Can lightning damage appliances? The short answer is yes, lightning has the potential to do serious damage to any appliance within its range. Lightning is an extremely powerful and dangerous force of nature that can cause destruction in the blink of an eye.
When lightning strikes, it sends out a powerful surge of electricity that can travel along power lines and into homes and businesses. This surge can exceed 50,000 volts or more, which is enough to cause serious damage to electronics and other appliances connected to the power grid.
The most common type of lightning-related appliance damage is caused by transient voltage spikes. These are surges of electricity that occur when lightning strikes nearby or on a power line close to your home or business. While these surges only last for a fraction of a second, they are powerful enough to overload electronic components in appliances like TVs, computers and refrigerators and cause them to malfunction or even stop working altogether.
In order to protect your appliances from potential lightning-related damage, it’s important to take proactive steps such as installing surge protectors for all major electronics and unplugging them when severe storms are in the forecast. Additionally, you should consider investing in whole-home surge protection solutions such as whole-house surge protectors which will help protect all connected devices from harmful power spikes created by nearby lightning strikes.
By taking these simple steps you can help safeguard your most valuable electronics from being damaged by unexpected lightning strikes while reducing the risk of costly repairs down the road.