Did lightning strike my house???

Question

Last night there were big storms in the area. This morning, a bunch of outlets in one section weren't working. I had to flip the breakers off and then on again to restore power to the outlets. Any ideas on what happened here? Is there any specific damage I should look for? Appliances seem to be working, but I had to get to work this morning and didn't have time to check everything.

Answer 1

this is what you experienced:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_surge

Answer 2

The lightning strikes may have hit a power line somewhere, but that would probably cause a complete power failure. I think that a nearby lightning strike could have induced a power surge in the wires of the house, which tripped some breakers and not all because some lines were drawing more power to begin with and they tripped quicker.

Power surges don't tend to cause permanent damage to most appliances, but they can wreck electronics and computers. If you have some expensive electronics or a fancy computer you can protect them with a good filtering power bar, or a UPS (uninterruptable power supply) that uses big batteries to completely construct a clean power wave, that even runs for a while if the power cuts off completely.

Answer 3

If lightning hit your house, you would of heard it, probably felt it and might of saw it. It sounds like a power surge.

Answer 4

not sure it does sound like lightning has hit your house but if so not hard i wouldn't worry get someone to come round and have a look at it I'm sure it will be easily sorted out.

Answer 5

I don't think lightning struck your home, sounds like a partial power outage though.

Answer 6

Well if your house doesnt have a hole on the roof or was on fire, den it didnt. It was probaly was a close call from what i see