Lightning is a powerful force of nature that can destroy electronic equipment very easily! When lightning hits power lines, telecommunications cables or TV antennas, a huge amount of electricity surges through the cables. Depending on how close the lightning strikes to your home these surges can do significant amounts of damage to the electronic components inside your equipment.
Here’s some 3 tips on how to protect your expensive TV, Media Players and Home Theatre equipment from damage by lightning:
- The absolute best protection your equipment can have is to be unplugged during a thunderstorm. Be sure to unplug:
- The power cables
- Phone lines or LAN cables
- TV Antenna cables
- Install a surge protection power board to plug all your audiovisual equipment into. Be sure to use one that is advertised to provide protection against lightning damage. I would recommend using models that come with a warranty for the connected equipment, but read the fine print.
- Ensure the TV antenna feed and phone/LAN cables also connect to your equipment via the surge protector. Surges from lightning can just as easily come through your phone line or TV antenna as through the power lines.
As mentioned in tip 1, the best protection will always be unplugging. However this might not always be practical. You could be away from home when a storm occurs. Therefore the right type of surge protectors will help reduce the risk of damage.
Be aware though, even with the best surge protector, it is still possible that a close lightning strike will damage your TV equipment.