Posted: 7/15/2005 5:37:51 PM EDT
Lightning struck the ground in the woods behind my house during a tropical storm on July 4. I had a surge protector on my electric meter and APC power protectors on all my electronic equipment. The surge still damaged the House Alarm system panel, numerous alarm sensors, a TV, DirecTV receiver, DirecTV Tivo receiver, cordless phone, computer modem, scanner, network card, sound card, speakers and network switch. I am still finding stuff in the house that does not work.  I thank God that it did not hit my house. Someone in my town had a direct hit to their house and it melted all the wiring insulation in the house.
|
|
Lightning is strange stuff. Even a near-miss can induce tremendous voltages in nearby wiring, pipes, rain gutters, etc. It's Mother Nature's own EMP weapon!  I had a longwire antenna in my back yard that used to arc across the insulators whenever lightning struck nearby. Back in the old days, the bells in telephones would "ding" during near-misses. |
|
Two days ago we were out fishing in the ocean about 1-2 miles off the beach, we had to run into the leading edge of a large t-storm to get back in the inlet as the storm was rapidly approaching. There was alot of lightning bolts striking the water within a few miles of our position, in addition to lost of wind, kicked up waves and sideways rain. We were hauling ass to get back to port when I get a nasty tinlge thru my right hand(it was on the throttle), and a microsecond later I saw the lightning flash in the near(few miles) distance. It was a pretty juicy shock. when we got home the neighbor were watching the storm from inside the garage. I had one hand resting overhead holding on the the metal supports on the back of the garage door, when I got shocked again. 
|
|
Good reasons to invest in quality surge protection - Not because it does anything to protect your gear, but because of the no fault insurance attached to most of them. Wouldn't help the house wiring though. Yikes. Nothing will freak you out like being on the top of a mountain when suddenly all the shale around you starts buzzing. I think I may have beat my running from mama bear time on that one. |
|
Still digging out at work from a storm Wed. afternoon. Cable modems, routers, TV's, Fire and Alarm system panels. Took out three digital port cards in our PBX phone sytstem at $1600 per card. It set off the battery only (9V) smoke detectors in one building?!?!?! We get hit three or four times a year. Sometimes spectacular results with components literally BLOWN off circuit boards and other times nothing visable, just that things no longer work. I remember my grandmothers phone getting Blown Up, I mean basically GONE from a storm in the '50's. Set the curtains on fire and scorched the wallpaper all around the stand the phone was sitting on. Mother Nature, especially Lightening, is nothing to mess with. |
I had forgotten all about this until you mentioned it. I remember as a kid growing up on the Texas plains, when the sky would turn green, then grey, and then black. The lightning would come before the rain and hail. I would sit on the porch until I got scared.  Anyway, I do remember that now. The phones giving a slight rrrring when the lightning would hit close by. Thanks Skibane. TC |
| We do about two dozen lightning jobs a year and the only thing that is close to bullet proof for lightning is the battery back up stuff. UPS, uninteruptable power supply. We did a house three years ago and the only thing that survived was two computers that were plugged into these, this included the homes wiring. Joe |
|
I had a hit on my house 2 winters ago. (and it's rare to have lightning storms here) The noise/shock was unbelievable...! It blew about a 6" X 20" hole in roof-------------hit a junction box in roof---------melted all the wiring in that room------------blew out the wall switch (it was 3ft away!)-----------traveled down the wall splintering 3 studs-------then exiting and blowing a 6" dia hole in the wall. It started the insulation on fire (foil type and wool rock) but that went out on it's own. Damage was------ 2ea VCR's 2ea phones 1ea TV 1ea DVD player 1ea Lan Card in the puter and I had to degauss the monitor Thought I was pretty damn lucky---- all things considered...! |
| Many folks are building new houses in the Texas Hill Country. Naturally, the most desirable home locations are along the tops of the ridges. Many of these new homes are sporting lighting rods - something you rarely used to see in this part of Texas. Must be an insurance discount if you install them. |