tree in my backyard. It fried a wireless (9 volt battery powered) sprinkler solenoid in my yard. It also fried my irrigation system timer master control unit. I just had it all replaced by a landscaper friend because I had a $1000 deductible.

When I bought my house, I put in extra four foot long grounding rods that were designed to protect my electronics.

The lightning took out the one circuit at the first grounding rod. It blew the wire insulation completely off the copper wire.

But the second rod in line with that (an extra rod I put in, grounded to the first exterior rod) routed the lightning voltage into the ground in my walk-in crawl space. It saved all my other electrical connections.

You might want to consider that - I drove them in myself by hand.

My insurance paid me $1000 to take the tree down. I ended up with more firewood so I ended up saving about $2500 on buying cord wood. No deductible applied to that under my policy contract.

Nothing could be salvaged - lightning strike destroyed what it reached. The fried parts went into the trash. I doubt what you have fried is anything but scrap now….

I put one at each corner of my house, one by the eight foot grounding rod installed by the utility company at my electric meter, and one on my satellite TV system that also shielded my surround sound stereo system.


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## Boy_meets_lawn (Sep 27, 2020)

Good luck dealing with your insurance. I use a layered approach with a siemens fs140 whole home surge protector and multiple Furman surge protectors.


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## jeffjunstrom (Aug 12, 2019)

Boy_meets_lawn said:


> Good luck dealing with your insurance. I use a layered approach with a siemens fs140 whole home surge protector and multiple Furman surge protectors.


That whole home surge protection is what I'm trying to get them to agree to install, so I can minimize the likelihood of this happening again.

Dealing with insurance *so far* hasn't been bad. The problem is the deductible, as noted above (I'm basically paying $1,000 for the privilege of being hit by lightening), and getting proof of damage for the bigger ticket items. Once I've got all that in place, the adjuster is basically just going to write a check and it's on me to replace the items.


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## daniel3507 (Jul 31, 2018)

I've been talking about installing an Eaton Ultra whole home surge protector. Think I'll hurry up and get it done after seeing how much damage you got hit with. Most expensive things at least are plugged into Panamax surge protectors but it's always good to have additional layers. The rods are worth looking into as well


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## sam36 (Apr 14, 2020)

From what I researched, the siemens fs140 has the highest rating and can be found for ~$200 on amazon. The next step from that is $1000+ commercial rated stuff but in most cases is for 3 phase. I had the fs140 sitting in a box in my office for about 6 months. My electrician friend I tried to get to install it for me said it would be easy enough to do myself but I felt intimidated (hence it sitting in a box forever). It rained one time in July 2020, a freak summer storm that only lasted 20 minutes and lightning also struck my telephone poll and blew out half my HVAC system, computer equipment, and a bunch of GFCI outlets were stuck in the tripped position and would not reset. I was super ticked. Went to home depot and figured out what I needed and got the fs140 installed the next week :roll:

For indoor surge protectors, I find the tripp lite isobar series a step above normal. And for places where a multi-outlet surge protector would be an eyesore, you can get "hospital" outlets that have all that built in like the Leviton 8280 series.


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## LeeB (Jul 1, 2019)

This happened to my Dad. We think it entered through the satellite dish because the installer didn't install a ground block on the incoming coax. Fried the satellite boxes and the TVs connected to them. Next, everything connected to his wired ethernet network was fried and had to be replaced. It also fried a garage door opener and the garage GFCI. I was able to fix the garage door board with a 20¢ diode and replaced the GFCI (it was interesting to take apart the fried one and see the lightning burns inside). Last I installed a Square D whole house protector, satellite contractor came out and properly grounded the satellite.

If you don't want this to happen to you, make sure every utility coming into your house is grounded outside to the same main electrical ground (separate rods is a code violation). This includes satellite, phone, cable, internet, electrical, and gas. A lot of times the satellite and internet contractors are too lazy to properly ground the entrances. If you have any abandoned wires coming into your house (former internet or phone service) remove them. Last install a whole-house surge protector, and individual protectors on anything costing more than $1000.

Modern electrical code specifies two ground rods outside spaced at least 6 feet apart, but 16 feet apart is best. Connected with 6 gauge copper wire or larger. In the past you only needed one, so adding a ground rod might be considered.


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## LeeB (Jul 1, 2019)

FlowRider said:


> I put one at each corner of my house, one by the eight foot grounding rod installed by the utility company at my electric meter, and one on my satellite TV system that also shielded my surround sound stereo system.


@FlowRider FYI all your exterior ground rods have to be connected together with #6 copper, otherwise this a code violation that can actually cause more problems during a lightning strike due to voltage gradients. If the satellite ground is isolated and lightning is grounding through the other rods around your house, thousands of volts can be induced on the satellite wires or that will fry your equipment.

I want to caution others about adding rods willy nilly, they must all be electrically connected together correctly or you're doing more harm than good. If insurance sees you did this improperly they could deny your claim since they could argue the isolated rod contributed to the damage. Perhaps you do actually have them all connected together, just wanted to mention this caveat.


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## FlowRider (Apr 7, 2019)

@LeeB

Good point. I should make it clear all of my ground rods were tied in together to each other, and back to the main ground rod at the meter entering the house. It was all installed according to code.

My landscaper friend (and neighbor) did not properly ground the irrigation system, so it fried.

He replaced everything, but I bought the parts (he was just starting out in life) so, life lesson learned.


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## jeffjunstrom (Aug 12, 2019)

Finally got everything over to the claims adjuster, they're going to cover everything that was damaged, less our deductible. So there's that. But they will *not* cover the installation of whole home surge protectors as recommended by our electrician. Which doesn't make sense to me, as the insurance company is going to be out a few thousand here, and the quote from the electrician for the protectors is $500. The process hasn't been as bad as I was envisioning, but still a PITA. Losing the ability to remotely open your garage door for two weeks has been the biggest "how did we live before this" moment.


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## Boy_meets_lawn (Sep 27, 2020)

Depending on your local building code and comfort level you could install one yourself. However, if you haven't worked in a panel before or feel uncomfortable then $500 seems very reasonable for a licensed electrician. You could also have them give everything a once over to make sure the surge didn't mess anything else up.


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