Posted: 7/14/2012 11:32:02 AM EDT
| Lightning hit the power pole in my yard early this mourning and it sounded like a bomb going off. It ran down the pole and blew the cover off of the telephone pedestal it then followed both the phone line and power lines to the house. On the power side when it got to the meter can it blew the meter completely out of the lugs with only two little screws keeping it from falling on the ground. From there it followed the branch circuits out to the shed where it blew my radio apart and melted the connection in a j-box and burned up 3 12 ga cords. It also followed the power line back to the main line where it blew the fuse on the main line about a 1/4 mile away from the strike. On the phone side it follow the phone line until it ran into the house where it was stop by a surge supressor saving my answering machine. While I have internet I still don't have any phone service which I don't understand since my high speed still uses the phone line. All in all it could have been much worst but this event shows what a good qualty surge suppressor can do to protect your equipment. The guys from the power company said they have never seen lightning blow the meter out of the lugs like that and I have never seen a strike like that ever. |
| I do have pics of the radio and cords but not of the meter can the phone guy is here now working on the line. He says he had to go find the break and while typing this he came back and phone is now working. For about 30 to 45 minutes after the strike if you went out side you could feel the charge in the air |
| When I lived in upstate NY I had lighting hit destroy my brand new stereo equipment all the telephones in the house my AC unit got blown up and the well submersible pump got blown to pieces and all that was left when we pulled it up was about a 1/4 of it.Just for clarification not all at the same time ,but through the years. |
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Quoted: Lightning hit the power pole in my yard early this mourning and it sounded like a bomb going off. It ran down the pole and blew the cover off of the telephone pedestal it then followed both the phone line and power lines to the house. On the power side when it got to the meter can it blew the meter completely out of the lugs with only two little screws keeping it from falling on the ground. From there it followed the branch circuits out to the shed where it blew my radio apart and melted the connection in a j-box and burned up 3 12 ga cords. It also followed the power line back to the main line where it blew the fuse on the main line about a 1/4 mile away from the strike. On the phone side it follow the phone line until it ran into the house where it was stop by a surge supressor saving my answering machine. While I have internet I still don't have any phone service which I don't understand since my high speed still uses the phone line. All in all it could have been much worst but this event shows what a good qualty surge suppressor can do to protect your equipment. The guys from the power company said they have never seen lightning blow the meter out of the lugs like that and I have never seen a strike like that ever. I take it my thread last weekend was no interest to you http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1340763_Electricians__should_I_install_a_whole_house_surge_protector__.html |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
Lightning hit the power pole in my yard early this mourning and it sounded like a bomb going off. It ran down the pole and blew the cover off of the telephone pedestal it then followed both the phone line and power lines to the house. On the power side when it got to the meter can it blew the meter completely out of the lugs with only two little screws keeping it from falling on the ground. From there it followed the branch circuits out to the shed where it blew my radio apart and melted the connection in a j-box and burned up 3 12 ga cords. It also followed the power line back to the main line where it blew the fuse on the main line about a 1/4 mile away from the strike. On the phone side it follow the phone line until it ran into the house where it was stop by a surge supressor saving my answering machine. While I have internet I still don't have any phone service which I don't understand since my high speed still uses the phone line. All in all it could have been much worst but this event shows what a good qualty surge suppressor can do to protect your equipment. The guys from the power company said they have never seen lightning blow the meter out of the lugs like that and I have never seen a strike like that ever. I take it my thread last weekend was no interest to you http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1340763_Electricians__should_I_install_a_whole_house_surge_protector__.html I have been going to do that when I get the extra money however the power company said they could put them on for me but in my case they didn't think it would have done any good. |
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Your house ground wasn't very good. Please tell me it wasn't just a cold water pipe. House meets code for when it was built # 6 solid ground from meter to a 8 foot ground rod. And the power pole that got hit as its own ground as well that goes from the top of the pole all the way down to the bottom. |