Well, it’s begun. The “Severe Weather Season” AKA Monsoon.
Right now it’s cloudy and thundering. As always, I’m pondering the wisdom of having my TV, phone, and computer plugged in. I’ve never quite understood what, if anything, you’re supposed to unplug, and when. Should I unplug everything every time it storms? Do I unplug before the storm or during? How important is this if you have a surge protector? What’s the worst that could happen if you don’t unplug?
Advice is appreciated!
Anything that is plugged into something that leads to an outside line should be a candidate for unplugging. This would mean unplugging everything in your house attached to electricity, telephone, or cable lines.
A surge protector is only useful against surges in the electric service (in the many years I’ve used them, this has never occured. YMMV). A surge protector is usless against a direct lightning strike.
Unplugging stuff is just a precaution. The odds are probably in your favor that a device won’t be hit through the line to which it is attached. Whether or not you want to play the odds is your decision.
If you want to unplug something, do it as soon as you hear the first rumble of thunder that tells you the storm is approaching.
The worse thing that could happen is the device will get fried.
Definitely unplug expensive electronics, like your TV, computer and monitor. Things like toasters, vacuum cleaners and other nonelectronic appliances generally don’t need to be unplugged, although they will be destroyed int eh rare event of a direct lightning strike to your electrical service dropline. As for electronics, a good rule of thumb is replaceability. If you can easily afford to replace it, you can leave it plugged in, with the caveat that it could suffer damage in the event of a lightining induced line surge. When you unplug your computer, unplug ALL the power cords, including monitors and printers; and also unplug your internet connection, be it dialup or broadband. Surge suppressors can help some, but strong induced surges or direct strikes can still damage connected equipment. For maximum protection, you should unplug when you first become aware of an approaching storm, and leave things unplugged until 15-20 minutes after the storm has passed, since lighting has been known to strike as far away as 10 miles from a storm center. Of course, the maximum risk occurs as the storm passes directly over you, so definitely unplug during that time period, at least.
“Press Enter” :eek:
Okay, now I understand a little better. This one seems to be a very mild, fast-moving little pre-storm, so I haven’t unplugged. During violent ones I will.
2 more questions: Does being in a bottom-floor apartment lessen the chance of a lightning strike to my power? And is talking on a cordless phone as dangerous as a corded one?
Only if you’re epileptic.
No, because all the power lines generally enter the building at the same point. Underground power lines are usually safer than above ground lines, but at some point, the electrical distribution probably travels above ground for some ways. The same goes for telephone and TV cables.
Talking on a cordless or cellular phone is almost infinitely safer than talking on a corded phone, since there is no direct electrical connection between you and the outside, as long as you’re not actually leaning on the cordless base, or standing under the cell tower. 
Of course, the base might be destroyed by an induced surge or strike, but you’ll be relatively safe. People have been killed while talking on a corded phone, however.
No.
The base of the cordless phone could be hit either through the phone line or power cord. Way outside chance of the receiver taking a direct strike.
Thanks, guys. Now I actually have an understanding of this and will definitely unplug everything during violent storms. It’ll be a good book and a flashlight for me.
I’ve been alot more aware of the dangers of lightning since I learned last summer that you can actually get struck before you even know it’s lightning- the sky can be totally blue and not have a sign of an impending storm. Scary.
When I worked in downtown Baltimore, we had lightning hit somewhere nearby. It wiped out all of the phones, and all of the computer equipment that wasn’t on a surge supressor. All of the computer stuff that was on a surge supressor was fine. On the other hand, when I was in college lightning hit the pole behind where my friend lived. He lost his TV, stereo, microwave… pretty much everything, even though he did have a surge supressor on most of it. Surge supressors help, but they can only do so much. If the lightning hits close enough, it doesn’t matter what kind of surge supression you have. Your stuff is toast. If it’s farther away though, surge supressors do help quite a bit.
It’s better to unplug it than rely on a surge supressor.
While you’re at it, stay away from windows too.
So how come offices don’t shut down when there’s a thunderstorm?
While lightning strikes have the capability to fry anything plugged into an outlet, the most vulnerable appliances are ones that are “on” during the thunderstorm and have solid-state components in them (transistors, chips, etc.) Examples include computers, stereo components, and answering machines.
Unplugging these things will (obviously) do the trick. But when a storm comes, how thorough will you be? People always seem to forget the following:
Garage Door Opener. If you have an electric garage door opener, do you realize it contains a printed circuit board that is constantly powered off the mains? The board blew up in our opener about 6 years ago. I had to purchase a new board at the tune of $75. 
Water Softener. Our water softener contains a solid state control circuit for cycling the softener. A lightning strike fried the board. The softener still works, but now we have to manually cycle it.
GFI Outlets. While you will not want to disconnect them before a storm, you should always test them afterwards. (I’m always replacing these damn things after a storm!) And not only are they susceptible to power surges, most are not designed to be fail safe… the outlet itself will often continue to work, but there will be no ground fault protection.