Lighting Rods without ground wire....hazard or not?
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I live in an area that is prone to lightening strikes. One case, a lightening strike struck about 2 blocks away and it destroyed four Grundfos pumps on a boiler sys. The Grundfos pumps have a circuit board in them and the foil on the board was completely vapourized. I made new boards and installed them and the pumps worked fine. Case two, a lightening strike was about one block away and fried a TV, cable boxes, garage door opener circuit board, etc, etc. Granted there was a spike on the power lines that was contributory.
My outdoor roof TV antenna is grounded and I have a grounded 3/4" copper sprinkler water pipe on the ridge. The chance of a lightening strike hitting you is remote, however, there is a case of a forest ranger being struck by lightening 3 times. (All his friends say, "Please, don't stand too close to me.") Even a Pro golfer in a tournament got struck by lightening.
You have lightening rods for the same reason that you have fire insurance on your house. Do you hope to collect on your fire insurance? No, but just in case the possible does become reality, your covered. Properly grounded lightening rods on your house is insurance against the possibility.
As they say in financial investment world, accept the level of risk that allows you to sleep well at night.
As for me, I run the ground wire.
PS. I have whole house surge protectors and surge capacitors on my electrical sys as well as computer grade surge protectors on all computers and TVs etc..
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Go to YouTube & google "golf ball struck by lightning".
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Thanks again to everyone who responded, more than I expected.
The ornamental rods will NOT go on the roof, rather I will find a home inside our large building for a display.
Our main building of 1912 has numerous old school rods up on the 3rd floor roof, it still has the cables going down the side of that house to ground rods.
Thanks to all for the interest.
BTW, an older member of our church, now since passed away, told me he lost his father to a lighting strike well over 100 years ago. He said there was not a cloud in the sky as his father was out in an open field.
The son was not one to tell tall tales, certainly about something like what he witnessed.
Like what has been said, "Lighting does whatever it wants to".
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How do you get lightning without clouds?
Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.
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Interesting.
Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.
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That is probably a Jamie answer.
But IMO there was enough invisible water vapor in the sky……that is the best I can do.🤤
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not so sure about that @Jamie Hall . There is a large lightning protection company near my house so I asked them for a quote and how they would do it. We looked at my house on google satellite view and the guy said they would run all the down cables inside the attic, down a wall chase to the basement, and, some how, connect to a ground loop buried around the house conected to several ground rods. I guess they go thru foundation in several places to connect to loop. And, they would install a whole house surge protector. I doublechecked him about running cabling inside the house being a fire threat and he said no. His explanation was along the lines of this cut and paste from the Lightning Protection Institute website:
Lightning protection components below the strike terminals may be concealed within the building below the roof level during construction or when accessible. The speed of lightning current and splitting the flow among multiple paths will not permit components to heat to any instantaneous ignition temperature hazardous to typical building materials.
clearly not a DIY project. I didn't have it done- yet. But, it is on my mind.
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Well… I have my doubts. But they probably know more about it than I do…
Br. Jamie, osb
Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England0 -
This topic ‘sparked’ my interest in lightning protection again. There is a way to calculate the need for lightng rods in NFPA 780. online calculators are easier. My house is “low risk, lightning rods optional”.
But I did install a wholehouse surge protection device at the service entrance and on my to-do list, I’ll install a second one at my cb panel.
Watching my neighbor’s house become “wireless “ after a lightning strike left me feeling vulnerable This helps me feel safer! thanks @JUGHNE for bringing it up!
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Lightning is pretty unpredictable in what damage it will do.
I went on a trouble once where the aerial telco cable was melted into a blob at the roadside terminal, and a lightning strike had excavated a hole (3' x 3' if i recall) in his driveway along the buried electrical service. He lost a bunch of things like tv, water heater, etc.
There were lots of tall trees along the driveway, untouched.
30+ yrs in telecom outside plant.
Currently in building maintenance.
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Greeting on grounding lighting rods:
A simple Google search provides the answer: Regards RTW
LINK to Wikipedia
Lightning rod65 languages
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaFor the 1938 film, see Lightning Conductor (film). For the 2016 roller coaster, see Lightning Rod (roller coaster). For the American musician, see Jalal Mansur Nuriddin.
Diagram of a simple lightning protection system
Lightning striking the lightning rod of the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada.
A lightning rod or lightning conductor (British English) is a metal rod mounted on a structure and intended to protect the structure from a lightning strike. If lightning hits the structure, it is most likely to strike the rod and be conducted to ground through a wire, rather than passing through the structure, where it could start a fire or cause electrocution. Lightning rods are also called finials, air terminals, or strike termination devices.
In a lightning protection system, a lightning rod is a single component of the system. The lightning rod requires a connection to the earth to perform its protective function. Lightning rods come in many different forms, including hollow, solid, pointed, rounded, flat strips, or even bristle brush-like. The main attribute common to all lightning rods is that they are all made of conductive materials, such as copper and aluminum. Copper and its alloys are the most common materials used in lightning protection.[1]
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This was an unexpected, but pleasant, surprise…For years, I have checked junction boxes, lugs, circuitbreakers for tightness, replaced bulbs and even had the power company come out to check feed connection. Never could figure out why the lights flickered, especially LEDs, on their own and especially when wash machine or AC was running. The flickering has ceased completely since the whole house surge protector has been installed.
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I was wondering… If an electrician's teenaged kids misbehave, Do they get Grounded?
Edward Young Retired
After you make that expensive repair and you still have the same problem, What will you check next?
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Where is the "groan" button? 😏
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Oooh! That could be better than the good grief button
Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.
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We're here for it!
Forum Moderator
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Have had that shirt since I was confined to a wheelchair. That one has a double meaning for me!!!!!
Edward Young Retired
After you make that expensive repair and you still have the same problem, What will you check next?
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