Lighting hits are killing me

[Spirited-6]

I have had two lightings hits in the last two weeks that have some what whipped me out. All phones , Computer, Garage Door Opener, Celing fans, Home Sec Systm., any thing that needs " JUICE " I don`t know what to do to stop these lighting hits. Any one have a "FIX" ?????

[..]

Lightning conductor on the roof

http://www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_lhm/lpts.html

[The Anvil]

Depending on where you take the hit a lightning arrestor installed in the electrical system can save your stuff. You can also install a diverter rod to draw it away from whatever is being struck. High quality power conditioners also protect well against lightning damage.

[Jay]

That's not good.  A co-worker had some electronics taken out by lightening.
Maybe time to remove the aluminum foil hat.

[Ice]

For your Puter and stuff as such you can use surge protectors to keep them from getting fried, at least thats what I am told, never had the misfortune of lightning hitting my house.. as for the rest I think the rest of the folks are right lightning rod/deflector....

[Oss]

i found these online

seems pretty inexpensive

There is stuff for your main electrical panel, stuff for the broadband, telephone and of course you have
your basic lightning rod

http://www.google.com/search?hl=&q=whole+house+lightning+surge+protection&sourceid=navclient-ff&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS249US314&ie=UTF-8&aq=1h&oq=whole+

http://www.amazon.com/LIGHTNING-PROTECTOR-Spike-Ender-Suppressor-replacement/dp/B003Z9S974

A few years back there was a book about what would happen if an EMP was generated by a nuke in the atmosphere   book was ONE SECOND AFTER ?    Faraday cages were discussed  then  Who remembers
that?   http://survivalcache.com/book-review-one-second-after-survival-emp/

no comment on the web site  It just came up when I googled book about emp attack

[BigAl]

Since this has apparently not always been the case I am taking.

Your grounding rod that is mandatory at all homes electrically.

Yes we all have a grounding rod at our homes.

It is near my electrical box on the back of my house.

It may be that the wire attaching this to your ground side for surges is loose.

Or for some reason your ground rod is broken not too far down in the ground.

Get an electricain to check it or install a new grounding rod.

I have seen this happen on a lot of homes and this was a story that an electrician friend told me about as well.

[hubcapsc]

Or for some reason your ground rod is broken not too far down in the ground.

I've heard stories about people cutting their ground rods down real short so they
wouldn't be so hard to pound in  ??? it looks the same after you're done...

-Mike

[The Anvil]

Or for some reason your ground rod is broken not too far down in the ground.

I've heard stories about people cutting their ground rods down real short so they
wouldn't be so hard to pound in  ??? it looks the same after you're done...

-Mike

That practice has become so common around here that many electrical inspectors now insist upon being present for the driving of the ground rod.

[Spirited-6]

For your Puter and stuff as such you can use surge protectors to keep them from getting fried, at least thats what I am told, never had the misfortune of lightning hitting my house.. as for the rest I think the rest of the folks are right lightning rod/deflector....

Thanks GUYS.
Ice, I had surge protectors on all things that were fried. At $10-11 dollars a pop, seems they are not worth carrying home.   I have had four strikes in the last ten years that took out a lot of stuff. I had a electricain check all in house wiring, grounding,ect. Found nothing wrong with wireing and grounds. I guess I need to ask Mother Nature what I did wrong.    

It seems that I keep finding things that don`t work.;;;; I found that last night my wife still does.

[Stanley Steamer]

I found that last night my wife still does.

That's cause they run on DC current!!.......

[FryeVRCCDS0067]

Or for some reason your ground rod is broken not too far down in the ground.

I've heard stories about people cutting their ground rods down real short so they
wouldn't be so hard to pound in  ??? it looks the same after you're done...

-Mike

Yep. And the truth is, it's very easy to do it right and you don't need a hammer. At least not around here.

I just put an 8' ground rod in last year for my shop service. Dig a small hole about 8" deep. Fill it with water and start working your ground rod up and down in it. As the rod goes deeper just keep pulling it out and adding more water as what you have in the hole soaks into the ground.

I sunk the entire 8' ground rod into the ground with the top 5 or 6 inches below grade in less than an hour this way. Here is a link about it.
http://www.cosjwt.com/index.php?a=16

Honest, it sounds like BS but it works great.

[The Anvil]

Or for some reason your ground rod is broken not too far down in the ground.

I've heard stories about people cutting their ground rods down real short so they
wouldn't be so hard to pound in  ??? it looks the same after you're done...

-Mike

Yep. And the truth is, it's very easy to do it right and you don't need a hammer. At least not around here.

I just put an 8' ground rod in last year for my shop service. Dig a small hole about 8" deep. Fill it with water and start working your ground rod up and down in it. As the rod goes deeper just keep pulling it out and adding more water as what you have in the hole soaks into the ground.

I sunk the entire 8' ground rod into the ground with the top 5 or 6 inches below grade in less than an hour this way. Here is a link about it.
http://www.cosjwt.com/index.php?a=16

Honest, it sounds like BS but it works great.

It can be a bitch around here because a lot of our soil is very rocky. Most people use a rotary hammer with a special driver attachment and even then you may hit a big rock and have to take it out and start over.

[Valkernaut]

Than ground rod that you drive in has nothing to do with lightening protection. It's there as part of your AC service from the power company. I have been wondering, for years, why they stopped the practice of putting lightening rods on our homes. It gave the current involved a path to travel rather than thru our appliances and our house wiring! The only true statement about the direction of travel of lightening is that it travels from negative to positive....

Jim

[Rams]

There's been quite a bit of lightning strikes recently in this area.  I know of two barnes and one home that were burnt to the ground by lightning strikes and at my work, two of the three A/C units on the roof have been taken out by lightning two weeks ago. 

[longrider]

you could look into a inexpensive UPS for your critical systems.  the power delivered to them comes off a battery.  line voltage charges the UPS battery.  Your electronics will be safe from spikes.

warren

[hubcapsc]

Or for some reason your ground rod is broken not too far down in the ground.

I've heard stories about people cutting their ground rods down real short so they
wouldn't be so hard to pound in  ??? it looks the same after you're done...

-Mike

Yep. And the truth is, it's very easy to do it right and you don't need a hammer. At least not around here.

I just put an 8' ground rod in last year for my shop service. Dig a small hole about 8" deep. Fill it with water and start working your ground rod up and down in it. As the rod goes deeper just keep pulling it out and adding more water as what you have in the hole soaks into the ground.

I sunk the entire 8' ground rod into the ground with the top 5 or 6 inches below grade in less than an hour this way. Here is a link about it.
http://www.cosjwt.com/index.php?a=16

Honest, it sounds like BS but it works great.

  ...So long as you do not hit solid rock,

or baked South Carolina red clay 

I tried that a couple of times... pounding them in with t-post (fence post) drivers is
what works for me.



-Mike

[Gryphon]

We get a lot of lightning around here.  The majority of the houses in this town have lightning rods and good grounding rods deep into the ground.  They seem to work.  Of course Maryville is the home of one of the oldest lightning rod manufacturers in the country.  Also home of the Lightning Protection Institute.  You might check out their website for additional information about lightning protection. 

*no affilliation with either facility other than sharing a zip code.


http://robbinslightning.com/
http://www.lightning.org/

[Gryphon]

Yep. And the truth is, it's very easy to do it right and you don't need a hammer. At least not around here.

I just put an 8' ground rod in last year for my shop service. Dig a small hole about 8" deep. Fill it with water and start working your ground rod up and down in it. As the rod goes deeper just keep pulling it out and adding more water as what you have in the hole soaks into the ground.

I sunk the entire 8' ground rod into the ground with the top 5 or 6 inches below grade in less than an hour this way. Here is a link about it.
http://www.cosjwt.com/index.php?a=16

Honest, it sounds like BS but it works great.

I've used this method in Oklahoma in July and it works great.  I cheated a bit and cut the bottom out of an empty 2 liter bottle, turned it upside down like a long funnel, and ran the rod through the opening.  I had the wife keeping pouring water into the bottle while I worked the rod up and down and drove it in, by hand, in less than 20 minutes.  Used a hammer for the last 6 inches.  I wouldn't have believed it would work until I saw it in person.

[Valkernaut]

Than ground rod that you drive in has nothing to do with lightening protection. It's there as part of your AC service from the power company. I have been wondering, for years, why they stopped the practice of putting lightening rods on our homes. It gave the current involved a path to travel rather than thru our appliances and our house wiring! The only true statement about the direction of travel of lightening is that it travels from negative to positive....

Jim

actually, not quite true. AC service ground, true to a degree...not going to provide much "lightning protection"...grounds for towers, satellite dishes, TV antenna, etc....grounding for lightning protection critical. While the ground obviously isn't going to "protect" you from being struck, it's purpose...is to mitigate damage ONCE YOU DO get struck....directly or indirectly. A GOOD ground will dissipate some or much of the strike energy...depnding on MANY factors. (i want to state again, in the case of a DIRECT strike...you're typically going to have some damage...as it's VERY difficult to design against damage from a DIRECT strike...difficult AND EXPENSIVE!)

Anyway, as an Electrical Engineer and a Tactical Comm Officer in the Air Force, i was tasked to do Enigneering studies on grounding and equipment protection for ALL comm equipment used in the Tactical Comm arena of the AF. Lightning strikes were a big problem for Tactically deployed equipment. Unlike PERMANENTLY installed comm equipment, which typically are engineered to have GOOD grounding systems and some lightning protection....deployed comm doesn't have the benefit of permanent structures and protection. So we went to Camp Blanding in FL where they have a facility that DELIBERATELY induces lightning strikes....and tested for several years with ALL different ground and protection schemes. The deeper the ground rod....the more surface area....the more mitigation of lightining strike damage. it's when you get that DIFFERENCE in poetential that you commonly get damage to your stuff!

http://www.solacity.com/Grounding.htm

Above is a farily good article i found. Note at the END of the article...last paragraph...they talk about tying ALL grounds TOGETHER to reduce the difference in potential between different grounds (AC, satlellite, TV, cable, phone, etc.)

Just added info:http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070328082942AAQ6Kdf

[hubcapsc]

When i was a Tactical Comm Officer, we used a device that drove them in.....i think it was called a pungar...basically like a demolition hammer or heavy duty impact hammer with an attachment that fit over the end of the ground rod. That baby would drive thru ANYTHING. we'd be out on the edge of the runway....and drive thru asphalt....rock....whatever!

I was stymied by my first ground rod. I started trying to pound in the six foot long ground rod from
the bed of my pickup truck with a five pound sledge... after about two seconds it became clear to me
that that wasn't getting me anywhere... I didn't know about post drivers (and probably would have
questioned spending $20 on one) so I looked around... I formed a tube from an old sheet of V-crimp,
and used the tube and the tamping-end of my father's old digging bar to to make a sort of ersatz
pile driver... drove it most of the way in with that, and when there was only a foot or so sticking out
I was able to pound it the rest of the way in with the sledge...



-Mike "never seen a single episode of MacGyver

[Valkernaut]

If all of that current(electrons) that is talked about at that link in my previous post that wants to go up to a cloud after that feeler that it sends down "hunting" electrons - you need a lightening(at least one with a sharp point on it) on your roof, tied thru a heavy braided copper line to a good ground, cause those electrons are gonna go up to that cloud to equalize the positive charge on it(+ charge is a deficiency of electrons and our ground is full of negative electrons. They will take the path of least resistance - either thru your lightening rod system OR thru your electronic gear/ house wiring to get there....go to that link & check it out - few posts up the page....& it STILL may go thru your electronics in parallel with the grounding system....