Electrical surges (maybe)

[Gonsalviz]

In the beginning of the rainy season (late April- May) i lost a 54" LED tv, a satellite converter and an inverter aircon. We get some pretty violent wind and lightning storms. I was told it was all due to voltage surges. BUT, I have done some investigating on my own.

 

I took the TV to a local repair shop. He says the power supply is still good and the problem is in the section for the antenna/cable connection is and I needed to take it to LG. I think it may have been a strike to the dish.

 

My A/C man, not from Mitsubishi found a gecko fried to what seemed to be a ceramic resistor. Not in the capacitors. Mitsubishi swears the problem was surge related and charged 15,000 Baht for replacements parts that took 2 months to arrive. 

 

I have been advised to use a voltage stabilizer which I suppose would not be a bad idea but I do not think the lack of it caused these problems.

 

Any thoughts from gurus? And I do mean those in the know. Not amateur thoughts

[Crossy]

I doubt you took a hit to the dish itself, there would be a lot more black things around more likely a nearby strike induced nasty voltages in your wiring

 

Last year we had a direct hit to our roof which blew off some ridge tiles (there's a thread on TV somewhere). The induced surge also took out the LNB on the dish and our WiNet router along with two UPS's and most of our LED lighting. True replace the LNB and TOT the router, I replaced the roof tiles, the lights and UPS's.

 

Since then I've installed a whole-house MOV surge arrestor in the distribution board and every bit of technology has a good quality plug-in surge arrestor. I've also put arrestors in the satellite feeds, one on the dish and one on each receiver (we have three).

 

Quickly locating wood to touch, hopefully we'll be OK this wet season.

 

[Gonsalviz]

I doubt you took a hit to the dish itself, there would be a lot more black things around more likely a nearby strike induced nasty voltages in your wiring

 

Last year we had a direct hit to our roof which blew off some ridge tiles (there's a thread on TV somewhere). The induced surge also took out the LNB on the dish and our WiNet router along with two UPS's and most of our LED lighting. True replace the LNB and TOT the router, I replaced the roof tiles, the lights and UPS's.

 

Since then I've installed a whole-house MOV surge arrestor in the distribution board and every bit of technology has a good quality plug-in surge arrestor. I've also put arrestors in the satellite feeds, one on the dish and one on each receiver (we have three).

 

Quickly locating wood to touch, hopefully we'll be OK this wet season.

 

 

The problems with the TV and the A/C occurred at different times.

 

I will be looking into a whole house voltage stabilizer. The ones I seen and think will handle my house load are from 22,000 to 29,000 Baht.

 

Where would I obtain the arresters for the satellite feeds?

 

The TV was 27,000 Baht. The a/c cost 16.000 baht to repair. 29,000 Baht for protecting them seems rather cheap. Still think the gecko was the problem with the a/c though. I doubt I will buy either another inverter or Mitsubishi product after the cost and down time on the a/c.

 

Thanks for your input.
 

[Crossy]

I had to go to Ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Surge-Protector-F-M-F-for-Sky-TV-NTL-Broadband-Coax-Save-Terrestraial-Satellite-/261250891101?pt=UK_Sound_Vision_Other&hash=item3cd3c43d5d

 

 

[Pib]

Since then I've installed a whole-house MOV surge arrestor in the distribution board and every bit of technology has a good quality plug-in surge arrestor. I've also put arrestors in the satellite feeds, one on the dish and one on each receiver (we have three).

 

Ditto.  Knock on wood but since I did above about three years ago I haven't had any surge/spike/lightning related death of my electronics....before I was having a couple deaths per year.  

[Crossy]

Another member asked what we are using (by PM), since the info could be useful to other board members I'll repeat here.

We bought a load of these http://www.belkin.com/th/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=551466 for all the electronics, PC etc has this http://www.belkin.com/th/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=509298

I also installed a whole-house unit similar to this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dehn-Dehnguard-T275-Single-Pole-Surge-Arrester-A900-650-275V-20A-/150959806024?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2325e7d648

The Belkin stuff you should be able to get from your computer mall, the DIN mount unit from electrical wholesalers.