A storm caused a Reddit user to lose some electronic devices. He thought he had unplugged all the power cables. An overvoltage in the modem also spread to other devices.
Lightning and thunder during a storm pose a serious threat to people and electronic devices. For comparison: In Germany the power grid has a voltage of 230 volts. A lightning strike can produce an overvoltage of 10 million volts or more.
In the case of a Reddit user, a storm caused a devastating lightning strike to his house. The unlucky person initially thought he had taken sufficient precautions against a possible overvoltage. But according to him, he didn’t have some devices on his screen.
You can read in this article what exactly is supposed to have happened and how it could have happened.
Lightning strikes with brute strength during storms
What happened? Reddit user Thejus_Parol reports a storm in his area. There is said to have been a lightning strike in his house. The user said that he had unplugged all power cords from his electronic devices as a safety measure. Thinking he had thought of all the power cords, the storm passed over him.
According to Thejus_Parol’s statement, it was after his precautions that lightning struck the building. The resulting overvoltage had devastating consequences for the electronics in the house. Unfortunately for him, he had forgotten to unplug the fiber optic modem’s power cord from the wall outlet.
What consequences did the storm have for the user? A picture of his modem in the post shows the destructive power of the lightning strike. The socket in the wall, the surrounding area and the modem and its cables were visibly affected by the surge. If that weren’t enough, the excessively high voltage is said to have made its way to the user’s computer via the LAN cable and destroyed it too.
The Reddit community user wants to prove the full extent of the surge with additional pictures. In addition to the computer’s motherboard, the speaker boxes connected to the PC also burned out.
Further damage and possible protective measures
Was there any other damage? Yes, according to his own words, there was. Thejus_Parol claims that the fuse box in the house literally exploded when lightning struck. Unfortunately there are no pictures of it.
He also says that his television has also died. The lightning is said to have struck the satellite dish. He believes that the excess voltage flowed into the connected set-top box and via the HDMI cable to the television. Here too he fails to provide proof with pictures.
Fortunately, he says, he was not injured in the incident. It was only when the electricity was back on after two days that he realized the full extent of the destruction. He only noticed the defect in the television when he tried to connect his PC to it because his PC monitor also stopped working.
Could he have protected himself better? The question cannot be answered clearly with yes or no. Since it is not known which country the user lives in, different local regulations may apply than here in Germany.
Nowadays we have different lightning protection classes. Different types of buildings and systems are assigned to these classes. The assignment is made through a risk assessment (via e-service-check.de).
In general, there is no legal requirement for lightning protection for private houses and apartments. But here too there are exceptions. Buildings that are particularly tall or have highly flammable roofing materials must have an appropriate lightning protection system.
In the case of the Reddit user, most of his electronic devices are said to have had surge protection. But he would have unplugged these together with the power cables. If there is no permanently installed surge protection in the building, unplugging devices should be seen as a temporary emergency solution.
Another user was able to save his expensive hardware with surge protection.