No, it normally strikes three, four or five times in the Limousin! A fact that a lot of our customers can confirm from bitter experience. The Limousin has many unique qualities, and unfortunately electrical storms are one of them. When we first arrived in France (at the tale end of summer) we were under the illusion that these storms were just a quirk limited to the Autumn season. Our opinion soon changed with time, as we entered Winter, then Spring, and watched the storms continuing to roll in. Lightning storms are not so much more prevalent in the Limousin than any other area in the world, there are plenty of other destinations who get their fair-share of electrical storms. However, the impact of them is particularly encompassing for our local computer using population. The simple reason for this is the hilly, sparsely populated nature of our area. The lightning has slim-pickings on where it will travel – flatter locations have a conveniently high church spire to attract the focus of the storm, more densely populated areas give you lottery odds of not getting hit because you have an abundance of neighbours who are more likely to get it than you, however, our locality has a myriad of hamlets on hills, enticing the lightening to earth their current via your home’s electrical supply. This is why, after every storm you are likely to hear at least one horror story from an acquaintance living here. This is a statistic I would love to wipe out when it comes to computers. After all it is a risk that can be easily avoided.

How do I protect myself?

There is a very simple and inexpensive device for protecting yourself against lightening damage, called a “Surge Protector” (en France “Parafoudre”). As the name suggests, it protects your computer from the surge of energy that lightening creates. It achieves this by acting as a buffer between the electrical supply – ie the socket – and the appliance. Once installed, you no longer need to dash around the house unplugging everything in a storm, as you can rest-assured that if you are unlucky enough to get hit by lightening it will be your surge protector that takes the blow! They are very easy to install. They look very much like a socket extension, and are used in a very similar way.

Just plug the Surge Protector into the wall, and then plug your computer’s power lead and all it’s accessories power leads into the surge protector. Ensure that all of the plugs are plugged into the Surge Protector sockets at all times, and not directly into the wall socket. If any item – for example, your screen or modem – is plugged into a wall socket, then it is not protected.

Don’t forget your phone!

Lightening damage is not restricted to your electrical supply. You can also sustain damage via the telephone line. All it takes is a small spike of energy to flow down the phone line, and your computer will be damaged.
Therefore, to protect the telephone line as well, you must ensure that your surge protector can do so.
However why stop at computers? You can use these handy devices for all things electrical, plug in your TV, your fridge, and even if you don’t have a computer, you can still plug in your phone too!!!!

Where to buy your surge protector

We stock surge protectors in our shop in Oradour sur Vayres. All our surge protectors offer protection via the electrical supply, and the telephone line. Our price is 39,99€. However, we are not the only shop in the Limousin who sell them! Other places to try include electrical shops, or one of the larger supermarket stores, such as Carrefour or Leclerc.