Protecting against lightning

[vito]

I know that a direct strike will wipe out electronics among other things, but I'm thinking about coming up with some protection against a more distant lightning strike that would enter my home through electric lines, cable TV line, etc. and ruin expensive items. My daughter had a lightning strike in her front yard and several big ticket items plus some of her house wiring is not ruined, making me think I better protect myself. I'm not sure what it would cost to have an electrician install a whole house surge protector, or if maybe some plug in the wall surge protectors would be enough. Then there is the option of buying battery back up devices to plus my TV's, computer and some other stuff into, but that also seems like it would be an expensive project. Any advice on this whole issue?

 

[Kevin]

On my computer I've always used a UPS (uninterrupted power supply) Only the computer and monitor get plugged into it. They aren't so expensive, and protect against surges and then when the power goes off, I can save what I'm working on and then safely shut down my computer.

APC is a good brand, right now I have one called Cyber power, it's 600 watts.

 

[woodsy]

I installed a "whole-house" surge suppressor. It is one of those "intelligent" devices which continually "watches" the current going through the system. Made by Siemens. I installed it myself because I had a two-pole circuit available in my "box". Easy enough for me to do, but a service charge by an electrician would be well worth it. This after several neighbors and friends had their fridges and stoves ruined by lightning strikes. PLUS, I have a separate similar (cheap) device (from Staples) plugged into my "tap-A-line" for my computer and printer.

 

[Fox Mike]

I know this might sound foolish but what about something simple like a lightening rod.

 

[Pat-inCO]

I know this might sound foolish but what about something simple like a lightening rod.

Boy if THAT isn't a lead in . . . . .

The place I had for thirty years in CO was close spaced with several others. Being
"one of those guys (Ham Radio)", I put up a 28 foot tall vertical antenna. Realizing
that lightning DOES happen in CO, I hooked up two ground lines, one to the front
(that was comoned with the city water line), and one to the back to an eight foot
ground rod. - - - I think it was late that Summer that a MAJOR lightning storm hit.
I was in the back patio and everything turned white, then came back to full color.
Huge BOOM!

Went and looked out the front window and saw a bunch of wood clutter all over
the street. Also saw the cross the street neighbor standing in a puddle of water
(raining like mad) looking at his tree.

It turned out he had a lightning strike hit his tree. Blew out a four inch wide swath
down the side of the tree, wiped out his TV, stereo, refrigerator, and electric stove.
Not to mention several small appliances.

I had ZERO damage, and the strike was about 100 feet away. - - - Difference was
the 28 foot tall lightning rod on my roof, and some excellent grounding. It turns out
a lightning rod is NOT to take the lightning strike to ground but rather to bleed off
the static charge in the ground around your house.

A number of studies have shown that the lightning strike come, initially, from the
ground, then the strong portion of it returns on the path established by the ground
to cloud initial ionization.

P.S. I went and looked the next day (no clouds, dry, sunshine) and there was a
hole about four or five inches in diameter that went WAY down from where the
strike hit.

 

[blume357]

Not sure I can answer the initial question about a surge, but it sounds like the idea of the uninterrupted power supply might work. As for the big strikes you have to realize they are just a discharge of static electricity ..... lighting rods or lighting protection is designed to dissipate the charge before it gets too big... three times in my life I've had the experience of personally helping with that 'smaller' discharge.

 

[ronto]

I saw lightning strike a cedar tree on my neighbors property and it went up like a torch and started a fire that almost got to his barn. After that I removed all cedar trees from my property. Damage to electronics is not the only danger of lightning strikes.

 

[ptypegreen]

There are whole house surge arresters the plug into a two space open spot in your circuit breaker box. There is nothing that will protect anything in the path of a direct lightening strike. Anything that will blow a 4" wide swath thru a tree is going to fry anything in its path. The whole house and plug in arresters will hopefully protect against any side current surges.

 

[blume357]

During a big boomer many years ago lighting hit the over hundred foot Poplar tree about 40 ft from our house... it split the critter right down the middle... but here is the interesting part.... some of this is speculation on my part... but the top 30ft of the tree landed on our roof about 10 seconds after the lightning strike..... do the math... it could not fall over on the roof.. What happened was the lighting super charged the water in the tree and it exploded showing the top of the tree up in the air and then when it came down it landed on the house. Now that I think about it I'm going to post a picture below... about 35 years ago I went to a house to access the damage to the chimney from a lightning strike (have seen a number since then) but this was my first and it is still the one I remember most.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

Lightning is very unpredictable. It can come into your house on power lines or from your roof or from trees around your house. We had lightning strike a pine tree in the front yard and travel through the roots and onto the outdoor lighting. It blew out the timer and got on the door bell wiring. It went into the attic and started a small fire. So Florida has lightning storms every summer evening. We are the lightning capitol of the world.

I am happy now that our power lines were recently put underground. One less thing to worry about.

 

[vito]

I think for now I will just buy a couple of plug in surge protectors from Amazon that can accommodate up to 12 plug ins. I'll put one in my bedroom for the computer, printer, flatscreen and cable box and the other in the living room for my newer flatscreen and stereo set up. At $40 per protector I'll have some protection for the main electronics in my home for the remote chance of a power surge.

 

[Paul B]

I had a lightning strike somewhat close to the house last week that cause a power blip, just enough to shut my TV down. Power came back or literally in less than a second and the green light on the TV started blinking indicating the fan was cooling the TV. About two or three seconds later the power went out completely for about five minutes. Probably should have fried the lamp but I checked by removing it and checking visually. When that lamp turns toes up it looks like a gnarly shriveled up piece of glass. With that checking out OK, I turned the TV one. Nothing. Deader than a doornail. I've called five different TV repair places with, "We can't come to the phone right now, please leave a message as the beep." It's been a week and not one singe repair place have bothered to call back. I only use the thing to watch movies from my DVD collection but now spend way more time on this computer. Guess my question is this. Are they so busy they can't check their phone or are they just too damn lazy to want to work. Maybe they're getting all that free money.
Paul B.

 

[wheelgun1958]

Faraday cage?

 

[vito]

I had a lightning strike somewhat close to the house last week that cause a power blip, just enough to shut my TV down. Power came back or literally in less than a second and the green light on the TV started blinking indicating the fan was cooling the TV. About two or three seconds later the power went out completely for about five minutes. Probably should have fried the lamp but I checked by removing it and checking visually. When that lamp turns toes up it looks like a gnarly shriveled up piece of glass. With that checking out OK, I turned the TV one. Nothing. Deader than a doornail. I've called five different TV repair places with, "We can't come to the phone right now, please leave a message as the beep." It's been a week and not one singe repair place have bothered to call back. I only use the thing to watch movies from my DVD collection but now spend way more time on this computer. Guess my question is this. Are they so busy they can't check their phone or are they just too damn lazy to want to work. Maybe they're getting all that free money.
Paul B.

I didn't know that there were still "TV repairmen" in existence. I've only had one flatscreen go bad, where one day the left half of the screen was black but the right half seemed to be working just fine. That 46 inch Samsung went into the trash and was replaced with a 50 inch that cost less than half of what the first one cost. Now I have a 65 inch in the living room, which my wife hates saying it is just too damn big, but if a lightning strike killed that one I think I would be tempted to go REALLY big, like 85 inches (but that might be risking a divorce!).

 

[toysoldier]

It doesn't have to be a direct hit to get damage. My parents had to replace the $200 computer panel in their furnace twice because of nearby hits.

 

[toysoldier]

P.S. I went and looked the next day (no clouds, dry, sunshine) and there was a
hole about four or five inches in diameter that went WAY down from where the
strike hit.

You should have dug it up. There was probably a nice fulgurite.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgurite