Yes... and no.

A friend living two blocks away has had many power problems, destroying at one time or another just about everything in his house that uses electricity, despite a heavy-duty whole-house surge protection system.

He is on a different power main than I am, and thinks that his problems are related to a bad transformer. His many complaints to the power company have proven to be fruitless.

The power main that I am on is relatively new, about three years old. A 23,000 volt power line runs up my street, less than four feet from the side of my house, to a transformer about 50 feet away. My house painter won't paint the top floor of that wall, too dangerous. I am first in line for receiving power from the transformer.

The power pole with the transformer is not an obvious target for lightning. It is nestled up against the base of the mountain and there are plenty of objects higher in the air than the top of that pole. The highest part of my house is probably 20 feet lower.

In all the time I have been here, I have not had any electrical problems. By Mexican standards, my electrical system is preposterously overbuilt. On the fourth floor alone (my part of the house) there are 12 circuit breakers controlling output in what is essentially three rooms and a deck. A Mexican lady in my kayak club was amazed to hear that, she thought her home was well protected having four breakers for the entire house.

Attached are some photos showing the transformer, the wires by my house, and a picture showing the lineman when the new lines were being installed. I think I posted that picture here once before.

tanstaafl.