The guy on top of the message screen shot is our guard at the gate and he has a sense of humor. At least he checks up on everyone making sure they are all ok.
Last night we had a good thunderstorm that lasted around 45 minutes leaving the entire area in darkness. We were fine due to the solar system and had no idea about the carnage going on around us. The sights were fantastic though as with the entire area around us was pitch black and the lighting bolts were illuminating the valley with a natural fire works display.
As I am writing this post I have just had a warning come trough of an imminent thunderstorm plus no doubt the sirens will go off at the nearby golf course. Summer time is when we have these afternoon storms so these are expected.
Our house was either struck by lightning or we experienced a powerful surge via the mains as we had one kitchen light blow after a crackling sound took place. The earth leakage on the main distribution board had tripped, but again we did not know that at the time because the house was being powered by battery.
This would have been the third time our house has been it in a 5 year period and yes lightning does strike in the same place twice. Between this property and our Durban property we have been hit 5 times and each time there has been various levels of damage. In some cases you only find out later when the electrical item you were using is no longer working. The vacuum electrical chord was blown into multiple pieces and we missed out on claiming this from insurance.
One of the houses in our street had his inverter blown last night and this could be costly. I was concerned about my inverter after reading his message on our community group, but then gai our entire solar system has been installed by professionals and has been earthed with rods that go three meters into the ground. I know that as we struggled for 2 days to find a rock free piece of ground. The inverter is roughly 40% of the entire solar system cost and need to double check this has been added to the buildings insurance as I do not think this has.
Gone are the days you just surmise you are covered and you find out later you have no cover mainly as the insurance companies love their fine print. It was just the other day we found out our house in Durban had no cover and managed to get that rectified within an hour of finding out. The consequences of having no cover are not worth thinking abut as at the time there were massive storms hitting Durban after they had hit and flooded out Mozambique. All it takes is one bad storm to cost you tens of thousands of dollars in damages.
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That sounds like some scary weather. Lightning will go for whatever is the easiest path and will hit it again. We don't get too many big electrical storms here, so I hope we will be safe. Our system won't work off grid anyway.
Stay safe.
We get them every other day during the summer months and they are fun to watch when they are not directly over head. We are close to going off completely even though we are still tied to the grid.
Electrical storms sure become costly when they arrive, glad to hear you managed this round. One certainty is the uncertainty of where it will strike next, we unplug as much as possible, insurance companies have become all the more difficult to claim of late.
Had no electricity for 22 hours this week, last week 19 hours due to MV cable damage, neighbourhood watch on their toes always to look out for each other since the riots down here.