My experience is that by far the majority of lightning problems come down the telephone line.

Strikes can come from anywhere that the lightning can hit...mind you then saying that last big problem i had from lightning was a melted rio on a galaxy...not out side....but it was so bad the metal lid to the rio was actually welded on...one thing is for sure lightning is a callout engineers nightmare...no sleep that night

(due to storm i might add)

Strikes can come from anywhere that the lightning can hit...

... or travel along, even residually.

A little over a year ago a customer of mine had a strike which hit the pavement just outside their house, took out the tv, the radio, the alarm and the phones - the location of the strike was witnessed by three people walking along the pavement (fortunately missed them!) so the location was verified.

However there was no distinguishable single path for the strike to cause the damage, i.e. it didn't hit an aerial, a telephone line, an electrical cable or the bellbox.

My experience is that by far the majority of lightning problems come down the telephone line.

Hi Roger,

i too have ben to many strikes,and that is a 'way in', even on kit not directly connected to the line.

i beleive the stike hits the line, travels to some kit like a private telephone exchange, this has an earth and nuetral connection. i think, but don't know that due to distance from the actual buildings true earth, at that point it can not dissipitate all the strikes energy to ground, so hits other kit via the neutral and earth lines in the building, and travels through the alarm or cctv system, often damging electronics but with only a small 'fry' if any in evidence.

i often wondered if fitting those suppressor 'chokes' on to the mains in to the panel would help reduce this problem. we seem to be heading for more tropical style storms in this country so it's likely to be a bigger isue as time go's on.

regs

alan

i often wondered if fitting those suppressor 'chokes' on to the mains in to the panel would help reduce this problem. we seem to be heading for more tropical style storms in this country so it's likely to be a bigger isue as time go's on.

regs

alan

The ACT adsl filter comes with a lightning filter, however I do believe its time for manufacturers to address the issue on their panels.

The ACT adsl filter comes with a lightning filter, however I do believe its time for manufacturers to address the issue on their panels.

QFA, but then we'd (as installers) loose out on all those upgrades

it's a bit like 'natural selection' taking a hand (or fork boom! boom!).

regs

alan

id like to see a 'lightning' filter after a strike. Most of them are just 'spark gap' suppressors, and in france the norms @regs' state that lightning protectors must be fiited to all dis boards called parrafuders or something liek that. But they still get lightning damage lol

id like to see a 'lightning' filter after a strike. Most of them are just 'spark gap' suppressors, and in france the norms @regs' state that lightning protectors must be fiited to all dis boards called parrafuders or something liek that. But they still get lightning damage lol

Ain't nothing gonna stop lightning if it strikes..............

Presumably these protection devices try to limit the induced current/voltage from the EMF of a nearby strike. Anyone know for sure?

a few months back i asked a long serving BT engineer how they deal with strikes on overheads, apparently they have an earthed fused block every so often.

thats how i understood it but i might have got it wrong

regs

alan

bt dont deal with strikes, they have all the lightning protection the network needs from the thousands of intruder alarm lighting grounding points that some poor fool fitted

another example of lightning nightmares, not security but fire been at a hotel in sussex for ni on 3 weeks after a strike, took out panel a whole loop of devices (114 of em) loads of interfaces, call points and heads all over site and another 3 panels

god i hate lightnin but nothin we can do about it