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While surge protecters make you feel safe, and are something you can do, to be affective the home wiring must be up to code, few are!

Also consider lightning has traveled two to five thousand feet from a cloud to your house, the MOV ( The working part in your surge protecters) is less than 1/4 inch across, comparative not a very big gap to jump. Whole house units are much stronger, and must be installed by professionals only on fusepanels that meet code.

It's all about the preception of feeling safe. The people that are ignorant, feel safe. The ones that know things happen, but think they have a solution, feel safe. The ones that know things happen, but know how things really work, assess the problem, work out the odd's, and deal with it as needed. Jim

In Florida if we stopped using it during storms it would be a constant battle . I live near the lightning capital - 28 foot up in the air and it really pops in the summer .
I retired from Florida power and my job was electrical protection of substations , lines and generators so I have a lot of exposure. I would only worry if I didn't have surge protectors. I would not use climate line hoses during the storm season. They have wire in them leading to the mask , otherwise all parts are rubber, plastic or silicone . There is no reason for it to follow the hose . I would more worry about taking a shower during the storm , keep away from sinks , hair dryers, and metal stuff when storming. The beginning edge of the storm and the tail end are the worst times. Cable Tv and telephone lines are a large source of surges -don't touch .
We go inside during storms and really try not to go out until it has passed over for a long time , the rear edge seems to be the worst for me . We saw two guys get hit on a dock after the storm had passed- One was killed.
During the day in severe storms some people unplug their sensitive equipment- cpap could be one of those . Don't like backup (UPS) systems as they are prone to going bad and overheating. I had to throw one into the yard , it was so hot and smoking .
I rarely loose any equipment to lightning , use a good surge protector on all electronics . Stay safe.

I had a friend of mine in the trade tell me that surge suppressors are actually fairly useless against lightning. If a bolt hits in the right spot, it's going to go where it wants and laughs at any attempt to block its path. That said, I still have them all over the place (they make me feel better).

hyperlexis wrote:
Plus,the power brick would fry, not the machine itself. Anything should go to ground anyway.

My machine only has two prongs.

About 15 years ago one of our clients, a lumber yard, was hit by lightening - actually it hit a puddle next to it and the the energy travelled up the ground and fried every single electrical component in the building - including the UPS's for the computers and the computers.

I now disconnect things if I wake up.

Unless the storm is so bad that it wakes me up and/or prevents me from sleeping...I use my machine.
More than once hubby has remarked about "man that storm was bad last night" and I say "what storm?"

Lightning strikes themselves are not "surges". They generally are explosions. Walmart and Radio Shack type surge protectors are useless if you experience a direct strike. Good ones are generally effective handling actual surges, but not lightning. Personally, I don't worry about it. I just sleep through storms.

Wow! I didn't expect so many great responses. I asked because I remember about 30 years ago a friend telling me that he was speaking to a girlfriend on a landline in his home during a violent thunderstorm. The next thing he knew he was catapulted across the room and his head felt like someone had taken a pile of books and smacked him on the side of his skull. He claimed it was a shock from lightning hitting something nearby and travelling through the phone lines. He survived whatever happened without any obvious damage to himself.

I think I should get myself a surge protector for my machinery, not so much for the tiny chance of a lightning strike, but for a general power surge that could fry this expensive piece of plastic.

[quote="chunkyfrog"]I sleep right through thunderstorms. I usually sleep on my "good" ear; can't hear a blessed thing.

Me too!

I am deaf in my left ear and never ever hear a storm come in.

I have a 12 volt power pack by the bed I can hook my machine up to if I lose power. I'll know if we lose power when I wake because I need air.

Bryansong

I wake up eventually when I have an anoxic nightmare.

SMenasco wrote:Lightning strikes themselves are not "surges". They generally are explosions. Walmart and Radio Shack type surge protectors are useless if you experience a direct strike. Good ones are generally effective handling actual surges, but not lightning. Personally, I don't worry about it. I just sleep through storms.

A clever (though apocryphal) trick that they used to use in radio stations:

Tie a knot your wire.

Any giant surge of current will induce a huge magnetic field, which will in turn (thanks to the knot) "resist" the current (inductive reactance, technically). All that energy has to go somewhere, of course, so it basically vaporizes the wire at the knot.

Some surge would still get through before that, so it's not a replacement for a surge protector, but it seems like it might prevent the entire charge from getting through. (Most of the criticisms I found from a quick googling of this idea focus on using it to suppress all surges, which it clearly wouldn't.)

jdm2857 wrote:Just realized that since I have FiOS, I don't have to worry about the phone and cable lines bringing surges in.

I also have fiber directly to the house.
And, it is all underground until it comes up the side of my house into the attic - so even more protected.

But, I still have electrical surges to deal with.
The electrical lines are also all underground - but that does not help with the surges.

sawinglogz wrote:

SMenasco wrote:Lightning strikes themselves are not "surges". They generally are explosions. Walmart and Radio Shack type surge protectors are useless if you experience a direct strike. Good ones are generally effective handling actual surges, but not lightning. Personally, I don't worry about it. I just sleep through storms.

A clever (though apocryphal) trick that they used to use in radio stations:

Tie a knot your wire.

Any giant surge of current will induce a huge magnetic field, which will in turn (thanks to the knot) "resist" the current (inductive reactance, technically). All that energy has to go somewhere, of course, so it basically vaporizes the wire at the knot.

Some surge would still get through before that, so it's not a replacement for a surge protector, but it seems like it might prevent the entire charge from getting through. (Most of the criticisms I found from a quick googling of this idea focus on using it to suppress all surges, which it clearly wouldn't.)

Maybe tying more knots would provide more protection I don't know how many you could use before the electricity got dizzy and quit working. Jim

I have a whole house surge protector installed on my incoming electrical service by the electric company - wasn't cheap either! I also have surge protectors on all my equipment in the house, PC's printers, and yes, CPAP. I usually don't wake during a storm, can sleep like the dead, hubby says I'd sleep thru a train running in the living room.
Since he's on CPAP now, he has slept thru at least 1 storm, maybe more. I have never been one to be afraid of storms or lightening, but it sounds like I should avoid stuff like the phone & shower.

I think my CPAP's are as protected as they can be, in the future if I'm awake I'll unplug.

Jen

ellen1159 wrote:Dumb question: are we in danger using our machines during a thunderstorm? I always get off the telephone and out of the tub or shower if one is going on, afraid of receiving a shock.

Two questions about world history:

Has anyone every been killed by lightning because they were talking on a telephone?

Has anyone every been killed by lightning because they were in a tub or shower?