technology Do you turn off your computers during storms?

[Fluttershutter 2,119]

Do you turn off and unplug your computers when it storms?  We've been having random storms where I live for almost a week now and it's really annoying to keep having to do that. 

Edited November 13, 2022 by Venomous

[Clawdeen 12,110]

I don’t. Besides half the time storms hit us I’m either at work or leaving work at night driving in it. 

[TheRockARooster 47,311]

Whenever the storms get too strong and lots of lightning I turn off my computer and other electronics.

 

If it’s nothing too strong, I’ll leave it on and keep using my computer and electronics.

Edited June 30, 2021 by TheRockARooster

[Dreambiscuit 8,024]

I used to unplug a few basic items during thunder storms, but now I have most of that stuff hooked up to power bars with surge protectors. So hopefully I’m good to go.

[IronM17 5,145]

Yes, I unplug my computer when a thunderstorm arrives my home village, especially when it is a thunderstorm like two weeks ago with 3 lightnings per second.

[EpicEnergy 22,082]

I do it occasionally, mostly whenever lightning gets very close.

[Fluttershutter 2,119]

On 2021-06-30 at 8:33 AM, Clawdeen said:

I don’t. Besides half the time storms hit us I’m either at work or leaving work at night driving in it. 

Yeah whenever a storm hits suddenly when I'm at work I worry.

 

So has anybody actually had electronics destroyed this way or am I just worrying too much?

[Clawdeen 12,110]

6 minutes ago, Fluttershutter said:

Yeah whenever a storm hits suddenly when I'm at work I worry.

 

So has anybody actually had electronics destroyed this way or am I just worrying too much?

So far I've not had anything destroyed and from spring to summer a good chunk of nights when I'm at work we get nailed with storms. 

[Northern Star 1,023]

It seems like by the time I get everything shut off or unplugged, its over. 

But I will say we have lost electronics to lightning before.

[ZiggWheelsManning 7,369]

Had to cut short my online play today due to storms.  

[RavenholmZombie 1,329]

The stuff I really care about is all plugged into properly-rated surge protectors from reputable brands so there's a lesser chance of stuff getting fried.

I usually only unplug stuff if the storm is really severe with frequent lightning strikes.

[Twilight Sparkle97 395]

Only if its severe enough I do. 

[DixonTheAdversary 1,631]

If it's a fairly bad thunderstorm, I'll switch off the power strip for my consoles and PC, but I don't unplug them.

[SparklingSwirls 21,261]

No I didn't even know you were supposed to do that . Everything is my room is connected to a surge protector though.

[Astralshy 23,572]

Only when there is a severe storm out there. Well I have installed surge protectors too

[ponytailladybug 3]

We've never done that at all nor had any issues although it doesn't storm as bad here as it does throughout the rest of the country. It would suck to have to unplug and then reboot everything lol. 

Good luck 

[Patty Thundersnow 4,129]

I have my computers and tvs plugged into surge protectors to prevent them from being effected. 

[ZiggWheelsManning 7,369]

Storms are rolling in for midnight  

[DubWolf 16,619]

Saaara, Saaaaara!! Storms, are brewin in your eyes!

Heheh  .

No not really. I continue to search everywhere on the internet and haven't been able to find cases of people being hurt from using electronics or showering in storms... not that they aren't real...

[Splashee 28,537]

I have lost two routers (and thus, the Internet) for not unplugging them due to close lightning strikes.

I have a system now, where I only unplug the power on the outlets that always get damaged, and only if the thunder is happening almost directly after the lightning (which requires me to pay attention). It has worked out so far, with about 1 storm per year to look out for (not that much work).

[Venomous 18,813]

@Fluttershutter

Since this thread is discussing computers, it has been moved to Media Discussion with the appropriate tag.

[Evil Pink One 12,990]

I love to live dangerously.... 

[Pentium100 2,057]

I have two layers of UPSs and no, I do not unplug anything. I would hate it if I had to reboot my main PC or my servers.

However, the power lines to my house are underground. Some time ago the power lines were in the air and back then there were more spikes during storms etc (nothing was damaged, but my UPS would switch to battery for a few seconds). But now when the lines are underground I do not remember there being spikes (then again, now the big UPS could be fixing them without the monitoring system noticing).

[Splashee 28,537]

44 minutes ago, Pentium100 said:

I have two layers of UPSs and no, I do not unplug anything. I would hate it if I had to reboot my main PC or my servers.

I want to get rid of my "server" and have something that I can switch to batteries on power outages. Thinking Raspberry Pi.

[Pentium100 2,057]

8 hours ago, Splashee said:

I want to get rid of my "server" and have something that I can switch to batteries on power outages. Thinking Raspberry Pi.

I'm going the other direction - I have a generator for those long outages. For something like 30 minutes a UPS is enough assuming the batteries are in good shape.

There is no way I could fit everything to a raspeberry. Fitting almost everything to a new server would be possible, but inconvenient (and expensive).