Fried
A huge thunderstorm broke over St. George’s early this morning. It was one of those storms where the thunder sounds more like small explosions than the ominous rumblings I’m more accustomed to.
My wife, who got out of bed to watch, actually saw two forks of lightning strike St. George’s harbour (and kept seeing them for several minutes afterwards). So I wasn’t entirely surprised when I stumbled out of bed later to discover my DSL modem had been fried by the storm. The rest of my computer and AV equipment is plugged into surge suppressors, thank God, but the modem wasn’t because there wasn’t enough space. Aghast at the prospect of going for a full day without the internet, I stole my mother-in-law’s modem and then spent a full day swearing and shouting as I tried to get it to work with my uncooperative router.
But we were lucky. A house a couple of doors down from us lost several appliances and all the electrics in their car.
Damn electricity. You go without for days, then several hundred million volts come along at once.
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Ow! Been there, done that. YOu have my sympathies, Phil. Lightning hit my house a few years back and blew the chimney off of our house and a 15 foor hole in our roof and ceiling. Needless to say every single household appliance we owned was cooked. Poof. "Dear [insert local insurer here]..." BEst of luck, hope you get everything sorted.
Posted by Adjustah on 25.07.05 at 06:32
When I saw all that lightning I shut my machine down and unplugged everything....just to be on the safe side. Hearing this now validates my actions.
Posted by ace on 25.07.05 at 07:39
Radio Shack on Reid Street has some very good surge suppressors, they have receptacles for telephone, cable, satellite. As far as I remember, they're around 30 to 40 bucks.
S
Posted by Steve Moffat on 25.07.05 at 10:01
Aside from the fact they're unpredictable, is there any good reason why one couldn't harness lightning bolts for generation of electricity?
Using a lightning rod, theoretically a direct hit could either charge a massive battery, or flash-boil some water to run a steam turbine.
Posted by TJL on 25.07.05 at 10:23
TJL,
Go for it. :)
Posted by SmokingGun on 25.07.05 at 10:39
Might be better to put one up in Limeys yard. Then we could get his site faster. He must be running on his own batteries. The guy can't sleep, a little tunder stormy makes him get up in his undies and take photo's?
I want a Post with some real meat in it. Not BQ'd Cut Roadians....
This Blog is turning into an 'English Tea Party.
Well, there goes my Monthly subsciption.
I am going to cancundreaming.com.org.......
Posted by Terry on 25.07.05 at 10:48
TJL, I'd guess that you could harness at least 1.21 gigawatts. Great Scott!
Posted by Longtime Lurker on 25.07.05 at 10:53
UPS anyone? Regards, Bill
Posted by BillAkin on 25.07.05 at 12:48
TJL, take a high school physics course.
Posted by curious on 26.07.05 at 08:16
If you all think you got Acid Rain now, wait till TJL hooks it up. Sounds good, but I would not want to be within 100miles of this experiment.
As the old saying goes, "not in my back yard".
Posted by Einstein (cousin) on 26.07.05 at 08:52
you too 'einstein' (irony ++)
Posted by curious on 26.07.05 at 10:02