Are You Protected Against Power Surge Damage?
(The following information is applicable to readers living outside North America.) Did you know that lightning strikes the earth every second? Even though we’ve been rightly conditioned to worry about personal harm from a lightning strike, the odds are far greater that a strike will damage your home’s electrical components and your electronic devices. The electrical surges generated by lightning produce voltage spikes powerful enough to overload and damage TVs, computers, and any other appliance plugged into an electrical outlet. Lightning-related damage costs billions of euros, according to Meteorage . How it happens Damage occurs when a power surge delivers voltage that exceeds the device’s peak voltage. For example, in France, where residential voltage is 230 volts, appliances have a peak operating voltage of about 320 volts. A lightning strike can generate overvoltage many times higher than that. Direct strikes are the most damaging, generating millions of volts able to disru...