[Elecraft] Took Some Lightning Damage Last Night

[Bill Frantz]

I haven't looked at Jim's web site recently enough to remember 
his reasons, but here is mine.

We had a shunt mode MOV "protected" power strip at our family 
house in New Hampshire. My cousin was using a high power vacuum 
while painting. The power strip started smoking and he quickly 
threw it outside where it stopped smoking after a while. When I 
looked at it, the plastic had be partially melted and there was 
a significant danger that it could have started a fire if my 
cousin hadn't acted.

It turned out that the electrical system lost its master neutral 
connection between the service entrance and the pole. The vac 
dragged down the voltage on its leg so most of the 240 volts was 
across the power strip's leg. This voltage was enough to pop the 
MOV. Since the fault wasn't a voltage spike, the MOV overheated 
enough to start smoking.

This whole incident didn't help in my campaign to convince my 
cousin that electricity is really safe and you don't have to 
unplug all the appliances, including electric clocks, when you 
leave the house.

73 Bill AE6JV

On 11/6/17 at 1:17 PM, wes_n7ws at triconet.org (Wes Stewart) wrote:

>OK, I'll bite:  Why not?
>
>On 11/6/2017 10:22 AM, Jim Brown wrote:
>>... AND to avoid the use of shunt-mode (MOV) surge protectors 
>>to protect equipment.

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