Before the Storm: 10 Ways to Protect Your Home Tech

On the Gulf Coast, storm season isn't a matter of if. It's a matter of when. And when the storm comes, the damage that sneaks up on most homeowners isn't the water or the wind. It's the electronics. A nearby lightning strike, the jolt when the power comes back on, days of generator power: any one of them can quietly take out the TVs, cameras, internet, and sound system you rely on every day.

The good news? You don't need to be a "tech person" to protect your home. Here are the first five things we tell every homeowner before a storm.

1. Is Your Power Strip Just a Glorified Splitter?

Here's the surprise: a lot of the "surge protectors" behind TVs and desks aren't surge protectors at all. A basic power strip is just a glorified splitter. It turns one outlet into several. It often comes out of the same mold as a real surge protector, so they look almost identical, but it offers no protection at all.

How to tell the difference: a real surge protector has a light that says "protected" and a reset button. Take a look behind your equipment today. If you don't see that light, it's time to swap it out. And when you buy one, check the joule rating (a measure of how much surge energy it can absorb) and make sure it's a good match for the equipment you're plugging into it.

2. Know What Fails First: Anything Wired to the Outside

The gear most likely to fail in a storm is anything tethered to wiring that runs outside your home. That wire acts like an antenna, pulling the surge right into your equipment.

At the top of the list:

• Cable and satellite boxes, connected straight to outside lines.

• Security cameras. Their wiring is spread out all over your property, so there's more surface area to catch a surge. On top of that, cameras have small, low-voltage circuit boards and sensitive network jacks.

• Internet modems and routers. The copper coaxial (coax) cable coming in from outside acts like an antenna too.

TVs come next, and older TVs are more vulnerable because they've absorbed years of small surges. Gate and garage door openers, interestingly, rarely fail. They're built tough.

3. Unplugging: The Catch-22 (and What's Worth Unplugging)

The best protection there is? Unplug everything completely. But let's be honest: that's drastic, and it can defeat the purpose. Your cameras are off right when you want to check on your home, and your TV is dark when you need the weather report. Unplugging can hurt as much as losing the equipment. That's the catch-22.

So if you're staying home, be selective. If you're evacuating, or you just want peace of mind, these are worth unplugging:

• Your computer

• Your internet router and modem (use your phone's cell data in the meantime)

• Your camera recorder, the network video recorder (NVR) or digital video recorder (DVR)

• Laptops and their chargers

4. Generators: Not All Power Is Created Equal

A generator keeps the lights on, but the power it makes isn't always gentle on your electronics. Loud portable gas generators produce "dirty power." That's fine for brute tools like saws and drills. But for sensitive electronics like your dishwasher, refrigerator, computers, and sound system, it can do damage. Instead of a smooth, steady flow, it's like jerking the power around, pulling it left and right.

What you want is "true sine wave" power, a smooth, clean current. Built-in whole-house standby generators usually provide it. If you're shopping for a portable unit, look for an inverter generator: it's quieter and produces true sine wave power.

Our rule of thumb: unless you have a big, quality battery backup or an inverter generator, don't run sensitive electronics on generator power for long.

5. Take Two Minutes of Photos Before You Evacuate

This one isn't required, and installed equipment is pretty obvious to an insurance adjuster. But if you have expensive or sensitive gear, the total can easily add up past your deductible. That makes a few quick photos worth it, especially if you're evacuating.

After a storm, especially a flood, life gets chaotic. It's hard to remember exactly what you had, let alone model numbers and serial numbers. Walk through your home and snap your TVs, your equipment rack, your cameras, and the labels on the back. That documentation makes it much easier when we prepare your insurance paperwork.