Do you shut down your computer when you hear thunder?

[Deleted]

It depends, if we are talking about a supercharged storm with thunders every few seconds, then yes. The reason? Well, if a thunder hits a nearby pylon, your UPS etc. won't matter, depending on luck - anything in a socket can and WILL get toasted. It happened, twice.

So don't be a silly impatient goose, unplug your baby and play some cards.

[mitbrandir]

Nope. I live in the netherlands. We rarely have extreme thunderstorms like the USA seems to have. Only seen it once that i could hear the lighting shock ( if you're getting me :P ) which was still during tbc. All the other times i saw heavy thunder was while i was sleeping and got woken up by it.

[westom]

Two completely different devices exist. Both are called surge protectors. I use the one type that actually claims to provide protection.

A first type (that most use) is adjacent to a computer. If at a computer, it must either block or absorb that energy. Read its spec numbers. At hundreds of joules, it obviously cannot. Destructive surges are hundreds of thousands of joules. Some quietly (in fine print) admit it will not protect from lightning. Any protector that somehow stops or absorbs surge energy is protecting only from a type of surge too tiny to damage a computer. If adjacent, it can only stop, block, or filter surge energy.

Sometimes a surge, too tiny to overwhelm protection already inside a computer, will destroy a grossly undersized and adjacent protector. That gets some to assume. "It sacrificed itself to save my computer". Nonsense. A surge is electricity. If a surge was incoming on AC mains, then the same current was also outgoing into the computer. No problem for superior protection already inside computer power supplies. But a grossly undersized protector fails. To promote sales.

Another type protector, instead, connects energy to earth. Best protection for some incoming utility cables is no protector. The best protector on cable TV is a wire from that cable to earth. Effective protection is performed when earth ground absorbs hundreds of thousands of joules. That cable connected directly to earth (where cable enters the building) is the best possible protection.

Other utilities (ie telephone, AC electric) cannot be connected directly. So that second type protector makes the same short connection to earth. Also called a 'whole house' protector. Designed to protect from all types of surges including lightning. And to remain functional even after a direct lightning strike.

But again, an effective protector does not do protection. A surge is hundreds of thousands of joules. Protection means you always know where energy dissipates. Harmlessly in earth. That can only happen when a protector connects from every AC or telephone wire, as short as possible (ie 'less than 10 feet'), to a common earth.

First type protector (that a majority use) does not claim to protect from typically destructive surges. And needs protection only provided by the second ('whole house') protection.

Only you make that choice. Either a protector adjacent to a computer somehow magically stops, blocks, or filters hundreds of thousands of joules. Or that energy gets earthed BEFORE entering a building. If a wire to earth is too long (ie from a receptacle, it is longer than ten feet, has sharp bends, has splices, etc), then the protector is not earthed. That distance to earth is critical.

Two completely different devices are called surge protectors. I only use the second one. With spec numbers for protection from direct lightning strikes. Then direct lightning strikes dissipate harmlessly in earth; need not go inside the building. Then everything (not just a computer) is protected. If I must shutdown a computer, I must also disconnect the furnace, dishwasher, bathroom GFCIs, all clocks and clock radios, and smoke detectors. No reason. I use the second type protector designed to protect even from lightning.

[timtim89]

Thunder Storm PFFFT! Use a Surge protector and be safe!