Post #741179 by tikiskip on Mon, Apr 13, 2015 10:39 AM

"I do have surge-protectors on all my Paradise Cove lighting, however, as well as on my PC etc. So is that good enough?'

Well not really.
A surge protector detects a surge at a certain voltage and bleeds that off to ground so
it will save you from a high voltage surge, but if you get a surge just under your
surge protectors rating it will do nothing.

At our house we have a tv outside under the roof line and if we get a lightning strike it
will turn on all by its self, so will my stereo.
At times we don't unplug everything, and don't care about that tv.

We also have a surge-protector in our electric panel so it's not just the kind
you add on later. These are best.

If you unplug the item the power surge will not be able to do any damage.
Now it's not going to kill your electrical whatever right away in most cases
but it can eat away at the life of your electrical appliances life.

At OSU we added lightning arresters to all switchgears (Large high voltage fusses)
and saw that we had fewer blowouts (power outages)
They said that when the power is turned on and off you get a surge like
a train running wild to the end of a track.
But the arresters would take the surge to ground to help lessen the power surge.

So we just unplug the good stuff and let the rest go.