I don’t do anything. It’s easy to say unplug everything but that means bringing network devices back up in the right order and waiting for the phone boosters to go through their hour+ reconfig performance.
I’ve never experienced storm damage via lightening strikes, nor do I know anyone who has. Happy to take the risk.
I powered down and unplugged my system last night as storms were forecast overnight. We got nothing but I will unplug again this evening just in case. When a system is powered down for a few hours, does one have to allow time for it to get back to operating temperature?
I hope you stay lucky. I have lost several things like routers and DECT telephones, and one of my neighbours lost a PC and router.
So far, fortunately, I have not lost any of the Naim equipment…
. . . . sounds like the Tethered Goat 
It’s on in my office and so at the first sign of thunder or lightning it’s off…
It’s not unusual to have Electrical kit damaged in an Electrical storm. As in the old adage - Better to be safe than sorry
I too have never had any damage, nor has anyone I know. Which is why was interested. I did actually check through online chat with my insurance company and electrical storm damage would be covered (purely for interest) but I may start being more cautious given other peoples comments.
I have - but see my previous post #19 - believe me if you are unfortunate to get a direct hit you will be surprised at what can get damaged. We were overseas at the time but the house was occupied by our son who was at work & to be fair he knew it was gonna be thundery he just pulled out the power plugs, not the TV aerial (at that time roof mounted)
The TV aerial was broken into 2 pieces, one ended on the front lawn, the other at the back of the house. The bricks & mortar around the aerial pole wall bracket fixing was shattered to dust.
The TV down lead was carbon tracks in places, whole in others, the TV was toast as was my son’s bedroom TV that was not connected but had its own internal room aerial.
As for the hifi, it was a total wreck except the Rega TT, theAudiolab pre & pwr amps, CDP & tuner were zapped as were both speakers. All 3 cordless phones, the washing machine programmer, microwave, fridge (but not freezer) were damaged. The burglar alarm cables in the attic were just carbon tracks & the same in some sections of the ground floor. The main fuse in the consumer unit was welded in the ‘on’ position. My guitar amp, unplugged & standing more or less in the center of the house as also damaged.
Although all the items were replaced new for old, it took 6 months to get it finally finished. So even if my previous post may have appeared a little less concerned, thats because I’m in the house & able to react accordingly, but believe me, you do not want to take a chance with this stuff.
I hear you and agree that blithely ignoring the risk isn’t the best plan, but with the faff it takes to get everything running correctly here after powering it down I’m ok with my level of risk perception.
… which if you don’t mind me pointing out suggests that even unplugging isn’t reliably safe. Glad that you eventually got back to where you were though.
In common with all EU countries (as UK was), electrical regulations in UK require all to have RCDs - but that is only new installations, not required retrospectively. Also, exceptions are possible, and reading this forum it seems thayt a common use of the exemption facility is …the direct radial spur to the hifi! However this is academic in the context of an electrical storm as the RCD would be unlikely to prevent the voltage spike that does the damage.
Flash arrestors if of adequate capacity may prevent the more dramatic damage but are more designed to prevent the lightning penetrating with the risk of causing injury or death to house occupants, such as could have happened with Xanthe’s printer explosion, and the sort I’ve seen wouldn’t stop a spike that may be sufficient to wipe out sensitive electronics (though that is not to say they don’t exist).
. . . a few years ago, a good friend of mine who ran a rurally based recording studio, (full of kit as you can imagine) was away at the time of a storm and unable to be there to unplug every thing. The converted barn took a direct hit at 2am and demolished the end gable wall. Parts of the old iron drainpipe from the gutter system also vanished! Incredibly, a lovely pair of old Revoxs, just on the other side of the wall remained unharmed. The mixing desk was covered in a sheet as it always was when not in use, so was protected from damp and dust. The main damage was rain water and dust on the carpet. But not a single electrical problem with any of the equipment. When we surveyed the exterior damage, is became clear that the expanded metal used to hold the render in place must have acted as a faraday cage. Incedently, The mains power supply came through a buried cable from the house 30Meters away. The electrical installer of the time said it should have been a suspended overhead cable. One wonders what the results of the lighting strike might have been if the regulations had been obeyed?
I wonder why? With our house, the power comes in two overhead cables (it’s 2 phase there) to a transformer at the top of a utility pole. Then it goes underground for the last 15 metres or so. The electricity board did that, so presumable that is OK here.
Yes indeed, a direct or nearby hit will have an electromagnetic pulse that can contain huge levels of energy & any electronic devices are at risk of damage.
Yes I unplugged the mains and Ethernet connection from my stereo, I have seen a few fried landline phones.
This sort of thing is used here for protection of routers etc as well as house mains and connected devices. Available as 3 or single phase.
I don’t know how effective they are with hi fi electronics though.
Note sure, but it was in the 1980s . . I know there had been lots of heavy farm machinery running between the house and barn, so maybe that was the thinking?. but that stopped when the barn was converted into the studio.
Underground cables are perfectly legal in tge UK - and generally safer tgan overhead. However they have to be instalked correctly, using armoured cable which isn’t easy to work with, deep enough (being sure it there are no buried cables or pipes when digging), and have a marker tape layed slightly above the cable to warn someone digging. I guess the electrician mentioned by @artist who recommended overhead didn’t want the faff, or maybe even wasn’t confident either that he/she knew the regs, or was not confident with armoured cable.
I’ve been trying to get around to repairing my writing computer all week. I’ll do it today for sure. It was the only item I didn’t unplug during a few thunderstorms last week, and it’s the only one that’s not plugged into a good power supply protection.
All the Naim kit, of course, gets unplugged from the wall.
Hopefully the computer just needs a new internal power supply.
Dave
I turned my kit off last night. Was returning my lease car this morning so was removing items such as first aid kits etc. No thunder, no rain, no black clouds…but bright flash of lightening…no need to count the seconds to bang for the 300m/s timing, almost instant. I went in doors.
When I lived in a rural area with overhead cables I did. Now I live in an urban area and all cabling to my house is buried I don’t bother. Complacent, possibly. As I am listening to streamed music on my Star and posting this on a desktop via virgin cabled connection, it is essential to keep them plugged in.