Do You Unplug Equipment During Thunderstorms?


On one hand it seems like a good idea to unplug audio equipment during thunderstorms. But on the other hand the chances of getting your house hit directly by lightning seem fairly low. Some places get more thunderstorms than others. So I am curious what other people here do. Do you unplug your audio equipment during thunderstorms?

sid-hoff-frenchman

I had a strike near my house once. Audio system survived but the HDMI port on the TV was fried. DVR it was connected to was OK. Moved cable to another port and I was back in business. I have since moved house and I can’t remember what I did with that TV.

It may help to preface this by saying I live in South Carolina near the ocean and we have severe storms roll through here yearly.   For this and other reasons I'm paranoid about lightning protection. 

Yes, I turn off my power conditioners and sometimes even my breakers but only when I know well in advance what will happen.  The problem is that about 2/3rds of the power issues this house goes through are not even lightning related.   When it is, sometimes I see my lights flash several seconds before I hear the thunder.  It's already too late.  Sometimes I'm away from home when lightning rolls through.

My point is, yes, I do turn things off (not actually unplugged) but I also rely on state of the art surge protection.  I wrote about my thinking at length here and here.

I have a whole house surge protector. My computers and NAS are connected to UPS devices. I turn off my listening room system, NAS, and computers, and pray everything else is protected.