Last week the electricity supplier decided to replace all the feeder cables to our location. We had been told that the supply would be off for 8 hours and that we should switch off everything exept fridge/freezers and a light. At 1630 there was 3 loud explosions in my house and the TV in the bedroom along with the freeview box was on fire. 12 items were damaged including my new plasma tv and dvd recorder. Most of the equipment was switched off but not un-plugged. 80 homes were affected. A company called Haste ( superb company) turned up and got the central heating on line at 1030 and then took all the equipment away and returned fixed within 48 hours. They said that this happens quite often and sometimes there is a surge up the neutral line which is not always switched. The worry is that if you are out and there is a power failure it could happen again. I have fitted surge suppressors but I doubt if they will help, as next doors had them and they to were destroyed. Finally the head engineer from the supply company said that we have replaced the 4 wire 3 phase with a twisted single 4 wire cable and when power is restored it often takes out cordless telephones and digital equipment and there is nothing we can do about it. Thats progress I guess.