mtwalsh367
Member
I recently had a lightning strike near my house that was close enough to take out several electronic components and trip several GCFI breakers. Unfortunately the majority of the damage was to my elk system, including the main panel, the ethernet expander board, as well as the lighting interface board. The other devices damaged were a network router and a linksys VOIP that were in a cabinet next to the elk cabinet and also several NIC cards on connected computers as well as an Insteon powerlinc controller that was connected to the elk lighting interface.
I thought my configuration was protected from serious damage since everything (other than my Insteon powerlinc) in both my networking and elk cabinets are plugged into an APC UPS with both power and cable (for my cable modem) surge supression.
I am trying to figure out how the surge damage occurred so I can be better prepared next time. Here is what I have concluded at this point. Feel free to jump in to add your thoughts.
1) Since my network router was completely fried either the UPS it was plugged into failed or else something else on my network transferred a surge onto the cat5 cable (although all of my connected equipment is on surge supressors as well). The resulting surge on the cat5 cable is what damaged the nic cards in my computers, my VOIP box, and likely the elk ethernet interface card.
2) I had an Inston powerlinc plugged into a dedicated circuit coming directly out of my main breaker panel and this was connected to the elk lighting interface card. The powerlinc was not plugged into any type of surge supressor or UPS because I assumed this would degrade the powerline signal. Since the powerlinc failed in the surge I assume this is what took out my elk lighting interface card. If this is true then maybe this surge traveled from the lighting interface card to the main panel and then to the ethernet interface card, although I don't know how feasible this would be.
3) I am not certain what caused the damage to the main elk panel since it was connected to the UPS unit as well. I guess the surge damage to either the ethernet interface or the llighting interface could have also traveled to the main panel since both of these devices were direclty connected to the main panel.
So now the question is what should I do differently?
- Is a $100 UPS good enough to protect connected equipment from surges?
- Should I plug my powerlinc into a surge supressor and if so will that degrade the powerline signal (if you are not familar with the powerlinc and Insteon they have similar signal sucking issues as with X10 technology)
- Are there cat5 surge supressors that I can use to protect the elk ethernet interface?
- Other stuff (build a lightning protection bubble over my house and generate my own power)...
Any thoughts or $$$donations would be appreciated (-:
-Matt
I thought my configuration was protected from serious damage since everything (other than my Insteon powerlinc) in both my networking and elk cabinets are plugged into an APC UPS with both power and cable (for my cable modem) surge supression.
I am trying to figure out how the surge damage occurred so I can be better prepared next time. Here is what I have concluded at this point. Feel free to jump in to add your thoughts.
1) Since my network router was completely fried either the UPS it was plugged into failed or else something else on my network transferred a surge onto the cat5 cable (although all of my connected equipment is on surge supressors as well). The resulting surge on the cat5 cable is what damaged the nic cards in my computers, my VOIP box, and likely the elk ethernet interface card.
2) I had an Inston powerlinc plugged into a dedicated circuit coming directly out of my main breaker panel and this was connected to the elk lighting interface card. The powerlinc was not plugged into any type of surge supressor or UPS because I assumed this would degrade the powerline signal. Since the powerlinc failed in the surge I assume this is what took out my elk lighting interface card. If this is true then maybe this surge traveled from the lighting interface card to the main panel and then to the ethernet interface card, although I don't know how feasible this would be.
3) I am not certain what caused the damage to the main elk panel since it was connected to the UPS unit as well. I guess the surge damage to either the ethernet interface or the llighting interface could have also traveled to the main panel since both of these devices were direclty connected to the main panel.
So now the question is what should I do differently?
- Is a $100 UPS good enough to protect connected equipment from surges?
- Should I plug my powerlinc into a surge supressor and if so will that degrade the powerline signal (if you are not familar with the powerlinc and Insteon they have similar signal sucking issues as with X10 technology)
- Are there cat5 surge supressors that I can use to protect the elk ethernet interface?
- Other stuff (build a lightning protection bubble over my house and generate my own power)...
Any thoughts or $$$donations would be appreciated (-:
-Matt