>[You should allow for up to 6,000V peak (open circuit) for both
>Category A and B transient events; and short circuit currents
>can exceed 500 and 3,000 amperes respectively. In a category B
>event, the rise to 6kV can happen in 1.2 usec.]
>
>If your resistor(s) and whatever else you use can survive that,
>it should be pretty reliable in practice.

Show me a off the shelf commercial use SMPSU or a dimmer that can
withstand that. Or a TV or VCR. 6000V and 500A is in the exploding wire
detonator category land. Rather far inside it afaik. The question is not
whether your parts will take it, the question is, whether you will be able
to identify their remains. Even if nothing bad will happen in the input
the EMP from 500A passing even through the ground lead of the enclosure
will kill many CMOS devices in the box. I think that I am speaking from
experience here.

If I'd have any hint of living in a place whose powergrid allows such
horrors I'd simply pack and move or become a herbalist or something
non-electronic. I remember quite distinctly TVs and VCRs stacked 4 high, 4
wide, and 3 deep in front of a TV repair shop (there was no room left
inside) after a small thunderstorm that hit a powerline. This was a few
years ago. There were no failed lightbulbs though. Not sure about
fluorescent ballasts.

Peter

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