A bar for my 2008WAMSY.

It doesn't. Trust me.

 

snip>

Today was the first time I've ever seen high voltage DC power cables
smoking. We're working in a pump house that until a few days ago was
flooded after a 16" dia pipe cracked in half and spewed water
everywhere and while I was chatting to a station engineer I just
happened to glance at the floor and notice a 1.5" diameter cable lying
by his foot puffing out smoke rings.

After I'd asked him if that was normal (we were stood in about an inch
of water at the time) he had a quick look, shone a torch on the cable
and suggested we move back up the stairs and vacate the area.

We had a quick visit from some of the high voltage guys who suggested
wrapping insulating tape around it then fucked off telling us it was
ok to carry on with what we were doing. Nobody died so it was ok.

 

She just shakes her head and looks at the latest R1 when she finds out
what I've been doing.

 

Indeed. Most of the cheapy 'surge protectors' sold via the PC market
aren't worth the plastic they're made from. If you're lucky they will
cope with a few small spikes then they're toast, but they usually don't
let you know they're useless now, so the user happily carries on
thinking they're still protected.
The cheap ones are easy to rejuvenate - it's just an MOV inside of them,
a component that costs all of 20p to buy.
I fit proper line smoothing and surge protectors, bought via the surplus
market, to all my kit, and everything important runs off a UPS anyway,
so there's a degree of belt and braces involved, but it wouldn't do shit
against a direct hit, as you say.

I've been bloody lucky this past year; in the Spring there was a helluva
thunderstorm passed right overhead and I could feel the ground charge
around me. I frantically ran around disconnecting everything, mindful of
the 3G pole poking above roof height, with a direct line into the PCs
and LAN, but luckily nothing happened.

 

That didn't last long. Can you get a quickie divorce in your state?

 

Yeah but that's to deal with EMP probably

 

I've seen the results of a direct hit on the outside telephone line to
a house. All the phone wiring had vaporised along with substantial
parts of the mains, the telephones were molten blobs, lights switches
blown out of the wall etc. The phone junction box 100 metres away had
exploded into thousands of bits and feck knows what damage the
underground cabling had suffered.

 

There's an interesting[1] safety film that, IIRC BT made, where at one
point they reverse the DC supply to a battery bank. Real thick fire
retardant cable is writhing around like a demented python whilst
flame, sparks and smoke goes all over the place.


[1] Well depends on your POV

 

ITYF the protection offered is against mains surges caused by ground
strikes in the vicinity. If your house gets struck, all the wiring and
anything conmnected to it, including any anti-surge kit, is going to
fry anyway. If there's enough potential to travel across several
hundred metres of atmosphere, jumping across a circuit breaker will be
no problem.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (b.rogers at ifrance.com)
\`\ | /`/
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

It's for strikes miles away that induce spikes into your line voltage,
but it won't handle anything more than that. Still nice to have, though,
provided it's a proper bit of kit.

 

Ah, an excellent example of an early-vintage 306b. Absolutely
marvellous. Well played, both of you.

 

Better off insulating something.

 

Top Gear did this:

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique,

You Un-American pinko-commie-faggot!

Drop to your knees and *PRAY* boy!

Pray to your Loh-had JESUS! And you will be SAVED! And YEA! You will
have no need of any surge protection!

Abstention, is the ONLY way! Hallelujah!

 

You are nuts, do you know that?

 

Similar to my strike. It hit the cable tv line coming into the side
of the flat. Took out my cable modem, ctv box, network hub and the
one computer that was physically connected to the hub, and the tv.

Going the other way it took out the cable tv companies road-side box
wiping out the area for a week until they go it replaced.

 

In Colorado? I didn't know they had ring-mains in the US.

 

I wondered that, but then figured that Ben wouldn't know what one was
anyway, and was just using the UK term by default. His understanding
of techy things like electrickery is right up there on a par with my
awareness of modern popular culture.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (b.rogers at ifrance.com)
\`\ | /`/
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`