Thunder storms?

[photonman]

ya any other plek besides cape town sucks!

wats up with you joberger's? - all of u have issues!

 

[Kalvaer]

Damn Ambo.. Have you tried getting your insurance premiums halfed with that setup! It might just work and save you some money.

Of course again and not being the pessimist but as explained above.. A direct strike will not help anyone. Have you ever seen those photo's where lightning strikes a mast of yacht in a harbor and it arcs across to another yacht 50m away.. It looks spectacular... Though also proves that a 10mm gap on a blown MOV aint going to help Jack Sh....

 

[KemoSabi]

We have put a lot of effort into lightning protection in our place - and we still got hit once.
Telkom line got hit and all the modems were protected - but there was a flux linkage to one of the ethernet cables that ran along side it and it fried a port on the switch and 1x motherboard as well

Our protection setup is as follows and seems pretty effective.
1: Steel sheet roof that is linked by heavy wires to earth rods in the ground at about 6 places around the house....

Dude, you gotto get out more...

 

[Raumas]

We got hit at the end of last summer - modem and hub gone. The first big thunderstorm of this year I was sitting playing DOTA. I sat there thinking to myself, whats the chance of getting hit twice in less than a year. Two minutes later huge "crash" just behind the house. ADSL dies, phones dont work.

I eventually figured out that the surge protector the ADSL modem was plugged into had been fried and that was why the phone lines were dead. At least my modem was safe .

On the subject, where can I buy a new surge protector for an ADSL modem? This telkom one is now officially dead.

 

[Xargon]

Dude, you gotto get out more...

I was about to say the same

 

[stoke]

...
1: Steel sheet roof that is linked by heavy wires to earth rods in the ground at about 6 places around the house....

ambo - just curious - how long are them steel rods, cos I was told that they'd either have to be [12 metres long] or [about 3 m long and kept moist] to be effective.

As for extreme gaming - me parents house is a lightning attractor of note, and I've been burnt by arcing lightning. It's not funny, and then, after gettin gthe shock of your life, you then get blasted by the thunderclap - wooooooooooow. IT IS EXTREME !

 

[Kalvaer]

I sat there thinking to myself, whats the chance of getting hit twice in less than a year. Two minutes later huge "crash" just behind the house. ADSL dies, phones dont work.

Something thats interesting is a link I got sent ages ago http://wakesa.com/SA/Worldometers.mht (I've hosted it on my site with that link in the USA so if your capped sorry) Look at the number of births this year then look at the stats further down for how many lightning there are right now.. Makes you wonder.

Oh and Stoke.. You proved my point.. Please dont move next to me Touch wood, I've been lucky since I've moved there last year and todate I've been ok.. Hmmm That also reminds me I didn't unplug my Router this morning

 

[swordfish1]

good UPS with phone line filtering might help too ... if you are lucky

 

[ambo]

Wow, that's some lightning protection measures you have there? You live on a high area?

Well we not exactly on the top of a steep mountain - but we are one of the highest places in the area. We also apparently have a fairly high iron content in our soil that seems to attract the lightning.

Dude, you gotto get out more...

Don't worry mate - i actually do get out very often... as difficult as that might be to believe...

I sat there thinking to myself, whats the chance of getting hit twice in less than a year. Two minutes later huge "crash" just behind the house. ADSL dies, phones dont work.

Good point - lightning protection is not necessarily gonna protect you from downtime. Often after a big strike - you need to replace protectors before your modem will be able to connect again cause the protectors lock into a short circuit

On the subject, where can I buy a new surge protector for an ADSL modem? This telkom one is now officially dead.

Depends how comfortable you are with electronics. You can buy the MOV's and Gas arrestors from most good electronics shops and then just wire them in - i'll do a circuit diagram if anyone is interested.

ambo - just curious - how long are them steel rods, cos I was told that they'd either have to be...

As i mentioned above we have a high iron content in our soil - mostly 1,5 to 2 metres seems to have been sufficient. But generally speaking what you say is correct.

The reason for the heavily earthed roof is not only for direct strikes (which are prevelant with a steel roof) but also near strikes. For anyone who understands the concept of capacitance - even near strikes (in the region of half a km - which happen on average about twice a month during summer in my area) can induce dangerous voltage levels into the roof that would be transfered to electronic equipment if the roof is connected to the electrical system (which used to be a requirement on house electrical installations!! )