Seriously.
Had a lightning strike near the house Monday afternoon. So far, the count of dead or damaged items includes:
[ul]Nightlight (big deal)
Ethernet hub
Ethernet switch
Lamp timer
Xbox 360 Ethernet port (thankfully my old Xbox 360 still works, though I’ve a lot of content to copy over)
Dryer sensor/timer (dryer still works, but won’t turn off automatically…probably best to replace)
Power supply for our rechargeable hand vac (a Dyson, which means replacing it ain’t cheap).
Wireless phone system base station.
Also killed the power supply on our FiOS ONT, which was just fixed today[/ul]
I feel certain there’s probably more that I’ve yet to discover.
Tempted to invest in whole-house surge protection, but I wonder if it would’ve even helped in this case. Seems like most of the damage came across network cables rather than the electrical system, and I’m betting that it may have been due to EMP, not necessarily surge. The reason I think that is that my bedside clock was also reset when the strike hit, and it’s battery powered.
Would love to hear from any folks who are more knowledgeable about this kind of thing. I’d definitely be willing to spend the money to get whole-house protection if it’s something that would have helped or at least would make such damage less likely.
I hate lightning. Yes, I’m thankful that it wasn’t worse. But I still hate lightning.
