a bit off-topic: surge protector question

Protection is always about where hundreds of thousands of joules (and lesser transients) dissipate. Nothing inside a building can dissipate that kind of energy. Nothing stops what three miles of sky could not. Even a UPS (in its numeric specs) only claims to absorb hundreds of joules. Systems for surge protection even 100 years ago were based in same and simple concepts that Franklin demonstrated in 1752.

Protection is always - without exception - about where energy dissipates outside the building. Never about some magic box. All serious protection systems all over the world still do it that way as it was done 100 years ago. In every case, a protector is only as effective as its earth ground. Today, many deny this due knowledge from advertising.

Nothing inside a building will stop or absorb the destructive surge. Nothing - as was true even 100 years ago. A protector is only as effective as its earth ground which a plug-in UPS does not have and will not discuss.

 

Include me as well; I read these posts with keen interest The power in a typical lightning strike is amazing. I still remember backbacking years ago and seeing a tree that was hit. The bark from top-to-bottom was torn off in a nice spiral, just like a stripe on a barber's pole, or the utility box across the street from us that was hit a couple summers back. The sonic "boom" almost gave me a heart attack

 

Power of a lightning bolt is similar to what a car's spark plug does. Does the spark plug create energy that moves a car? No.

Research from the US Forestry Service said well over 95% of struck trees suffer no apparent damage. But if lighting does ignite tree sugars, then damage can be explosive - just like a spark plug.

Sometimes lightning creates a short circuit between the house and high voltages. Lightning is done in microseconds. A "follow-through" current causes massive damage. Lightning is not the massive energy. Much greater is energy from AC utilities. A plasma path that is created by lightning so that utility high voltage does damage inside a building.

Defined is why utility earth ground – your primary protection system – should be inspected.

Again, well over 95% of all trees struck by lightning have no apparent damage.