Anyone unplug the TV in a thunder storm?
14 June 2005, 09:55 PM
#1
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Anyone unplug the TV in a thunder storm?
Had a bad one here the other night... unplugged the TV cos I've always heard that it's the safest thing to do.... something to do with the aerial acting as a lightining conductor... and some vague story about an exploding TV as a result!
But is just a load of old tosh?
But is just a load of old tosh?
14 June 2005, 10:00 PM
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My Mum and Dad always did it when I was a kid. Dunno if they still do it cos I'm a big girl now and left home years ago.
Never heard of it happening though and I don't bother....
Never heard of it happening though and I don't bother....
14 June 2005, 10:05 PM
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If you have an outside aerial, then it is indeed a lightning conductor, and a lightning strike would reduce parts of your telly to soot.
Sod's law, however, says lightning would strike at the moment you're grabbing the aerial lead to pull it out
Sod's law, however, says lightning would strike at the moment you're grabbing the aerial lead to pull it out
14 June 2005, 10:08 PM
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As the TV aerial is the highest bit of your house and made of metal it is quite a good lightning conductor. That said the probability of it getting hit is fairly low. It could make the TV catch fire / explode though I'd have thought they would have some sort of protection on them. So yeah not a bad idea to unplug it.
As an aside its also not a good idea to be on a corded phone during a thunder storm, if the line gets hit you can get electrocuted. Cordless are okay. A colleague's telephone line got struck by lightening, blew up a modem (in the days before ADSL
) and trashed the motherboard in his PC. He brought the modem into work and we took it to bits, few charred components inside 
That had lightening protection but still managed to jump the gap and feed down the serial port into the PC.
As an aside its also not a good idea to be on a corded phone during a thunder storm, if the line gets hit you can get electrocuted. Cordless are okay. A colleague's telephone line got struck by lightening, blew up a modem (in the days before ADSL
) and trashed the motherboard in his PC. He brought the modem into work and we took it to bits, few charred components inside That had lightening protection but still managed to jump the gap and feed down the serial port into the PC.
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14 June 2005, 10:15 PM
#8
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I always unplug TV if thunderstorms are forecast also disconnect aerial and unplug Hi-Fi and computers - reason had a lightening strike once which took out the TV, video ( melted power supplies in each ) and Hi- Fi Amplifiers 
you have been warned
you have been warned
14 June 2005, 10:21 PM
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As an aside its also not a good idea to be on a corded phone during a thunder storm, if the line gets hit you can get electrocuted. Cordless are okay. A colleague's telephone line got struck by lightening, blew up a modem (in the days before ADSL ) and trashed the motherboard in his PC. He brought the modem into work and we took it to bits, few charred components inside That had lightening protection but still managed to jump the gap and feed down the serial port into the PC.
14 June 2005, 10:22 PM
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Blimey!
I'd say if you were unlucky enough to have your house hit by lightning, then it was lucky that a few electronics was all it took out!
I'd say if you were unlucky enough to have your house hit by lightning, then it was lucky that a few electronics was all it took out!
14 June 2005, 10:23 PM
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Parents unplug the aerial - I don't. Mind you, I have cable
I remember seeing a house near my folks that had been struck by lightning in the paper once - the damage to the house was such that the TV was probably the last of the owners worries
I remember seeing a house near my folks that had been struck by lightning in the paper once - the damage to the house was such that the TV was probably the last of the owners worries
Last edited by SWRTWannabe; 14 June 2005 at 10:26 PM. Reason: Cos I can't trype
14 June 2005, 11:32 PM
#14
Originally Posted by AndyC_772
If you have an outside aerial, then it is indeed a lightning conductor, and a lightning strike would reduce parts of your telly to soot.
Sod's law, however, says lightning would strike at the moment you're grabbing the aerial lead to pull it out
Sod's law, however, says lightning would strike at the moment you're grabbing the aerial lead to pull it out
LOL @ Andy...Mick
14 June 2005, 11:43 PM
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Originally Posted by Nat21
I think it's a bit like not walking near Swans or Canada Geese as they could break your arm........everyones heard of it but no-ones ever seen it happen
Having dealt with the after effects of a direct hit on a stone built house by lightning, you probably don't want to worry about the TV. Worry about the important stuff, like the fact the roof is on fire
15 June 2005, 08:00 AM
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Originally Posted by fast bloke
Having dealt with the after effects of a direct hit on a stone built house by lightning, you probably don't want to worry about the TV. Worry about the important stuff, like the fact the roof is on fire
15 June 2005, 08:38 AM
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has it occurred to anyone that if you unplug the aerial then its just gonna sit on the carpet and still **** your house up (carpet etc) if you get hit by lightning. When you carpet catches alight, i think the tv will be screwed anyway!
15 June 2005, 08:40 AM
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No; the reason lightning strikes the aerial at all is that there's a path to Earth down the UHF lead, through your TV and down through its mains cable. If you unplug the aerial, or the mains plug, that route no longer exists.
Lightning always takes the path of least resistance. If you unplug your TV, it'll fry next door's instead
Lightning always takes the path of least resistance. If you unplug your TV, it'll fry next door's instead
15 June 2005, 08:55 AM
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Originally Posted by AndyC_772
No; the reason lightning strikes the aerial at all is that there's a path to Earth down the UHF lead, through your TV and down through its mains cable. If you unplug the aerial, or the mains plug, that route no longer exists.
Lightning always takes the path of least resistance. If you unplug your TV, it'll fry next door's instead
Lightning always takes the path of least resistance. If you unplug your TV, it'll fry next door's instead
15 June 2005, 10:13 AM
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Originally Posted by suprabeast
lightning jumps from clouds to the ground, do you really think that its gonna worry about the final end of a connected uhf lead, it'll just go down the uhf lead and jump at the bottom to ground.
Lightning doesn't decide what its going to hit before it leaves the cloud, it does it during the way down, and chooses a feeler at the very last moment. There is a fantastic pic of a guy being photographed near a tree during a lightning strike. it didn't strike him, but you can clearly see the feeler coming from his head
Lucky guy indeed.
15 June 2005, 06:13 PM
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Having been in a house when the tv aerial was struck I can verify that it didn't make any difference whether things were plugged in or not. Basically for the few seconds that the lightning took to whizz its way round the house (witnessed by us as blue electrical snakes shooting out of the power points and aerial sockets and round the walls) the entire structure was turned into a huge electro-magnet and things which weren't even plugged in still suffered internal meltdown!
We were lucky, only lost a few electrical goods, the house which got hit by the other half of the fork had most of the roof blown away
I can verify that it didn't make any difference whether things were plugged in or not. Basically for the few seconds that the lightning took to whizz its way round the house (witnessed by us as blue electrical snakes shooting out of the power points and aerial sockets and round the walls) the entire structure was turned into a huge electro-magnet and things which weren't even plugged in still suffered internal meltdown!We were lucky, only lost a few electrical goods, the house which got hit by the other half of the fork had most of the roof blown away
15 June 2005, 06:32 PM
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If anyone has ever told you that lightning doesn't strike the same place twice they were lying! My house has been struck twice, the first time was quite a biggy, every single thing in the house that was plugged in was destroyed except the PC as it was plugged into a surge protector which worked amazingly well. The lightning woke me up as it arced across the front of the house, i have very heavy thick curtains in the bedroom and the light was still bright enough that i had spots in my eyes for about 2 days!
The second time i had surge protectors on the stereo, tv, sky, etc. and everything survived, but i don't think it was anywhere as powerful a strike.
Moral of the story, either unplug or fit protectors.
The second time i had surge protectors on the stereo, tv, sky, etc. and everything survived, but i don't think it was anywhere as powerful a strike.
Moral of the story, either unplug or fit protectors.
15 June 2005, 06:42 PM
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When I was on holiday at my sisters in France a few years ago, her wee village was hit by lightning. Seemingly it was the phone lines that were hit. Her dial-up modem, laptop and fax machine were all screwed. She was out discussing the insurance claim with the neighbours the next day and by then it was common knowledge that pretty much anything plugged into the phone lines for half the village had been fried.
15 June 2005, 07:32 PM
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About 15 years a go we had one of the first sky systems, a huge dish fitted on our flat roof (still there now) about 1.5 metres across. after about 2 years it was struck by lightning and blew the box up. Our insurance company had to send an assesor out to check everything over, I think they had to pay out about 2k to replace the box and dish although they did try and wriggle out of it!
So yes it can happen, but the only person I know who unplugs there Tv is my grandad, although he also pulls the plug out for the TV at night and always switchs all the plug sockets off to "stop all the electric falling out of them"
So yes it can happen, but the only person I know who unplugs there Tv is my grandad, although he also pulls the plug out for the TV at night and always switchs all the plug sockets off to "stop all the electric falling out of them"
