Not a direct answer to the original post but just wanted to chime in and say I agree with low voltage usually being more of a potential issue than other "spikes". Back in the 80's I spent several days on and off tracing down an intermittent issue with a Houston Instruments graphics plotter (about a $5K piece of hardware back in those days). Worked directly with HI several times before we solved it.

I went on-site to the client which was an industrial facility. Just happpened to be there late afternoon one day when the plotter started acting up. It would be in the middle of outputting a CAD drawing when all of the sudden the pen and paper would go haywire. The shop had mostly fluorescent bulbs and they flickered all the time so I didn't really notice anything from them. But they had a fixture with an incandescent bulb net to a door I just happended to notice dim about the time the plotter acted up.

So I asked the draftsman, "Does that (light bulb dimming) happen often?". His reply way, "Oh yea. Almost every day around this time just after they are changing shifts, they fire up the pots".

Had him get hold of the maintenace crew, they put a volt meter on the line, and sure enough, some significant voltage drops were present on the line sporadically.

Suggested he order a line conditioner/battery back-up for the plotter and a few days later, problem solved.


I have not been affected by a lightning strike personally, but know others (amateur radio operator buddies) who have had that unfortunate experience. Even though they claimed to have lightning protection for the antenna and had the station well grounded both electrically and via the chassis to a separate ground, a lightning strike to the home still took out their equipment. At least two have told me that their homeowner's insurance policy covered the loss. You may want to check if your coverage includes lightning and/or electrical systems damage.


Where I am located, most of the power outages are rare and very brief, many times just a few seconds. I have most of my main computer equipment, router, hubs, etc. on conditioned (good 60hz) battery backups like APC (No Affiliation). My radio equipment is ran off of a 12 volt (GlassMat) battery that is constantly charged from an AC source. Given that we have maybe four or five such brief outages a year, I have yet to lose any equipment to damage -- that sound you may hear is me knocking on wood as I type this :-)


Regards,

buckeye