I’ve lived along the shores of Lake Chapala since 1997. Each summer during the rainy season, lightning has struck close enough to the cable, telephone and/or power lines feeding local neighborhoods to ensure some of the homes nearby were exposed to electrical surges.
If these surges are large enough, they can seriously damage your electrical gear should you have no surge protection. Most electrical surges are created by that lightning bolt which is simply trying to find the easiest way to get to the ground and if we can help it do so, it will leave our electronics unharmed.
One simple way is to redirect that surge of electricity to that third or grounding wire that most newer homes have. Where in your house is the best place to shunt that surge of electricity? Where these cables capable of carrying these surges enter your property. But should that not be practical, we can place surge protectors between the outlet (be it electrical cable or telephone) and those items we are trying to protect.
A simple surge protector could be a 250-peso power strip. Typically they are several inches wide and about a foot long with room for about six plugs and sometimes a telephone line. Unlike a simple power strip, the surge-protected power strip has electronic circuitry that senses power surges and redirects these dangerous surges to the grounding wire. And remember, where is the lightening trying to go? To the ground. In Canada and the US, homes must have that third grounding wire. Because wiring is a little different in Mexico, my grounding wire leads to four 6 foot grounding rods, that I have buried in my front yard .
Now, many older homes in Mexico do not have this third wire leading to the ground. And if this surge protector has no grounding wire to shunt this surge of electricity to, the surge protector can’t do its job. To check to see whether you have that third grounding wire, look at an electrical receptacle. Does it have only two pairs of horizontal rectangular slots, or immediately below each pair of slots is there also a circular hole to which the grounding wire should be attached?
Now just because there is a hole there doesn’t mean that there is a properly grounded wire connected thereto. To find out, either get help from an electrician or if you have a circuit tester, check the circuitry yourself. Don’t repeat the mistake of a friend who thought that a surge protector would provide at least some protection on ungrounded two-wire circuits. Without a ground wire to shunt the surge to, you have very little protection. Both my friend’s modem and computer power supply were fried because the surge protector had no grounding wire to shunt the surge to.
Surge protectors are economical and easy to find at computer, hardware stores, etc. They will protect you from most power surges. But should the lightning strike be close enough, surge protectors will be overwhelmed and your equipment will be harmed. The best protection is, of course, to unplug your electrical gear during electrical storms, something I do, any time I’m out of town during the rainy season. If you are still a little confused go to WIKIPEDIA and look up “surge protector”, and if necessary, get help from your local electrician.
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