We all know how dangerous lightning can be. In fact, the Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters have proven through some experiments just how dangerous having your house hit by lightning is.
Lightning, when it hits a house, actually travels through a home’s electrical system. The lightning tries to find the quickest way to the ground. It can travel through your plumbing and even through the phone.
That is just the reason why you should avoid the phone or the computer during a thunderstorm. A lightning bolt traveling through your phone into your body can actually kill you in less than a second. You might reason out that there are a lot of stories circulating about people who survive being struck by lightning. However, you have to ask yourself one question: do you feel lucky?
In the same note, you should also avoid the shower, as water plus electricity equals very bad news.
Now that you know at least the basics of home lightning safety, let’s move on to your stuff. As said before, Lightning can travel through the house electrical system. This would be no problem for simple appliances like electric fans or light bulbs.
Don’t breathe easy yet, because the appliances that lightning does damage are the ones containing microchips. That’s right: lightning will damage your precious high tech equipment.
What do you do? Well, they always say that preparation is always the best thing you can do. Here are some tips:
1) Unplug all damageable appliances if you think a storm is coming – This would disconnect all the appliances from your house’s main electrical circuit and will save your stuff from being fried.
2) Get a lightning rod – Of course, almost everybody has heard about a lightning rod. This simple device attracts the lightning and diverts it from the house. This device is also grounded. This means that the lightning rod actually makes a pathway for the lightning to reach the ground as quickly as possible without damaging your equipment.
3) Get a house energy shield – This is a relatively new concept built for the sole purpose of preventing surges from frying your appliances.
House energy shields are often installed by electronics companies who specialize in accessories. If you are imagining your house covered by futuristic energy shields that deflect lightning blasts, you may have been reading too much science fiction. A house energy shield is a system provided by some companies that will protect your electrical circuit from damage in case of energy surges.
A house energy shield composes of a number of surge protectors that protect specific appliances. This prevents lightning from doing any real damage to your precious stuff.
Another component of a house energy shield is the UPS or Uninterruptible Power Supply. This piece of equipment actually provides clean power when you experience a power surge or brownout.
We all know the risks of not properly shutting down your computer. A UPS actually gives your system the proper time to shutdown before running out of power. Another problem with sudden brownouts is data loss. Don’t you just hate it when a brownout suddenly turns off your computer and you remember that you forgot to save a document you were working on?
Well, this part of the house energy shield system will allow you to save your files even when you experience a brownout. Now isn’t that just amazing?
House energy shield systems can actually be found in the internet. There are all sorts of equipments and accessories which you can use to protect your electrical system from being damaged due to unfortunate incidents.
You may also choose to buy different types of surge protection equipment and design your own house energy shield. Whatever your choice, you need to know that technology today can let you do whatever you need.
So, there you go, those are some things you may want to know about house energy shields. Remember that a thing doesn’t have to look good or even be visible in order to be effective. This is the case with a house energy shield. Sure, your house may not be enclosed in a force field, but you are protected.
And in the end, protection really does matter, right?
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