Lightning - Safety

[JimmieeB]

Should I turn my pc off during lighting storms or is my surge protection enough to protect?

 

[Martinr36]

I'd turn it off, better safe than sorry, I actually turned mine off the other night while storms were around and its normally on 24/7

 

[JimmieeB]

I'd turn it off, better safe than sorry, I actually turned mine off the other night while storms were around and its normally on 24/7

Yeah, same it was mad the other night. literally right outside my block of apartments could see them! I have a deadline today and lighting is forecast for this afternoon :S

 

[steaky360]

Maybe this is obvious, but for the avoidance of doubt, turning it off won't really help (compared to leaving it switched on) if you're wanting to be safer you should unplug it from the wall... Or at the very least turn off the master switch on the back of the PSU (but I'd argue if you're doing that, unplugging it isn't really much more effort).

 

[SimonPeters116]

Maybe this is obvious, but for the avoidance of doubt, turning it off won't really help (compared to leaving it switched on) if you're wanting to be safer you should unplug it from the wall... Or at the very least turn off the master switch on the back of the PSU (but I'd argue if you're doing that, unplugging it isn't really much more effort).

Aye. The power of a lightning strike won't be stopped by the small air gap of a switch being off.
If you are unlucky enough for lightning to strike the wrong thing, your computer needs to be unplugged, not just switched off.
Lightning travels across many feet of air gap, and then destroys a tree.