How to minimize lightning strikes.

In the South, there’s no escape from powerful lightning storms that can jeopardize your air conditioning system.

But you can take steps to minimize the chances of being struck:

  • In a lightning storm, turn off the air conditioner at the thermostat. This is not foolproof, but it does reduce the chances that lightning will hit your unit.
  • Protect your devices by using surge suppressors between appliances and electrical outlets.
  • If your budget allows, consider full home mounted surge protection to protect wiring and appliances from lightning damage.

Power surges

Surge protection is vital because power surges often cause more damage than a lightning strike. The surges send more volts into your appliances than they can handle. For example, your home probably uses 120-volt electric power, but power surges from lightning storms can be 160 volts or more.

Hidden damage

A lightning strike today may not become apparent for some time, with the result that you might not notice damage at first. However, over the course of a few days or months following a lightning storm, you might notice your air conditioner isn’t working as well as it once did. The compressor may seem fine for a while. But eventually, the damage becomes noticeable – especially bad news since a compressor is very costly to replace or repair.

Other potential targets of a lightning strike can be the capacitor, wiring, and fuses.

If you think your unit has been hit by lightning, contact us to make an inspection. With a combined 200 years of experience, our technicians often can solve small problems now and prevent them from becoming big problems later.

Do you want to know the unit surge protector we install? click here.