Doing The Repair Work During Thunderstorm
Many years back my house was struck by lightning and my 29" Panasonic CRT TV was badly hit. Even the computer network card also damaged. My neighbour cordless phone, satellite decoder, CRT TV and few of the household electronics were also affected. Another case- while i was buying hardware thing nearby my office I saw a lightning bolt hit across the football field. The light was so bright and it hit the fied in a split of second. After that I went back to my office and was told by my partner (William) that the office ELCB already tripped. Turning back on the ELCB switch we noticed that our backup drive already damaged.
My question now is would you continue to do repair work (in your technical room or department) during thunderstorm or heavy lightning in your area? What is your opinion on this-is it dangerous? or you just stop the repair work when there is lightning.
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Parasuraman S
July 7, 2012 at 11:17 am
Dear, never, ever be on electrical work whenever there is lightning and thunder storm. The seeping extremely high voltage can come through any means, especially by telephone lines and electrical wires. Always wear thick rubber chappals when on the floor and never even touch water, steel tap etc. We are in Kerala, India and we see these conditions during monsoon season and the damages done to home appliances, humans, animals, buildings etc. are devastating! So, please take care!
Jestine Yong
July 7, 2012 at 7:51 pm
HI Parasuraman,
Thanks again for the contribution!
Jestine
corriete
July 7, 2012 at 11:23 am
thunder and lightning not good to work electronics with. i remember times when i was working on a tv and lightning strike. there was a loud sound by the tv.thanks to quick thinking that i put it off just in time.i was not hurt. i do not recommend working in lightning or thunder storms.
Jestine Yong
July 7, 2012 at 7:53 pm
Hi Corriete,
Your real life experience have benefited all of us. To the readers, beware when doing the repair work during lightning or thunderstorm.
Jestine
lee tucker
July 7, 2012 at 12:31 pm
hi jestine,i think as long as you have a good surge protection and also rcd protection built into your consumer unit that supplys power to your house then it should be fine,as well as running your testing aerial through surge protection,rcd protection should be at 30ma on the main rcd,it will trip quicker than anything if you become grounded to a live circuit,having an extra earth rod connected to ground is another good precaution as a supplimentry protection,i repair lcd tv's as a hobby ,so use these precautions,as it does do a lot of damage to the tv's,taking out various components,some do not have surge protection (varistor), the ones that dont have a varistor cause havok on psu's and can make the psu beyond economical repair to fix,hope this is of some use to you,lee
Jestine Yong
July 7, 2012 at 7:47 pm
HI Lee,
Thanks for the good tip!
Jestine
John Lowe
July 10, 2012 at 2:54 am
Jestine,
I think you need to be prudent. I have had occasion to be near my radio around the time of an electrical storm - there was very little rain, but there was lightning. I was hearing some sparks from time to time and was searching my room to see where it was coming from. Eventually I found the sparks going between my radio transceiver and an external power supply. The transceiver had an external antenna connected to the chimney outside, and this was picking up enough static electric to cause a significant charge to build up in the transceiver. I waited until one spark had just occurred before I disconnected the antenna and put the cable outside the window. This taught me not to take chances during a lighting storm. Better to be safe than sorry.
Also, I recommend that you should always have surge protectors installed - and even run sensitive equipment like expensive TV's, computers from UPS's. Most good UPS's will give insurance coverage for items damaged if the UPS fails, so this helps.
-John
Jestine Yong
July 10, 2012 at 10:02 pm
Hi John,
Thanks for sharing your experience. Infact after the lightning had struck my tv, i bought a surge protector for future prevention. This lightning problem happened many years ago.
Jestine
lalit shrivastava
July 10, 2012 at 12:46 pm
thunder storms don't occur everyday,,,,,so just enjoy them...stop working, and grab a bottle....cheers!!!!