# What is the best and cheapest way to protect the Core from lightning? **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Created:** [March 23, 2014, 12:19am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/what-is-the-best-and-cheapest-way-to-protect-the-core-from-lightning/3576 "2014-03-23T00:19:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Daisuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@Daisuke](https://community.particle.io/u/Daisuke)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2014, 12:19am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/what-is-the-best-and-cheapest-way-to-protect-the-core-from-lightning/3576/1 "2014-03-23T00:19:46Z")
Hi I will stay in South East Asia , there often has lightning. I am afraid it brakes SparkCore. What is the best and cheapest way to protect to SparkCore? Thanks, Daisuke ---
**Author:** ![kennethlimcp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c0e974/32.png) [@kennethlimcp](https://community.particle.io/u/kennethlimcp)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2014, 5:20am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/what-is-the-best-and-cheapest-way-to-protect-the-core-from-lightning/3576/2 "2014-03-23T05:20:47Z")
@Daisuke, I’m not sure about the place you are living but most places have lightning protection on houses. Also, if you use a reliable 5V USB power supply to your :spark: core, there’s built in surge protection so no worries about lightning. Maybe you are talking about having the :spark: core project placed outside your house? I’m going to recommend an IPX5 plastic enclosure with protection against water/rain. I used one previously for my project during my high school days and it’s awesome! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![timb](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/timb/32/1913_2.png) [@timb](https://community.particle.io/u/timb)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2014, 6:48am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/what-is-the-best-and-cheapest-way-to-protect-the-core-from-lightning/3576/3 "2014-03-23T06:48:52Z")
@kennethlimcp I don’t know where you’re living, but here in the US pretty much no houses have lightning protection… Whole-Home Surge Breakers are an expensive add-on and only cover the AC system. Lightning strikes can also be coupled into your home wiring via POTS (analog telephone lines) and cable TV/Internet lines: Cordless phones, fax machines, modems, DirecTV boxes, cable boxes, TVs, routers, etc. all connect to these sources and your home’s AC. Oh, there’s also older homes with copper water pipes which can sneak it in via washing machines, dishwashers and even grounding straps. Basically the only thing “protecting” your home from lightning strikes is the metal rod that’s driven into the ground close to where the AC comes into your house. The telephone, cable, water and gas lines will also generally connect to this (or another rod if it’s a separate run), but said rod is generally only connected by a small gauge copper cable and only protects against _direct strikes_. If the power/telephone pole out on the road gets hit, that’s coming in, no question. Also, I’ve never really seen a 5V USB supply with a surge protector built-in. Do you have more info on that? @Daisuke Just get a good quality surge protector to plug your USB adaptor into and you’ll be fine. I don’t know about where you’re at, but here hardware stores and any place that sells TVs or electronics sell them. Most of the time they will have 5 or 6 outlets on them and also have inputs for coaxial cable and telephones. Ignore the joule rating and go for the one with the fastest response time! Let me know if you need me to post some examples or places to buy online and I’ll see if I can find links. 😄 ---
**Author:** ![kennethlimcp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c0e974/32.png) [@kennethlimcp](https://community.particle.io/u/kennethlimcp)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2014, 7:13am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/what-is-the-best-and-cheapest-way-to-protect-the-core-from-lightning/3576/4 "2014-03-23T07:13:49Z")
Come to Singapore and stay 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Daisuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@Daisuke](https://community.particle.io/u/Daisuke)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2014, 8:21am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/what-is-the-best-and-cheapest-way-to-protect-the-core-from-lightning/3576/5 "2014-03-23T08:21:46Z")
@kennethlimcp Are you Singaporian? I will go there next week. I may install my Core to houses in Singapore. All house are protected in Singapore? ---
**Author:** ![kennethlimcp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c0e974/32.png) [@kennethlimcp](https://community.particle.io/u/kennethlimcp)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2014, 8:38am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/what-is-the-best-and-cheapest-way-to-protect-the-core-from-lightning/3576/6 "2014-03-23T08:38:49Z")
Wow what is this that you are selling? Yeah im Singaporean indeed 😃 So far, we seldom have issues why lightning though we here are super prone to lightnings. Like what @timb said, the lightning goes through the conducting rod down to ground. I remember that there’s only once in 23 years of my life that lightning caused some issues to my house electricity where the TV got affected and the colours changed. We don’t use a surge protection adaptor really and good commercial product’s power supply have surge protection in built. So I never had any issues besides those power supplies for unreliable products… I believe if you use USB adaptor from brands like samsu_g…ap_ple… its going to protect against surge and suppress it. @timb you’re more experienced in this so correct me if this is incorrect 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Daisuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@Daisuke](https://community.particle.io/u/Daisuke)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2014, 11:50am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/what-is-the-best-and-cheapest-way-to-protect-the-core-from-lightning/3576/7 "2014-03-23T11:50:16Z")
@kennethlimcp Note. Thank you gave me nice info. ---
**Author:** ![kennethlimcp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c0e974/32.png) [@kennethlimcp](https://community.particle.io/u/kennethlimcp)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2014, 1:29pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/what-is-the-best-and-cheapest-way-to-protect-the-core-from-lightning/3576/8 "2014-03-23T13:29:56Z")
There’s this adapter with USB port and surge protection [http://store.apple.com/us\_smb\_78313/product/HA702VC/B/belkin-1-outlet-surge-protector-with-21a-usb-charging](http://store.apple.com/us_smb_78313/product/HA702VC/B/belkin-1-outlet-surge-protector-with-21a-usb-charging)