Paphos Life

Well, yesterday night it supposed to be the first thunder and lightning coming this autumn and I tried to catch some of the flashes near Troodos mountains with my camera.

This was the mood, in the far distance on the horizon, one can recognize some flashes...


Suddenly there was a very noisy thunder coming from the opposite direction and I thought better to go indoors and switch the internet off, in case...

This was really lucky, because just after I switched off and put my camera in position indoors, behind the window, there was a nasty lightning strike just above the house which cut my electricity off. On the other hand it was in the 30 second window of my camera setting and the result was that:



I was a bit worried if the lightning damaged my photovoltaic system, but everything was OK this morning...

Max

Got to love a good storm.

Raining again in Polemi now.

WOW ! An amazing photograph !

But, I am glad that because of your quick thinking you had no damage

Wow, super photo Max!!!

We just had one strike very near our house. Our Photovoltaic system OK. However, the amount of bird droppings washed off our roof is amazing. Expect now to be producing a bit more electric, as, over the last three months, our production has been down on last year.

Incredible photo

Yes spectacular unless it kills all your home electronics as it did my Daughter, PC, screen and TV system, do get power breakers on all your valued electronics, or it could cost you a lot of money.

JimX wrote: ↑Thu Nov 05, 2020 6:31 am Yes spectacular unless it kills all your home electronics as it did my Daughter, PC, screen and TV system, do get power breakers on all your valued electronics, or it could cost you a lot of money.

JimX, is your house grounded against lightning strikes?

Yes ours is grounded via a copper pole into the ground, but do not expect this to save your electronics, get electronic breakers this is really a must do on Cy they are inexpensive to buy and could save you a lot of cash.


*This was not at my home but the Daughters in Lemba.

In the past I have used something called surge protectors, one for each electronic device. But I was told that they only protect the device from a single powerful surge. After the first surge, they are not effective anymore! Is that other people's experience?

JimX, is this the same thing as what you call electronic breakers?

I believe that the circuit breakers in the interior 'modern' meter cupboard will trip if there is an alteration in the current.

sunspot wrote: ↑Thu Nov 05, 2020 8:59 am In the past I have used something called surge protectors, one for each electronic device. But I was told that they only protect the device from a single powerful surge. After the first surge, they are not effective anymore! Is that other people's experience?

Just Jim please..

Yes, but there are many types to buy, some are a one shot device, cost about €8s each, better are trips with a battery, they are more expensive but I am told more reliable, either way best to use trip devices.

Trev not always a direct Lightning strike these do not act fast enough, ask my daughter, some time back lightning killed my American style double door fridge, it now has a socket type circuit breaker..

Just to clarify: I switched not only the internet off but also unplugged at the wall to be on the safe side. Every time thunderstorms come too close to the house I do that as I learnt my lesson from the past when I lost several appliances in the house from lightning strikes.

Max

cyprusmax47 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 05, 2020 9:17 pm Just to clarify: I switched not only the internet off but also unplugged at the wall to be on the safe side. Every time thunderstorms come too close to the house I do that as I learnt my lesson from the past when I lost several appliances in the house from lightning strikes.

Max

Yep Max I agree. That is the 'belts and braces' way of protecting everything and anything from lightning strikes. I remember being caught out with the weather forecast . . . . . .And jumping out of bed at 2am in the morning . . . to unplug stuff. And I also had surge protection on all my PC equipment. The HUGE bangs used to scare the BEJAYSUS out of me and my PC!

Maggie B

Bmwx5, the article is very interesting, and also the article underneath that one called 'Lightning Protection Systems'. Thank you.