Lightening Strike - Possible RV Damage
Last Saturday night we had a thunder storm pass through. It seemed as though a strike hit very close to our house. It knocked out the TV I was watching and shut down the desktop computer I was surfi...
Forum Discussion
Wow, what a hit! I would definitely want to have an electrician inspect the entire electrical system in the house and RV. For example, wire connections inside terminal boxes could have been damaged.
A neat way to check some of this out yourself is to set a multimeter on an AC volts range 150 volts or higher, and stick the probes into a plug in. The voltage will be close to 120 V. Then plug a kettle into the other outlet on the same plug in and note how much the voltage drops. Drops up to 5 volts or so are normal, depending on things inside and outside your house. An outlet with a higher voltage drop than others in your house or RV is worrisome and should be drawn to the attention of the electrician. I wouldn't be using one with a drop of ten more than other outlets because it means there is a heat loss in some connection amounting to ten per cent of the kettle heat - enough to melt wire if it is concentrated in one spot.
Check everything that was connected to AC power. Smoke detectors, sump pump, circuit breakers (especially GFCI and AFCIs with sensitive electronics in them), and so is on. I wouldn't be surprised if you have an insurance claim in the thousands of dollars.
A neat way to check some of this out yourself is to set a multimeter on an AC volts range 150 volts or higher, and stick the probes into a plug in. The voltage will be close to 120 V. Then plug a kettle into the other outlet on the same plug in and note how much the voltage drops. Drops up to 5 volts or so are normal, depending on things inside and outside your house. An outlet with a higher voltage drop than others in your house or RV is worrisome and should be drawn to the attention of the electrician. I wouldn't be using one with a drop of ten more than other outlets because it means there is a heat loss in some connection amounting to ten per cent of the kettle heat - enough to melt wire if it is concentrated in one spot.
Check everything that was connected to AC power. Smoke detectors, sump pump, circuit breakers (especially GFCI and AFCIs with sensitive electronics in them), and so is on. I wouldn't be surprised if you have an insurance claim in the thousands of dollars.
