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Mary, At one time almost every barn and house had a lightening rod,that changed when indoor plumbing came along with metal vent pipes that would carry the charge to ground. Now that PIC pipe is used a lot for plumbing drains. If you have PIC vents and your house is in a clearing or elevated you should consider a lightening rod.
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Mary,
the answer is yes and make sure Its properly grounded. you may never have needed your fire detector but you have them anyhow
Wm
*Mary,Im a firefighter and can say this much, my fathers house has been hit several times and I have been on many calls of the same nature. Yes each item has a purpose and a job but none will ever protect you totaly from lightening, at 500,000 pluse volts in a mili second good luck on anything ever working 100%. I would say it comes down to peace of mind. Smoke detectors ..yes yes yes they will work and save lives if checked and maintained.Mike M
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It's another case of he says, she says...our architect says we should definitely put lightening rods on our new house, our builder says they probably aren't necessary. How do we decide? What criteria do you use to determine whether a house needs lightening rods?
*If your house is on a fairly high elevation and there are no tall trees near by, I would highly recommend it, if for nothing else it would surely give you piece of mind.Come to think of it there was a house nearby in a low elevation that did have trees around it and was struck by lightening and burned to the ground.I built a new home back in 82 and had rods installed on it and on a detached garage. On one occasion we actually saw the garage lightening rods take a direct hit.Out here in Texas, the storms are generally quite strong, and it seems they're always sparking brush fires.Lightening rods really don't spoil the appearence of a home, and are hardly noticeable I would opt for them.
*You do want to be careful that you don't use too many Lightening rods or your house will float away.If, however you use Lightning rods you will avoid that risk.8o)
*Mary, there are specialized contractors that supply and install lightning rods and you should contact one in your area for recommendations. BTW is your architect on a fixed fee or is he or she paid on a percentage of the finished house's final cost?Gabe
*Gabe,We agreed on a fixed fee with our architect that spans the entire length of the project. He has been and will be with us until we get the key to the front door.
*Norm,Oops! That was a good one. I guess I should learn how to proof my work like I tell my kids to do. Thanks.Mary
*mary... lightning rod protection is voodoo science..read the literature of the trade and they will give no satisfactory explanation of what is happening..the way i decide it is i have a conversation with my homeowners.. , if they believe in lightning rods we get someone like Boston lightning rod or Thompson Lightning Protection..and let them handle the whole thing...other than that.. we always reconnect the systems when we're roofing..lightning rod protection .. and the debates surrounding it are like trying to disprove a negative...b but hey, whadda i no ?
*Then Mary, the follow up question is why don't you trust your architects advise?Gabe
*Mike, wasn't there something in high school physics about "point discharge"? A sphere retains a charge (positive or negative), and a point dissipates the charge, or something like that. The idea of a lightning rod would be to dissipate the charge in the immediate vicinity of the structure, minimizing the potential difference and lessening the likelihood of a lightning strike. Sounds like Mad Dog's system wasn't working as designed (it attracted lightning), or perhaps it worked perfectly (the garage suffered no damage).Hope you stayed more alert in class than I... Steve
*I was the engineeer for our radio station on college. We put up a new antenna and it was struck and distroyed within a week. We bought a new one and also bought this hocus-pocus ball on a stick. This thing looked like a big metal koosh ball made of stainless steel wire about 18" in diameter. Supposedly, if you put this thing up, it keeps the air around the antenna discharged (or somne crap like that) and prevents a lightning strike. I don't know if it worked or not. It was recommended by a professor in the engineering department.
*..i don't know steve....i just thot the companies had been in business for a 100 years and they could give a better scientific explanation of what was going on ...the diagrams i saw showed a cone of charge being spread over the structure ...if this were true ..why isn't it more readily known ?and why isn't it discussed in building codes ?
*Mary, and the rest of youse guys...Here is a link that will get you started on the road to evaluating lightning protection. It's interesting reading, not because the information is all inclusive but partly because the author points out that a primary reference document for lightning protection appears to have special interest group leanings (lightning rod vendors). Nine additional references are offered.LIGHTNINGWhen you have digested that page then there is more to the site that you can dig into. Use the Mitigation button first. Read the Background Studies. Great Info.
*Gabe,It's definitely not a question of my trusting or not trusting my architect's advice. It's just that through this whole process I am learning that everyone has opinions and its up to me to find out as much information as possible so that I can make an educated decision. I couldn't be happier with our home design and our architect's follow-up on site. I see this whole process as a team project and so far, so good.Mary
*Mary, You may have noticed that you are getting conflicting information and that's normal for internet info. You don't know the qualifications of the posters. FWIW I don't make lightning a study and I don't install them on every building that I build. What I can tell you is that they are being installed on the $6 mil steel building that I've working on presently. I don't see it as a waste of money considering the amount of electrical and electronic gear in here.If your architect sees it as a requirement, I would go with it.Gabe
*Here is one for ya, and why I wanted to look into lightning rods. A couple weeks ago we had a storm so close to the house it was unreal. Lightning was striking VERY close to the house, and at one point I actually saw a spark inside the house to the TV while we were watching. Another strike and I saw a spark over by the computer, and it was strong enough that it erased the CMOS and fried the modem. One strike was by the garage, and actually tripped the breaker for the garage outlets! All wiring in the house is within 5 years old and all grounds are good and back to the 200 amp service. ( I wired the house so that I do know!) Were these sparks caused by the air being charged from the strikes? I have never seen anything like that before in any house. Any opinions?
*you had a hit.. it came in over the elec wires and you are not protected by your service panel..b but hey, whadda i no ?
*So you think I took a hit? I did not see any damage to the house anywhere...would a lightning rod protect from this in the future?
*you took a hit .. came in on your electric lines..this is one good reason to unplug sensitive equip. (computers, stereos & tv's) during lightning stormsdon't think a lightning rod would have protected ..but a lightning arrestor on your circuit panel .. and one on your tel line would have done the job...b but hey, whadda i no ?
*Mary, At one time almost every barn and house had a lightening rod,that changed when indoor plumbing came along with metal vent pipes that would carry the charge to ground. Now that PIC pipe is used a lot for plumbing drains. If you have PIC vents and your house is in a clearing or elevated you should consider a lightening rod.
*Mary: i had two hits: the first one got all the flourescent lights and the phones, while the second a month later took out the pump--there seems to be little rhyme or reason to these things. My house is lower than nearby houses, no big trees, either. My electrician dismissed the lightning rod idea and gave me this gizmo that acts like a capacitor that attaches to a couple breakers in the panel, easy to install--sounds like what Mike mentioned.
*Steve...exactly...Lightning rods are not intended or designed to conduct current from a lightning strike. They are supposed to dissapate and minimize the negative static charge that is necessary to cause a lightning to jump or strike. Thus, the sharp point on the end of the rods. The point on the end of the conductor is designed to focus the buildup of ions (and their electrical potential) into a small spot until the potential forces them to jump into the atmosphere. It's all designed to minimize or neutralize the difference in electrical potential between the static field and the ground. In theory, at least...If lightning rods were designed to attract and be conductors of lightning/electricity, they would have a conducting ball on top instead of the point. The metal ball would retain the electrical difference, thus making the ball an attractive point of discharge, so to speak.Ever see a Van derGraff(sp?) lightening generator at a science museum? Same idea...the sphere stores the buildup until the potential becomes too great...then the "lightning" flashes to neutralize or dissipate the buildup.Some rods are indeed designed to attract a charge so that the lightning will not indiscriminately strike another part of the structure...a radio tower or mast, for instance.
*Yes, you definitely took a hit. But not a direct hit. When lightning reaches the earth, it doesn't stop, it spreads its energy around. It's looking for paths it can follow. That's why it's best to deprive it of potential paths thru your living space by unplugging the TV set, which is a path from the roof antenna or cable system to the electrical system, which is grounded, and the phone line from the modem, which is a path connecting the electrical and phone systems. Lightning rods provide a path from up high to ground outside your living space, which should be less dangerous to you than having loads of electrons bouncing around the room with you.When it gets into the ground, lightning continues to seek the path of least resistance, which is often buried plumbing. I heard a story of a guy who had lightning hit the vent stack in a rural cabin, travel thru the toilet, out the sewer line, and blast the septic tank and about 100 yards of drain tile up out of the ground with a flash steam explosion. Not sure how true that one is, though. ;-)-- J.S.
*The lightning rod and your electrician's capacitor gizmo are both good solutions, but they're solutions to two different problems.-- J.S.