Lightning strike...

[Origami]

This past Tuesday afternoon, as storms passed through the area, one of the 85' oak trees that stands next to our house was struck by lightning. While the tree was slightly damaged (blowing out chunks of bark and wood out of a 3' x 1.5' area 40' up as far as 50' from the tree), it resulted in a large voltage spike into the house that took out all kinds of electronic equipment (TV's, computers, AC thermostat, an oven controller, phone and broadband service, etc.), including my Apex and one of my several EB8s. I was at the office at the time of the strike, but my wife called me and told me about the strike and the power going out but then returning, and of a few circuit breakers blown. She said that it looked like everything was fine with the aquarium (judging from the frag tank lights, I suppose - see more below). 

 

It's kind of overwhelming when you've got stuff that was blown up throughout the house and are expecting family from out of town to visit in about a week's time (my son is getting married soon and my folks are coming in from California to visit). It sort of puts a kink in all the planning and introduces a feeling of crisis.

 

The aquarium was not top on my list at first, but was pretty close to it when I discovered that the controller had died. Everything was shut down: The main pump; the skimmer; the heaters; the radion lighting; calcium reactor; ATO... everything except the lights on the frag tank which were still on discrete light timers, and a couple of WP-40 prop pumps in the tank.

 

First up (for the aquarium problem) was getting the main pump back on so I could restore circulation and maintain oxygen levels. This required simply plugging the main pump into the wall rather than the EB8 that was attached to the Apex. Nothing looked to be in distress, and I had other things to do (mostly dealing with Verizon... for hours and hours), so this was it for that night. Because temperatures in the basement runs a pretty reliable 73-76 (as long as the AC is working - and it was on that side of the house), I left the heaters off line and let the temperature drop, knowing that the ambient temperature set a floor that was tolerable.

 

Wednesday morning, I brought the skimmer back online. I should have done it the night before but just screwed up being shell-shocked and all. Most of the rest of Wednesday was spent dealing with a myriad of issues and technicians from Verizon (a six hour visit to address the internet and phone outage), the A/C company (thermostat replacement), Dacor (the manufacturer of our oven), an arborist (tree damage diagnosis), the insurance company (Is it covered? Yes!), and the effort of testing and documenting everything that was dead (electronically speaking). My arborist friend tells me let's wait until Fall or maybe even Spring to see if the tree will survive before we start talking about felling it (which would cost $$$$). The insurance company tells me that my policy won't cover removal (unless it falls on my house), but they can pay for replacement. I tell them that you really can't replace an 85' oak tree. He laughs and tells me that he understands, but offers a $500 credit for "replacement" that I can use toward removal if needed. I also find out that the controller card in our high-end Dacor oven is no longer being made so we'll have to send the board into a third-party to get rebuilt! Wednesday night, I finally managed to reset my Radions and put them on a spare light timer. I also reached out to Neptune about the Apex using my smart phone since Internet and phone service were still out but promised for the next day.

 

Thursday, when I got home, I noticed that the lights weren't on. I apparently screwed up programming the light timer. So I fixed that and turned the light on manually for about 6 hours, confirming that they automatically shut down that evening. Also that evening, I rebuilt an old Ranco two-stage controller (ETC-211000-000) that I got from Scott711 some time ago and put my heaters back on it. I noted that the aquarium only got down to 73 so I didn't feel too bad about letting the temperature slide some. I set the Ranco up to target a temperature of 76 degrees, a few degrees less than I normally do. My hope is that it'll slow the biological processes of some things so that my calcium and alkalinity demands are reduced and I'm not having to manually dose as much. Neptune tells me to try resetting the firmware in the Apex in case it's been corrupted. I reply that the Apex is, for the most part, dead and that it won't communicate over Ethernet. They tell me to send it in for repair. I also spent several more hours with Verizon as I still didn't have internet and had dial tone, but I also had the wrong phone number! How does THAT happen? Verizon tells me that somebody installed a cable wrong in their center and that the team that needs to move it will be there today (Friday). They promise me that they'll coordinate that in the morning. I go to sleep believing they'll get it right... some time. 

 

This morning, the temperature in the aquarium is good. Alkalinity is good - at least I've got a baseline so that I can check consumption tomorrow morning. And the lights ... well, I'll see that when I get home tonight. The Apex is in a box ready for the post office (but it's been a long day in the office, so it may not get out until tomorrow). Verizon... well, we still don't have internet and our phone number is still wrong. On top of that, they've closed out our trouble ticket saying the work has been completed. So... another call to Verizon. When will this end?

 

So far, losses are estimated at close to $4,200. Insurance will cover, after our deductible and depreciation, almost $3,300 of it. Really, not as bad as I thought it would be. I sure hope that we won't have to take that tree out though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hilary]

Oh wow, Tom - sorry to hear about all of this!  When those summer storms roll through I always wonder what would happen if I got a close strike - I guess now I know.  Ouch!  Fingers crossed that the tree pulls through.

[Squishie89]

I have an apex you can borrow until things get settled if you need, only catch is you'd have to come get it. So sorry for all this chaos! Glad nothing really important got damaged.

[s2nhle]

Sorry for all of the trouble. Tom.  Hope you get everything back to operate normal including verizon again.

[dbartco]

WOW! Speak up if you need a hand with anything. I can't screen your number anymore apparently, so I will probably answer. :-)

 

You are on your own with verizon though....  

[monkiboy]

sorry to hear about all the trouble tom but thank you for sharing. you really seemed to get things back in sorts with quite a bit of ingenuity and spare parts and old school tech. if i lend out some gear just shoot me an email or text and it's yours. glad to help however possible. head up and good luck with all the other exciting things going on in your lives soon!

[treesprite]

I'm glad no people got hurt!

[Sharkey18]

Wow, thats crazy. Hope life gets back to normal soon! 

[gmerek2]

Great management. I really appreciate gaint oaks too I really hope it pulls through along with the tank of course. Is it a white oak? Maryland state tree not sure about va. Do you have a pic in its prime? If it doesn't make it or limbs are down let me know.

[dipg]

Wow thats a lot to deal with. I really hope the tree survives. Hope everything is sorted before the big event

[Keraxis]

Electronic wise you can most likly fix alot of them.  There will be caps in line with the power supply that blow.  9 times out of 10 replacing them fix the problem

[Reefoholic]

Tom,

 

This is a lot to go through; when it rains it pours... Great crisis management! I hope things will get better soon. Also,  I hope the tree makes it too. It is a big pain in the butt to "replace" a tree.

 

I don't have any extra equipment but let me know if I can help in any way.

[gws3]

You really got hit hard.  I have lost a lot of HDMI ports on electronics due to lightning.  Got in through the comcast coax line which didn't have any surge protection on it.  Nothing like what you are experiencing though.  I hope you get everything back to normal without too much more headache. 

[Origami]

Recovery is still underway.

 

Verizon is FINALLY up. They sent a very capable and competent technician to the house yesterday. We were fortunate that way. The "wrong" phone number that we had actually belonged to somebody. They must hardly even use the phone because they never even reported their service down. Anyway, the tech let me know that Verizon is making a big push to replace older interface boards with expanded capabilities when they're out on service calls. In part, that's what opened the can-of-worms that led to our service being down an extra three days.

 

My oven controller board should be arriving today. Hopefully, that's all it was and we'll be back in business with that appliance this evening.

 

Neptune should be receiving the Apex today in California. I hope that they can deal with it quickly and get it back to me before too long as I'm headed out to San Diego on the 8th for MACNA and it would be good to have the time to get things on the controller again and the calcium reactor dialed in. I may have to put the kalk reactor back on line to slow the declining alkalinity trend when I'm gone.

 

Amazon made out pretty well with this over the last week. I've bought a lot of stuff from them, including a 48-port Ethernet switch to replace the two blown switches with a total of 24 ports. I also picked up a wall-mounted rack and patch panels so that I can tidy up all the Cat6 cables that I have coming down in my networking closet. I picked up a new Blu-Ray player, too. They've gotten nicer and faster since I got the other one about 4 years ago. New laser printer arrived, too - this one has a wireless interface as well as wired. TVs arrive later in the week. 

 

My (electronics) losses pretty much seemed to fall into two categories: 1) Those that seemed to come in directly on the power lines, knocking out transformers, lights and such; and 2) those that seemed to come in on my hardwired Ethernet (taking out a variety of network interfaces). 

 

As for the tree, so far it's looking alright. I'm not noticing any leaves wilting or anything that would indicate an immediate problem with nutrients flowing. I'm still a bit worried about insects or disease entering the wound site so I'll be keeping an eye on it. As for the type of tree, I believe that it's a white oak. We have both white and black oaks around the house. We actually live down in the woods with a lot of very tall (75'-100') trees (oaks and tulip poplars mostly) surrounding the house. So this is just one of several big ones. The concern, then, isn't so much losing a great tree, but having it fall on the house if its weakened. A few years back, we had to cut down one that had died out near the site where I ultimately put up a large-ish (200 square foot) shed. At it's widest point, it's trunk was 42" in diameter about 24 inches off the ground. Counting the rings, the tree was 95-100 years old when it had died several years earlier. We'll have firewood from that tree for several more years yet.

 

A friend suggested that I look into whole-house surge protection. That's probably a good idea. Anybody have experience with them? 

[sethsolomon]

Tom, Let me know if you need to borrow an EB8.  I have an extra one laying arround.

[Origami]

Tom, Let me know if you need to borrow an EB8.  I have an extra one laying arround.

Thanks, Seth. I will. 

[DaveS]

A friend suggested that I look into whole-house surge protection. That's probably a good idea. Anybody have experience with them? 

 

I have them.  They just install into the breaker box.  I guess when a surge comes through they trip like a normal circuit breaker and you have to reset it.  I haven't had to deal with this fortunately so I can't confirm if they really work or not.

 

Keep in mind that power lines are only 1 way for surges to enter.  Phone copper and, as Graham mentioned, coax are also ways for surges to get in.  You kinda of need to try and protect against all of those if you can.

[Origami]

I have them.  They just install into the breaker box.  I guess when a surge comes through they trip like a normal circuit breaker and you have to reset it.  I haven't had to deal with this fortunately so I can't confirm if they really work or not.

 

Keep in mind that power lines are only 1 way for surges to enter.  Phone copper and, as Graham mentioned, coax are also ways for surges to get in.  You kinda of need to try and protect against all of those if you can.

The ones that I've looked at (online today) tie into both busses in the panel through a new double-pole breaker, but the real surge protection is contained in an external box. 

 

As for the path of destruction phone copper shouldn't be a problem since my voice and data come in on fiber. Paths might include through the ground rod (which is how I think it got into my home last Tuesday since the tree is about 30-40 feet from the service entry and ground rod), and external power lines. Others paths might include my well-pump power line or through my copper plumbing (since it's tied to ground). Once it gets inside the house, it has lots of other paths including my hardwired Ethernet wiring, phone wiring, power wiring, etc.

 

I'm probably going to put surge protectors on both of my electrical panels and use additional protection for my network routers and switches (as well as some of the more expensive electronics around the house). Hopefully this'll help deal with any future strikes. (But, hey, they say lighting doesn't strike twice in the same place. So maybe I'm safe?  )

[Rob A]

Wow! That was a lot of destruction. I'm glad you are recovering! I'm surprised (and relieved) that that sort of thing doesn't happen more often based on the amount of storm activity we have.

At the school I work at we had a lightning strike on the football field that left a 2 foot deep hole and a water geyser. I have no idea why it chose that spot on the field. The lightning hit the buried sprinkler system wiring which happens to run alongside a 2 inch and a 1.5 pvc line. It blew the pipes apart and the electrical charge made it's way back to control panel that was almost 100 feet away and blew the controller apart.

 

Also, a 48 port switch at home?! I thought I was a boss for having an 8 port switch, lol.

Edited August 23, 2016 by Rob A

[Rob A]

 

 

 

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[Origami]

Look at those burn marks in that irrigation box! Are the branching marks on the grass the result of the strike? 

[Rob A]

Yes! The lightning left those marks on the grass.

[Origami]

Awesome. 

 

As for the network switch, I decided at the last minute to put in a 48-port keystone patch panel and an unmanaged 24-port Gigabit switch, leaving space in the wall-mounted bracket for another 24-port switch in the future should I want  it. I have a lot of wired drops around the house (coax, TP and even some fiber) as well as wireless. I've got a lot of wires hanging from the ceiling in my switch room so, hopefully, this'll clean that up a little so it's not so unsightly. The 24-port switch will allow me to patch in the drops that are on the existing switches and the extra 24-ports will allow me to tie in the balance if I want to go that direction in the future.

[overklok]

Tom, I recommend Tripp-Lite Isobar Ultra surge protectors, they are the best on the market. I have everything running through them. They are more expensive than most surge protectors but are the best around in my opinion.

[Origami]

Tom, I recommend Tripp-Lite Isobar Ultra surge protectors, they are the best on the market. I have everything running through them. They are more expensive than most surge protectors but are the best around in my opinion.

Thanks!

 

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