Case Study: Bob’s Electrifying Night – A Lesson in Lightning and Whole House Surge Protectors

September 27, 2024by PROElectric

It was midnight, and Bob was sound asleep when something rocked his house. He heard a loud bomb and thought he had awoken to find himself in a war zone.

 

Except his lawn and garden weren’t in flames, so maybe he just dreaming?

Maybe the neighborhood teenagers had finally delved into some serious fireworks?

Smelling smoke and looking to his left, Bob discovered that his house was blacked out.

It turned out that a lightning strike had nailed his landscape light transformer and blew a fuse – or three – on his home.

The Incident:

Bob had descended the stairs to find his utility room full of smoke and his main breaker tripped. He panicked. He picked up the phone and called the ‘red light truck’ (the fire department), and a crew showed up with a hose in hand.

They took the hose around his yard in an impromptu water parade while he stood there in a stupor.

After some sleuthing and a lot of eye groping, the crew learned that two GFCI outlets had been fried, and Bob’s $150+ router was stone dead.

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The transformer supplying his landscape lights had blown up, and its innards were scattered across Bob’s lawn. Bob surveyed the carnage, his once-glowing garden ablaze and in ruins.

The Solution:

It went well beyond the need for a new router or two ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) outlets.

This man needed Mother Nature keeping her mitts off his wiring and so into his life came the whole house surge protector: a home electrical hero who would shield Bob and his house not just from those occasional lightning strikes, not just from random power surges, but from whatever Mother Nature and I guess the universe had in store for him.

Results:

The whole‑house surge protector was installed, and Bob’s home is now protected.

It has a lifetime warranty and $100,000 in damage insurance.

Bob can sleep soundly, knowing his assets are safe and shielded from the dreaded electrical monster. And he also dodged the therapy bill for Sparky, the poor dog who still hasn’t recovered from the shock.

Conclusion:

Bob also knows first hand how a lightning strike on his wiring can suddenly turn the night into something out of an action movie – but now that he has a whole house surge protector, his next lightning strike won’t include an explosive wake-up call! Don’t want to wake up standing in the dark clutching the broken parts of your transformer? Take a page from Bob’s book! Get that whole house surge protector and keep those sparks confined – where they belong – inside your light bulbs, not your garden!

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