chopper wrote:
No one else in the building has reported any damage, but mine is the only office that each time we have a storm with lightning my modem needs to be re-set. In a IT/phone system room with maybe 5 modems in it.
It's like I am the lightning rod of the building.
Learn how lightning does damage. A lightning strike to utility wires down the street is a direct lightning strike to everything inside the building. But not everything is damaged. Damage means current must be both incoming and outgoing to earth. Only items damaged would be those that also have an outgoing path.
Lightning was permitted inside the building. Once inside, energy hunts for earth ground destructively via appliances. Best paths to earth are via your electronics. Surge protectors next to appliances do nothing to avert this damage. And sometimes make damage easier. Those protectors do not even claim to do protection in their manufacturer specifications. But people waste money on them anyway. “Protector” sounds like “protection”. So it must do something.
Earth a surge where it enters the building. Either energy dissipates harmlessly outside the building. Or energy confronts every appliance destructively. Blows through ones that make a best connection to earth. Surges seek earth ground. Only you decide where it will find earth. Either harmlessly outside. Or destructively inside via electronics.
Telephone lines have a 'whole house' protector installed for free. Surge protection means every wire connects to earth. But if connected directly, then phones will not work. So a 'required by code and installed for free' protector makes that short (ie ‘less than 10 foot’) ground connection.
Most common source of surges is AC electric - wires highest on telephone poles. If your AC does not have a 'whole house' protector, then the surge is inside, confronting every appliance, and hunting for earth. An excellent path is destructively via telephone appliances. The telco installed ‘whole house’ protector is a superb path to earth. AC mains surges are the most common reason for surge damage to modems, answering machines, and other telephone appliances including computers.
First, inspect building earthing. It must meet and exceed post 1990 National Electrical code requirements. AC electric is three wires. Only one connects to earth. Protection means a 'whole house' protector (rated at 50,000+ amps) connects other AC electric wires short (ie 'less than 10 feet') to the same earth ground. Single point ground with connections that have no sharp wire bends, are not inside metallic conduit, and no splices. Ground wires from every incoming cable must all meet at the single point earthing electrode.
Only more responsible companies provide these ‘whole house’ protectors including Siemens, ABB, Keison, Intermatic, Leviton, Square D, and General Electric. A Cutler-Hammer protector sells in Lowes and Home Depot for less than $50. Effective protection costs tens or 100 times less money than power strip protectors and other ineffective solutions.
No protector does protection. Not one. Either a protector connects surge energy harmlessly into earth. Or you have no surge protection. Only earth ground does the protection. Highly touted power strip protectors do nothing effective. And do not even claim to protect from destructive surges – as onthedownlow noted. But you know that from one obvious fact. Plug-in protector does not have the always required 'less than 10 foot' connection to single point earth ground.
Removing the lightning rod only makes damage easier. Lightning rods also connect destructive surges harmlessly to earth. But the most common source of surges are utility wires that deliver a direct lightning strike to every appliance. Deliver if you do not earth every incoming wire directly (ie cable TV) or via a ‘whole house’ protector (telephone, AC electric).
You had energy inside destructively seeking earth via your work area. Once permitted inside, then nothing stops the hunt. Surges hunt for earth ground by overwhelming protection already inside the appliance. Power strip protectors simply give surges more paths to do that. Surge protection always and only means energy dissipates harmlessly outside a building. A protector is only as effective as that single point earth ground.
