While wading through the conflicting information surrounding lightning protection, I vaguely recalled an article by Rex Cauldwell that detailed the installation of a grounding wire in the nearest tall tree to the house. It wasn’t either of the two articles in FHB issue 120, or the follow-up article in issue 122, but something that further elaborated upon the installation of a galvanized pipe in a tree that is mentioned in those articles.
If anyone else recalls and can locate that article, I would certainly appreciate their posting the issue number.
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Don't know the article number, but I know Cauldwell has a book out on electrical fixes that covers lightning protection as a topic. I'm sure anything he's written about it would be recapped there. A quick google of his name is bound to pull it up.
IMHO most of the talk around lightning protection smells kinda fishy- protective cones of ions either repelling or attracting strikes depending on who's talking at the time, and the whole pointy versus spherical end discussion. You'd think scientific achievements in the last hundred years would have advanced the topic a bit beyond Ben Franklin's observations, which proponents seem rely upon as their chief justification.
FWIW, i think you should weigh the cost of the proposed installation against the peace of mind it will give you, then put a rabbit's foot on your keychain, and hang a St. Christophers medal from your rear view mirror. Reading any of the 'research' around it will simply confuse matters further.
Hi,
I am not familiar with the book, but from what I have seen of lightning prot. any thing you put in a tree will only protect the tree !
It is not meant to protect your structure!!!
ithe installation ususally consists of bare braided wire and special clamps to fasten it to the tree, with a specfic arrangement at the base of the tree. the purpose of lightning prot .is to dissipate the energy of the strike ,not prevent it from hitting a tree or building