Just been hit by lightning

DJT75

Distinguished Member
Joined
May 6, 2005
Messages
11,399
Reaction score
3,853
Points
2,537
Age
48
Insane flash & bang, and initial smell of burning. Everything seems to be OK but it must've hit our aerial as the booster in the loft is fried, the cover was 10ft away.

So both my downstairs TVs appear to be dead, along with 2 Sky boxes, and possibly BR players & consoles, maybe 2 smaller TVs upstairs & definitely my computer monitor.

I thought it was just anything linked to the aerial but the computer monitor has confused me somewhat as it's not connected to any of those things, but definitely dead.

Large appliances are working fine (I can hear the dishwasher going) after flicking the trip switch.

So are the TVs etc likely to be totally shagged?
 
Insane flash & bang, and initial smell of burning. Everything seems to be OK but it must've hit our aerial as the booster in the loft is fried, the cover was 10ft away.

So both my downstairs TVs appear to be dead, along with 2 Sky boxes, and possibly BR players & consoles, maybe 2 smaller TVs upstairs & definitely my computer monitor.

I thought it was just anything linked to the aerial but the computer monitor has confused me somewhat as it's not connected to any of those things, but definitely dead.

Large appliances are working fine (I can hear the dishwasher going) after flicking the trip switch.

So are the TVs etc likely to be totally shagged?

Holy crap, are you alright, try changing fuses first of all.
 
Not bought a fuse in 20 years but that is a job for the morning.

All fine here though thanks. My youngest is still asleep amazingly.
Bit scary though, thankfully the house survived by the looks of it. We don't use that aerial, but had it put up a few years ago when building an extension. May have saved us.

I'll need to go round tomorrow & check to see what's been affected. Typically just a few days before we out the country for 2.5 weeks.

Virgin broadband hub is flashing green & not giving me any wifi
 
Yes (i'm about 7 miles from @DJT75 ) the lightning is pretty intense. Haven't heard any right overhead though.
 
I was standing at my patio doors calling the cats in & it seemed like it was miles away (west of St Albans), but then suddenly BANG, right on us.
 
Had a couple of rumbles overhead just now.
 
my house got struck a few years ago tv aireal same as you and it went down the tv cabling blew everything connected to the tv. then as its obvoiusly connected to the mains via the tv power cable so it then blew everything else in the entire house upstairs, downstairs, lights, light switches heating, burglar alarm, telephone cable anything electrical it blew. it even arced across to a nearby copper water pipe blew a hole in that which proceded to flood damage the enitire kitchen.

rang insurance not covered for act of god !
 
That storm raged all night, until around 4am. It was relentless!

On the plus side, my lawn has turned back to green after weeks of being brown :laugh:
 
I was sat on Lee-on Solent beach (Between Southampton and Portsmouth) from 9 til just after midnight. We were watching the storm over the isle of Wight and Portsmouth. Such consistently bright flashes! never seen anything like it in England before; only thing that could compare was a tropical storm in Dominican Republic, but that didn't last over 3 hours:eek: Generally very bright flashes across the sky, with the odd fork, however there were 4 or 5 incredible forks that stretched across the sky near to us. Truly breathtaking sight. There was also one i think within a mile of us over the coast which was A, blinding, and B, ******* loud :p Scared us a little bit :D So glad i got to watch it :)
 
Makes me glad to have my aerial inside the loft space! Hope it all gets sorted. What a bummer. Bet the cats saw the strike and said to themselves "yyyyyyea.....no thanks"
 
See this one at 3 am and it was a monster, the whole sky was constantly alight.
Really wish I'd driven out with the camera now.
 
Was a bit lively here last night. Didn't realise at first as I play ASMR storm videos during the night anyway.
But sat out on the porch enjoying the light show.
 
My cousin's house was hit a few years ago in similar circumstances, through the aerial and killed all of his equipment connected, it cost him thousands to fix and as somebody else mentioned the insurers weren't interested due to the act of god exemption!
 
My cousin's house was hit a few years ago in similar circumstances, through the aerial and killed all of his equipment connected, it cost him thousands to fix and as somebody else mentioned the insurers weren't interested due to the act of god exemption!

What the hell is an act of God?

Sounds like an absolute sham. It's a natural event, and lightning itself isn't exactly a freak occurrence. Glad you're all ok, but I think it's shameful that the insurance companies can just wash their hands. I remember the same 'act of God' drivel being bounded about when that Icelandic Volcano left me stranded with no way home for a few days. Travel insurance wasn't worth a jot.
 
What the hell is an act of God?

Sounds like an absolute sham. It's a natural event, and lightning itself isn't exactly a freak occurrence. Glad you're all ok, but I think it's shameful that the insurance companies can just wash their hands. I remember the same 'act of God' drivel being bounded about when that Icelandic Volcano left me stranded with no way home for a few days. Travel insurance wasn't worth a jot.

It's been included in insurance policies for as long as I can remember, also includes exemptions against damage as a result of war and conflict, possibly even terrorism, can't remember now.
 
My cousin's house was hit a few years ago in similar circumstances, through the aerial and killed all of his equipment connected, it cost him thousands to fix and as somebody else mentioned the insurers weren't interested due to the act of god exemption!

An Act of Nature is an 'Act of God' - a natural occurrence which is not an accident but an act of nature.

However, in the UK most insurance policies do not contain an 'Act of God' exclusion. If it does and you suffer a flood or a lightning strike and the insurers refuse to pay out have a word with a claims solicitor, they will be delighted to sort things out for you.

Basically there is no 'Act of God', I've read the Association of British Insurers have always said so.
 
That storm raged all night, until around 4am. It was relentless!

On the plus side, my lawn has turned back to green after weeks of being brown :laugh:
Lightning past 2am here, just north of Bournemouth.
 
My cousin's house was hit a few years ago in similar circumstances, through the aerial and killed all of his equipment connected, it cost him thousands to fix and as somebody else mentioned the insurers weren't interested due to the act of god exemption!

Our TV was knocked out by a lightning strike, good few years ago now, but got it replaced on insurance without any issues, had a claims adjuster out to verify it, but they paid out.
 
Probably a good heads up from DJT75.

I would guess and it is a guess (if serious lightning is going on):-
Disconnect stuff from the master phone socket (bye bye internet).
Disconnect the roof aerial (eg. unplug from the distribution amp).
Disconnect the Sat dish connections to the Sky box (or similar).

...and, read a book, have sex, sort out the sock drawer, polish the horse brasses!

DJT75 is not the first person I know of that has lost a lot of kit due to lightning. A friend living in a remote location had most of his kit taken out, not due to lightning directly hitting his house, but in all probability a ground strike that's sent a surge down his phone line.

:(
 
Well, just about sat down after checking everything out and making lots of calls.
Next door has kindly provided me their wifi password so I've got that at least.

On the death list.

3 TVs. 49", 42" and a 23" all officially deceased.
2 Sky HD boxes
2 Blu ray players
1 Aqualisa Quartz power shower
1 Virgin Hub 3.0
1 Nintendo Switch charging dock and adapter (not the console)
1 Aerial Booster

Unknown damage to all coax cabling around the house, Sky cabling, the aerial itself (plastic cover of which was on the lawn), sky dish, sky cabling including multiroom, Sonos equipment (lights are on but unable to test until Virgin sort my broadband tomorrow). All HDMI cables, HDMI Smart switch, Amazon dot (although she's talking so I assume she's OK).

Surviving was my PC monitor - just needed a fuse changed, and my boiler and heating controls. All were dead this morning, but cost me £20 cash for a local sparky to check it out and change the fuse (I didn't even know where the fuse was for that). All seems to be working fine there now.

Off on holiday on Tuesday, I'll be leaving what's left unplugged me thinks.

Insurance through Aviva have been great so far and everything should be covered. Although I have a bit of an issue with Sky. It's only £115 to make everything else redundant and go with Sky Q now, rather than replace the aerial and dish, booster box, 2 HD boxes + engineer visit & possibly hundreds of pounds of cabling and plastering. So hopefully they'll see the light and allow a Sky Q upgrade instead.
 
Think I got about 2 hours sleep eventually, but like @mjn said. It seemed to go but then returned and hung around for hours.

Neighbours have lost apple TVs, virgin tv boxes and aerials too. Sounds like they had my sloppy seconds
 
rang insurance not covered for act of god !

This is complete BS, how is this an act of god its just weather. Insurance companies are just scam artists I think.

Edit
All my statement is referring to insurance companies, none of it to you :)

Just making sure.
 
Off on holiday on Tuesday, I'll be leaving what's left unplugged me thinks.

If you want to make sure you got everything just flip the switch on the breaker to disable the electricity being distributed throughout the house.
 

The latest video from AVForums

TV Buying Guide - Which TV Is Best For You?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom