[plug] Lightning risk

[Craig Ringer]

On Mon, 2005-02-14 at 14:01 +0800, Jim Householder wrote:
> Hi
> 
> Can anyone shed light on the risk of spikes due to lightning?
> 
> Our current setup is Mains --> surge board --> UPS --> computer-1.  #2 
> has a more expensive surge board ($80,000 for damaged equipment type). 
> I had the tv cable go through the fancy surge board but it caused very 
> bad interference so it's bypassed now, but there is a VCR before the 
> computer.
> 
> All mains powered equipment except the ADSL modem are surge protected, 
> but only the computers and monitors are on the UPSs.

My understanding is that most computers are fried via spikes through the
phone lines, not the power. I'd want to be especially careful of phone
lines and the TV antenna.

As for the surge protection board guarantees of equipment
replacement ... I'm suspicious of those. I'd be interested to know if
there are any dodgy tricks or loopholes they use to get out of such
payments, because the quoted value limits seem unrealistic risks if they
actually expected to have to pay out.

-- 
Craig Ringer