Lightning and electronics and my Macbook Air

To understand lighting / surge protection, you have to think of the path from outside your house all the way to equipment.


Whole home surge protection is an excellent idea and one I have myself. They can withstand very large event. Not a direct hit, but a fairly close hit. Let’s say you get a surge a ways away, perhaps your whole home unit clamps the peaks to 1000V. The inductance/resistance in the house wires is enough that the small amount of surge protection in your electronics will protect them. Now let’s say you get a close hit. Your whole home unit now clamps to 2000V. Unfortunately, even with your house wire this is enough to blow some of the electronics.


Now if you add local surge protection in a power bar, your whole house protects to 2000, and then the local surge unit perhaps to 1000, which is what enters your equipment which survives. If you didn’t have the whole home, the local surge would say take 4000V, and pass 2500 to the equipment destroying it.


It is not unusual to lose home appliances in surge events. 

Sorry about your Mac.

hilde 33 again I'm wrong I'm so very sorry.

be thankful it was just a laptop.   it could have been much worse.

Indeed, considering I have 3 other PC's' in this house in addition to my home theater gear. All of that is protected locally though. Just out of convenience I had the Macbook's charger in an unprotected outlet in the living room. That's what got me.

“Please keep in mind that in either case, they do NOT cover electronics, only major appliances and internal wiring. “


and that is what i explained.

be thankful it was just a laptop.   it could have been much worse.

Whole house surge protection comes in various forms. There’s the kind you can install on your panel, and the kind you rent from your power company which goes on your meter (though you can buy these kinds too). I have the former, so the power company has nothing to do with it.

Please keep in mind that in either case, they do NOT cover electronics, only major appliances and internal wiring. All the panel based protectors still recommend you add additional surge protection at the point of use of your electronics.

@hilde45 None of my surge protectors failed, however the whole house protector is not intended to save your delicates. Just your big iron. My Macbook was not connected to a strip, straight into the wall.

Best,

Erik

“Power company is not going to cover anything. They have zero responsibility”

if the power company offers protection then it depends on what protection. one purchased as it could meter based or individual surge protection.

the meter based protection is for large appliances , individual surge protection is for more sensitive equipment.

in our area , there are two power companies and depending on the area, one company will cover everything, while the other one only covers big appliances if you buy that protection 

Power company is not going to cover anything. They have zero responsibility (all that fine print on your bill or agreement) and especially when it comes to lightning (act of god or nature for our atheist friends). 
Only recourse is through your homeowners insurance and I am sure it is not worth the time as the cost of a MacBook will not ring the bell on the deductible. 
That is where the home warranty can come in though. Had a friend in Florida have a similar issue and blew out every appliance in the house except a 15 year old refrigerator in the garage. Between the HO insurance and the warranty she got all new appliances. Granted that’s are on order as most of these Korean built stoves, microwaves and refrigerators are all sitting on the water waiting to dock in a port. 
BTW all her audio and video gear was safe on their own surge protectors. All of them the cheap crap you buy on Amazon.

your whole house surge protection, is that covered by the power company?