Quote:
Originally Posted by
bionicarm 
APC makes a variety of protection devices that will inhibit or suppress direct lightning strikes. ... If you run the Coax from outside through these types of surge suppressors, you don't have to worry about the connections between your TV and your Cable Provider Box, since that box should also be plugged into the supprssor, which protects any cable connections coming out of it.
Nothing will inhibit or suppress direct lightning strikes. Those claims are found only in advertising, hearsay, and other popular sources of junk science. Go to informed sources. People who actually do this research such as the NIST (US government research agency):
> You cannot really suppress a surge altogether, nor "arrest" it. What these protective
> devices do is neither suppress nor arrest a surge, but simply divert it to ground,
> where it can do no harm.
Take a $4 power strip. Add some ten cent protector parts. Hype it with an expensive looking case. Sell it for obscene profits at $50 or $150. Then claim in advertising that it will inhibit or suppress lightning. Lying is legal in advertising especially when it is subjective. Where are the numbers? Why does APC never provide numbers that claim protection? Why do their products have odious profit margins? Because the NIST defines that APC:
> A very important point to keep in mind is that your surge protector will work by
> diverting the surges to ground. The best surge protection in the world can
> be useless if grounding is not done properly.
Where is the 'less than 10 foot' connection from APC to earth? Why does APC never discuss that earthing? NIST says why. "Useless". It is a profit center; not protection. If it did protection, then you can post APC spec numbers that state that protection.
e="font-family: arial"> Meanwhile, how many furnaces, dishwashers, smoke detectors, bathroom GFCIs, etc did you replace with each surge. Are all those also protected by APC products? Hardly. So you must have invisible protectors on them? After all, for your logic to work, then those other unprotected devices also have some protectors. Why do unprotected appliances not fail?
All appliances already contain robust protection. With or without the APC, the appliance either protected itself. Or internal protection was overwhelmed because it was the better connection to earth. Only way your observations prove protection is for the other 100 appliances, not connected to an APC, be destroyed.
Surges are an electrical path from the cloud to earth. Once a surge is permitted inside, then nothing will stop that hunt. Nothing inhibits or suppresses that surge. Protection means that current connects to earth harmlessly outside. Or a surge current hunts destructively for earth inside. 'Whole house' is how protection is done in any facility that has damage to nothing - not even to the dimmer switches. The 'whole house' protector makes an 'as short as' possible connection to what a surge wants. Earth. Then nothing inside is at risk. That protector costs about $1 per protected appliance.
Once that surge is inside, the OP can trace an electrical path through his TV. To fix the few parts that are actually damaged. And to learn what carried a surge destructively inside the house. To learn how to avert future damage to all appliances. Either a surge is earthed harmlessly outside. Or earthed destructively via appliances. APC does not make any numeric claims for protection. APC power strips have, in some rare cases, even made damage easier. The APC power strip is the same protector circuit (has same numeric specs) also selling for $7 in a supermarket. OP also had an equivalent product. And still suffered damage.
That power strip would never be permitted inside a telco switching center. COs suffer about 100 surges with each thunderstorm. A $multi-million computer remains undamaged. Because they earth surges using 'whole house' type protectors. Do not use products from APC, Monster, or other (what the NIST calls) "useless" protectors. That type protector is banned.
COs do not have surge currents inside electronics because every protector is so close to earth and up to 50 meters distant from electronics. One inside, a surge current from AC mains may have found earth destructively via the TV’s HDMI port or coax cable.
