Parafoudre?

Does anyone have any info on how difficult it is to fit a parafoudre to your fuse box? Am wondering whether it is a specialised job for an electrician or can a layman do it? My general understanding is that it is a good investment and worth the money spent on it.



Any info or opinions would be much appreciated.



Many thanks

We have an industrial grade surge arrestor across the input to our "fusebox" courtesey of a friend that used to sell them. We did get hit by lightning nearby a few years back and the entire contents of the surge arrestor were destroyed but nothing in the house was affected. When I swapped out the old unit for a new one, there was a dark outline around where it had been fitted and a shower of black dust came out. It got replaced by an identical unit that it is still going fine.

I don't just rely on that unit though, all of the PCs that I work on are protected by UPSs with built in surge protection, one of which also protects the phone line.

Good timing. We had a severe storm last night. There was obviously a hit locally because we went out for several hours. Because a neighbour and I have night respirators for apnoea and an elderly woman has some other kind of medical equipment, we have a lightning arrester down the line. The commune arranged it. It is a priority line. We have a very good electrician we use and asked his advice beforehand. He said that anything before the circuit breaker is EDF's. Despite what people say, installing a parafoudre after the EDF trip switch but before the fusebox is rather pointless because the circuit will be broken anyway. In fact, despite the lightning arrester, the circuit breaker popped and once the supply returned all I had to do was press the trip switch and all was restored.

Anyway, when we had the advice from our electrician he said not to try it myself because the insurance company would not be happy if ever receiving a claim when no warranty from a registered installer is available.