When lightning strikes at home...
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A FAMILY was left with a $550 bill after a bolt of lightning struck near their home, knocking out their television set.
Retiree K.Y. Leong, 66, was watching National Geographic on a rainy afternoon when the bolt hit, followed by a thunder clap.
The lightning caused a power surge which damaged the 55-inch flat-screen TV set at their landed property in Bedok.
His wife, Ms Rose Tan, 57, paid $550 to get the TV set fixed following the storm on May 5. Its warranty had expired but, in any case, damage from lightning strikes is not usually covered.
Other Singaporeans have also been affected by power surges caused by lightning.
An electrician, who wanted to be known only as Mr Ng, told The Straits Times that it is a common problem during rainy seasons. In the past three weeks, he has received several calls from customers including a Telok Kurau resident who suffered damage to his TV set, phone and computer.
Although it is not currently the rainy season, hot days with occasional heavy thunderstorms are typical of the inter-monsoon period in April and May.
Power surges can occur when electricity from lightning is discharged into the power lines, even though these are underground, said Professor Choi San Shing from Nanyang Technological University's School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
When the current induced by a lightning flash travels along the power lines, appliances plugged into the power sockets can be damaged, even if switched off.
"If an appliance is not designed to handle such and amount of energy flow, the heat produced can damage it," said Prof Choi.
The appliance may even catch fire, although this is rare. To keep an appliance from being fried in a surge, make sure the three-pin plug has been removed from its socket, said Prof Liew of National University of Singapore's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
This "increases the gap and prevents the surged current from jumping or flashing over to the appliance".
All buildings here are required to have lightning protection systems installed to divert discharged current away from the power circuit.
Some insurance firms offer protection for appliances damaged by lightning as part of their home and fire policies. NTUC Income said the number of such claims is "relatively minuscule".
(Taken from The Straits Times, Monday, May 16 2011, Page B2)
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National Geographic, brings mother nature closer to you
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i thot something about pap....
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That family cannot do anything but can just let the town council know about it and to check the lighting metal attached to the building.
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Times are bad.
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Those living at the top floor usually got this kind of problem isnt it?
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Living on top floors means same risk as everyone else in the path to earth. Lightning is electricity. That means the same current exists simultaneously everywhere in a path from cloud to earth. As the Strait Times says, protection is only possible by diverting a surge to what it wants - earth ground. If that current does not have a shortest path to earth, then it may find earth ground destructively via some appliance - ie the TV.
All appliances contain serious protection. But if that current must find earth via the appliance, then a surge increases voltage as necessary to blow through that appliance. Nothing stops a surge - contrary to what plug-in protectors claim. Surge protection is always about an electrically shortest connection to earth - ie a lightning rod. A lightning rod without that short connection to a superior earth ground will not be effective. When connected to a superior earth ground, then a surge need not find earth destructively via any TVs on any floor. Protection is always about diverting on a non-destructive path that has lowest impedance (not lowest resistance).
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At least the higher u are.. the better your chances of survival in an event of a tsunami. he he, the tradeoff... zapped by lightning!
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what happened to good old �雷针？
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Originally posted by BadzMaro:
At least the higher u are.. the better your chances of survival in an event of a tsunami. he he, the tradeoff... zapped by lightning!
If the building is not strong enough, how high is also useless.
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Get the lightning party to foot your bill?
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god of nature do harm on ur tv
too bad