ESB Power Surge

gillamandango

Based in North Clare. Storm last night had certain houses on the line with no power. Ours was fine, seemed every 2nd house was out. My query is when the engineers were switching it back, the power station is less than half mile from the house; there must have been a power surge. I have lost 2 TVs, a blue ray player, a laptop, the broadband Router and 2 Vodafone TV boxes.

Are the ESB liable for any of this, as it was all working before they switched back everyone else on the line?

Hahaha, no. All of those devices should have been on a surge protector.

How do you know the surge wasn't from the lightning that likely knocked the power out in the first place?

_Kaiser_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121542878#Comment_121542878

Because he says that they didn't actually lose power themselves and all was fine until they restored power to the other houses that did.

Unfortunately though OP, I doubt you've any comeback from the ESB themselves. Maybe call your home insurer but I have a feeling that "act of God" or similar will be used as it'll be very difficult/impossible to prove it was ESB engineers that caused the problem.

gillamandango

Insurance was my 1st call - They laughed more than an imbecile. Not their problem they said. This is a nightmare.

Dav010

Check the switches in your fuse board.

gillamandango

Fuses, Switches, all the usual checked. I know it was a surge that caused it all. My query was, are the ESB liable. Seems like nobody is apart from ourselves.

muffler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121542908#Comment_121542908

Very strange insurers. You can claim in respect of damage caused by a power surge from lightning. No need to mention ESB.

muffler

If it's any help I made a claim about 10 years ago for something very similar. We had a lightning storm which resulted in a TV, Sky box and PS3 console being fried. There was also a PC, monitor, Xbox and Hifi system in the same room but they were unaffected as they were plugged into a surge protected extension lead. I only had to get estimates for the replacements and the insurance company paid out within a couple of days.

tnegun

Are you sure your power is back properly? My folks had similar once and the voltage was too low and lots of devices died as it lasted for a few hours before they realised what had happened. If you've a multimeter check the voltage is in range.

prince20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121542933#Comment_121542933

Hi, sorry to hear about your bad luck. Had a similar issue myself a while back and contacted the ESB on it and they issued me a letter advising that they are not liable. Their view is that their contract is to supply power to the house, its the homeowners liability after that to ensure devices are connected properly.

whippet

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121543126#Comment_121543126

that happened us recently. Affected a few houses nearby. The power to the house was so low that only some devices worked and some things like the ovens threw up mad errors and made unholy noises. I was convinced that a couple of my TVs, Router and other devices were fried until the fault was fixed and all good afterwards

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058328581/esb-power-surge

Did anybody else have damaged equipment in the immediate area?

I had an indirect lightening strike this year, lost a large TV, Virgin media box, PC, monitor and lots of networking equipment (so I feel for you), but our insurer was ready to pay for it except the excess of EUR 250 and the increased premiums for 3 or 4 years was not going to make a claim worthwhile. I calculated that we needed to be claiming more than 1,700 EUR to make it worthwhile.

muffler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121543167#Comment_121543167

Not wishing to drag this off topic but I had the same dilemma regarding the excess and increase in premium. Before claiming I discussed this with a local broker and they indicated that given the low amount of the claim (about 1250) there shouldn't be any great difficulty. So when my renewal came around I moved to another insurer and actually got cover for a bit less than I paid the previous year. And yes, I fully disclosed the details of the claim to the new insurer. Hopefully that helps the OP or anyone else reading that finds themselves in a similar situation.

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121543290#Comment_121543290

Yes, fair point - and again not wishing to bring this off-topic either - but it put me in a position where I had to consider making a false claim on the amount of damage inflicted just to bring the claim sum over the mark. I know others wouldn't think twice about it, but it's dishonest at the end of the day.

gillamandango

Thanks for all the replies, appreciate the suggestions/input.

Insurance definitely doesn't cover it - Agent and Supervisor (Zurich) confirmed it - not included in General Household Insurance.

Everything (Faults) has been restored here since about 2am, but called ESB Networks again and all they could do is log a complaint/fault and someone would get back to me in the new year, maybe. It seems all I can do is keep chasing ESB Networks.

The damage is in excess of €4k

coylemj

OP, it looks like you have fallen between two stools here. The problem is that the damage was caused by a third party (the ESB) when they were reconnecting the street and you got hit with a surge. So your damage was not directly caused by the lightning, it was an after-effect. Which is giving Zurich the out, their attitude is probably that you need to sue the ESB for negligence. But I suspect that the EBS are well protected by legislation which indemnifies them in this type of situation.

Had your equipment been knocked out during the storm, my reading of the contents cover provided by Zurich says that you would have been covered. Because, under 'what is covered', it says: 'Fire, smoke, lightning, explosion or earthquake'.

There is also a section (13) which covers accidental damage while in the home to 'Audio TV and video equipment' but the excusions include 'electrical breakdown'. It doesn't state if the breakdown applies inside and/or outside the home, it looks like a grey area to me.

I can't understand how you lost a laptop in a power surge - a laptop is not directly connected to the mains. Surely the AC adpater took the hit but the laptop survived?