Big Island Brandon Posted January 9, 2010 Posted January 9, 2010 New member here....just wanted to say hello! I've been using LOR for 4 years now and am up to 80 channels.This was my second year in Hawaii....and first large display. However, we had 2 days of thunderstorms a week before Christmas and lightening hit our electric pole, causing a power surge. So, all 80 channels fried! Also lost a couple televisions, 2 laptops, my fm transmitter, a router, and on and on. I can do without most of this, but not my controllers! Anyway, just wanted to say hi.... Going to be rebuilding all my controllers this summer. And while I'm at it....going to use it as an excuse to add a few more!!!Aloha from the islands.....Brandon
Frank A. Posted January 9, 2010 Posted January 9, 2010 Good eveningBrandondid you get video of that light showits just a setback like the 2 foot of snow in Jersey thatburied the displays up theremake it a better 2010 displaymore --- more- ---- moreFrank A.
Big Island Brandon Posted January 9, 2010 Author Posted January 9, 2010 No....no video! Wanted video of my display and was going to do it right after the storm passed. No video of the lightening either.I lived in Colorado before moving out here and had a few of those snows right before Christmas...so I know what you mean! Never had to deal with lightening in Colorado so I learned a valuable lesson......going to add a bunch of surge protectors this year!I hope to add a couple cosmic color ribbons this year as well....
Surfing4Dough Posted January 9, 2010 Posted January 9, 2010 Big Island Brandon wrote: New member here....just wanted to say hello! I've been using LOR for 4 years now and am up to 80 channels.This was my second year in Hawaii....and first large display. However, we had 2 days of thunderstorms a week before Christmas and lightening hit our electric pole, causing a power surge. So, all 80 channels fried! Also lost a couple televisions, 2 laptops, my fm transmitter, a router, and on and on. I can do without most of this, but not my controllers! Anyway, just wanted to say hi.... Going to be rebuilding all my controllers this summer. And while I'm at it....going to use it as an excuse to add a few more!!!Aloha from the islands.....BrandonWelcome to the forums.I would assume this would apply to your LOR loss (possibly in addition to homeowner's insurance claim):Unconditional Lifetime Replacement Policy:Regardless of current end user, any LOR hardware device that fails for any reason (e.g. eaten by dog, no longer like color) can be replaced with the same or current equivalent unit for 60% of the current list price of the new unit. The end-user is responsible for shipping the old unit back to LOR and for the shipping costs of the new unit. In the event that there is no current equivalent for an LOR device, LOR will make every attempt to work something equitable out. LOR will also honor this policy for any other manufacturer’s device for which we currently have a comparable device.http://www.lightorama.com/w_warranty.htm
Big Island Brandon Posted January 9, 2010 Author Posted January 9, 2010 Thanks for the info! I spoke to the great people at light o rama the other day. They offered to check my controllers to see if they can be saved....otherwise I can get new ones at 40% off. I have filed a claim with my insurance. Kinda funny....our insurance adjuster made a trip from Honolulu to see the controllers and get some pictures. He explained that he needed to have the extra documentation because they were such an unusual item.
cenote Posted January 9, 2010 Posted January 9, 2010 Big Island Brandon wrote: I spoke to the great people at light o rama the other day. They offered to check my controllers to see if they can be saved....otherwise I can get new ones at 40% off.WOW, That is why I was always stick with LOR. Great Service.Welcome to the club. I actually just upped my home owners insurance to cover my "extra" computer stuff. Insurance agent thought I was nuts, untill I showed him a list of what all this stuff is potentially worth.
Dad02 Posted January 15, 2010 Posted January 15, 2010 Sorry to hear about the controllers. Great idea with the homeowners....I think I'm making a trip to my agents office tomorrow.
dsmith2189 Posted January 15, 2010 Posted January 15, 2010 Too bad you didn't post when it happened. My controller went unused this year. I only have one but your insurance agent could have brought it with him from Honolulu.
NWSanta Posted January 17, 2010 Posted January 17, 2010 Wow That sucks... I guess you'll be putting some Lightning protection in for next year. APC Makes some great Power bars. They also warrant ANYTHING plugged into their equipment up to $20000 worth. You may want to look at building that into your configuration for this season!We had some equipment blow here at work that was plugged into one of those bars and APC (American Power Conversion) Covered the bill!At least it was just your electronics and it didn't start a fire!!!-Evan
Big Island Brandon Posted January 17, 2010 Author Posted January 17, 2010 I plan to run surge protectors on everything (I'll check out APC) and also plan to utilize an existing 200 amp sub-panel that is on the outside of the house. I just need to wire it up and add some outlets, then I can just open the breaker when a storm is near....then there is no chance of a surge. Unless it strikes my mega tree and the controllers take a direct hit.....lol!Yep, very grateful the damage was only to electronics! Could have easily been to our house or worse! I do know a couple of houses caught fire from direct lightening strikes not too far from me during that same storm.
stanward Posted January 17, 2010 Posted January 17, 2010 That's good to know APC actually honors their POLICY.You can also look into a whole house surge arrest system, where the surge protector is installed into your load center and protects everything in that load center as well.But not all surge protectors work, as my co worker lost his television during the same storm, while it was plugged into a surge protector. I don't recall the brand of the surge protector, but he did email them to try and file a claim, but the company never responded.Opening your breakers in your load center is a good way to prevent damage during a lightning storm, but the best way to ensure being damage free is to UNPLUG your equipment! I was just lazy, so I only opened all of my breakers (not for the hallway lights).
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