Was making dinner the other night - no rain or thunder - when a bolt of lightning struck the house. Appears to have hit a metal chimney. The list of casualties is large:
Furnace
Natural gas fireplace insert (all the control electronics)
Garage door opener
Cable modem (and enough of the cable company's distribution equipment that internet is still out, 48 hours later...)
Laser printer
Half-dozen LED and CFL light bulbs
etc...
Made me realize I never really thought about surge protectors (other than casually noticing them being built into power strips). Anyone happen to be an expert on this topic?
Are breaker-box-mounted "whole house" surge protectors effective? How about the power-strip-included variety - would those help at all in this type of situation? Or are they a gimmick that's easy to sell because no one ever gets to do a side-by-side comparison (with/without protection installed)?