Anyone fluent on the subject?

House got hit today.  Lost a few hundred $$$ worth electronics (at least that we know of so far)...again.  Frankly it's getting effing old.  We're tired of replacing stuff.

Fortunately, no human or critter fatalities although the sis took a spill off a ladder she was on under the barn carport when it hit.  She's scuffed up but fine.  I watched the lightning fork and hit the barn where she was, the house where I was and somewhere just behind the barn.  Scared the poo out of me.  Everything in the house was snapping, sizzling and popping.  I thought for sure the sis was dead.  Not good times.

So, we are considering a lightning rod for the house.  From what I've read there are two types, the Franklin and the ESE.  The ESE works better but is also around 4 to 5X as expensive.  Other than that, I know nothing on the subject so just assume I know nothing on the subject.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

In my old days as a traveling IT guy who helped with the aftermath of quite a few strikes, you're going to lose stuff from the strike right away and then slowly over the next few months.

Do you have or have you looked at breaker panel surge protectors?

House was built in the 70's.  I don't know about the grounding thing.  If that's a standard thing I'm guessing it is.

Well that's depressing...

We only have regular breakers.  The TV, sound system, game system, etc are on a surge protector which is what saved them this time.  Enough got through before it tripped to zap the router though.  

I read about whole house surge protectors but the article said it was quite expensive.  Is that the same as breaker surge protectors?

So is it something you call an electrician for or a specialty lightning rod company (I assume that's a thing)?  I've found a lot of websites that talk about installing them but no actual companies that do that kind of thing.

That should be easy enough to find.

Sorry, yes I was referring to whole house surge protectors, they are installed at the panel.  I've read they are between $500-$1000 installed.

Central FL native, the lightening belt. The rule of the day is if you want to keep it, physically unplug it when you know it's coming. Turn the breaker off if you can't physically disconnect (HWH, AC)

Mechanical devices, special breakers are just that. Like safeties on a firearm, I use em but don't trust them.

Good lightening protection for the building needs a large enough conductor physically bonded (welded, not clamped) on both ends, and at least a 2' sq. copper plate buried in your yard.

I too also lived in Florida and this info is  correct.   Even studied trying to shield ancient oaks with cables from strikes at FSU .  Lightning will destroy just about anything it strikes . People in FLA in the old days got shocks using the old land line phones during storms .   The  ones that knew stayed off phones during storms.

A strike outside my home took about 10 feet out of the top of a telephone pole across the street from me .    Toasted just about everything in the house .  I learned to unplug .


gd

Unplugging is always a good idea but not a practical answer to protection.  You aren't always home and you aren't always aware of a storm being close enough to strike before lightning hits.  

I'm very experienced in lightning hits, not so much the science. The house I mostly grew up in was struck multiple times.  Everything from french fried electronics to having a hole blown completely through the roof in the living room.  Once as a child I was sitting in my bedroom during a strike and watched blue electrical fingers reach out of an outlet next to me causing all my hair to stand on end and frying my tv set.

Your router probably got zapped through the coax cable line.  Look into surge protectors with coax connections.

Will do that, thanks.

Tagged for more interest than before