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A few years ago we had the show of a lifetime one early morning. I have seen some fairly spectacular lightning and had the unfortunate opportunity to actually ride a motorcycle through an electrical storm in Montana, but this show that Mother Nature put on for the Northstate was one not to be forgotten.
Hopefully you all came out of it O.K. and suffered no damage. After a previous electrical storm we had in this area a few years ago (the one that took out my modem) I went out and got a surge suppressor that also had modem protection. This is just an 'auxiliary' unit for the computer system becasue I also have a UPS (un-interruptible power supply) for the computer itself. The UPS is an older unit and so it does not have modem protection built in.
Part-way through this storm I saw a flash from a lightning bolt and at about the same time I heard a crack of electrical equipment in my office. I went in to investigate and there was the unmistakable smell of ozone and burnt plastic in the air. As the storm was still in full fury I didn't want to get to close to anything, but took a look around to be sure nothing was on fire.
The next morning I was delighted to find that the computer booted just fine but the computer would not go online and the newspaper's phone was not operating. I also noticed that the surge suppressor that protected the phone line as well as the two transformer blocks for the phones was emitting a sickly, buzzing, alarm sound.
I used a spare test phone at the wall outlet and could not connect there either. I went out to the test jack to test the line as I had described in a past article of the Concow Computer Chronicles which is now in the FRCN University. I disconnected the wire and saw that the socket was blackened and all the thin, gold wires that make up the connection had been vaporized- they weren't damaged, they were literally gone- totally missing!
Back in the house I examined the phone's wall outlet more closely and found that the wall behind the outlet cover was blackened, and after removing the outlet from the wall found that the phone wire as well as the outlet had been destroyed. The other end of the phone cord where it plugged into the surge suppressor had also been destroyed. I removed the surge suppressor from the wall and opened it up. This is what I found:
As you can see it took a real hit, and the source of the acrid smell is obvious. The inside of this was originally all white, but had been blackened by the jolt it received. You can see what is left of two fuses that the device use to contain. The metal ends of the fuses are visible, still soldered to the circuit board, but the glass portion of the fuses have been destroyed (no glass particles were found in the device!). Also note that the phone socket on the left still has its metal conductors but the inlet socket on the right does not.
There are three lessons to be learned here:
1) NEVER talk on the phone in an electrical storm. I would personally not even recommend using a
cordless phone.
2) If your phones do not have some sort of surge suppression already, I would suggest getting something to protect them. The same goes for any expensive or sensitive electrical or electronic equipment in your home such as the refirgerator, microwave, television, stereo, etc.
3) That $20-30 investment in a surge suppressor saved a $70 modem, a $100 phone, and most likely my new PIII computer. It's cheap insurance!
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