How Much of a Hazard is Lightning to My AC?

We’ve had quite a bit of lightning filled storms in the area this spring and summer. With lightning brings certain hazards for our home. A lightning storm is not your air conditioners or any of your other electronics friend. Lightning can strike your house or the transformer causing power surges that cause major issues with your electronics. When a power surge comes through, it can cause damage to the capacitor or even melt it. If your capacitor blows and you don’t get it fixed you risk having your compressor blow too. Capacitors are only a couple hundred dollars and easy to replace but once your compressor fries, that is way more expensive and damage causing. Lightning can also burn wires and fry fan motors. When you suspect a power surge hit your home have a HVAC technician come out to inspect and fix it. Power surges typically will damage more than just one appliance of yours at a time. What you can do to help prevent your air conditioning system from getting damaged in power surges is to turn the unit off at the thermostat during a lightning storm because the AC is only susceptible to surges while running. You can also get a surge protector which will protect many of your electronics. Bartlett Heating and Air sells surge protectors should you need one. If your air conditioner was damaged by a lightning storm, your home owners insurance can typically cover it. Make sure you document all the damage by writing down the date and time and also taking photos if you can. Call Bartlett Heating and Air to diagnose all your heating and cooling issues.