Lightning can be really weird. There is a spot (unfortunately starting about 200' from my house) maybe 300' in diameter where lightning strikes repeatedly. It's not the highest ground nearby, and it's not the neighbor's metal flagpole that's higher and specially grounded so as to make it a lightning collector, even though that's on slightly higher ground maybe 500' away from the other side of the circle. The last time it struck, it passed up not only the flagpole, but a well drilling rig about a thousand feet away, that was on higher ground, also on the ridgetop. What could be a better ground rod than one 500' deep and 40' tall? Often, the only really nearby strike will be to a tree in that spot. More concerning to me, is it's sometimes the first strike anywhere in the area, that hits there.
Why it likes that particular spot is a complete mystery. Some say there must be gold there!
As you could imagine, beyond the wear and tear on the underwear, I've had a few electrical problems from the nearby strikes. The thing that seemed to help the most was to give the things arranged around the perimeter of the house, like the tv antenna, satellite dish, and internet radio, and the arrestors where those wires enter, their own ground rods, and then bond every rod to every other (particularly the electrical service ground) with buried wire or copper pipe. I have a U of wire and rods buried around my house, with a leg of buried copper pipe that goes off to the outbuilding with the backup generator. Since I've done that, I haven't had to fix anything. I'd have an O instead of a U, except I have to dig it through my driveways, and haven't gotten to it yet. I adapted info I found about the protection of mountain top radio installations, fire lookouts, and the like to come up with this plan. The general idea is you want everything to see the sudden surge of current at nearly the same instant. I later added a whole house surge protector just for good measure.
I'm no expert in this by any means, but living here, it's been in my interest to try to be educated about lightning. I think it's vastly more likely (unless you have a 100' mountain top antenna, or you're on the one hill on the prairie) that you'll have a problem from a nearby strike than a direct hit, just playing the probabilities based on the size of your target vs. the surrounding area. Then, things like induced currents, and step voltages become the problem. Grounding everything, and tying distant grounds together, may help a lot.
The last strike in that spot screwed up 3 of my 4 garage door openers - only. Two of them seemed to heal, and one still has intermittent problems. I suspect that the long, low voltage wires to the switches and sensors might have picked up some radiated energy and induced a current. I don't know how to protect against that.
I worry about my furnace, at the bottom of that long Class A chimney, but don't have really good options for it. It sits in the center of the house, downstairs on the concrete slab, and I lack for a good ground, since the water pipes into the house there are poly. It wouldn't surprise me if someday I find a crater blown in the concrete under one of the furnace feet!
One thing's for sure, when the thunder threatens here, I don't care what I was doing, you'll find me in a vehicle, on the sofa upstairs, or in bed. Not outside, and as far from anything with cords or a chimney as I can get. It's been too close, too often, for me.
Why it likes that particular spot is a complete mystery. Some say there must be gold there!
As you could imagine, beyond the wear and tear on the underwear, I've had a few electrical problems from the nearby strikes. The thing that seemed to help the most was to give the things arranged around the perimeter of the house, like the tv antenna, satellite dish, and internet radio, and the arrestors where those wires enter, their own ground rods, and then bond every rod to every other (particularly the electrical service ground) with buried wire or copper pipe. I have a U of wire and rods buried around my house, with a leg of buried copper pipe that goes off to the outbuilding with the backup generator. Since I've done that, I haven't had to fix anything. I'd have an O instead of a U, except I have to dig it through my driveways, and haven't gotten to it yet. I adapted info I found about the protection of mountain top radio installations, fire lookouts, and the like to come up with this plan. The general idea is you want everything to see the sudden surge of current at nearly the same instant. I later added a whole house surge protector just for good measure.
I'm no expert in this by any means, but living here, it's been in my interest to try to be educated about lightning. I think it's vastly more likely (unless you have a 100' mountain top antenna, or you're on the one hill on the prairie) that you'll have a problem from a nearby strike than a direct hit, just playing the probabilities based on the size of your target vs. the surrounding area. Then, things like induced currents, and step voltages become the problem. Grounding everything, and tying distant grounds together, may help a lot.
The last strike in that spot screwed up 3 of my 4 garage door openers - only. Two of them seemed to heal, and one still has intermittent problems. I suspect that the long, low voltage wires to the switches and sensors might have picked up some radiated energy and induced a current. I don't know how to protect against that.
I worry about my furnace, at the bottom of that long Class A chimney, but don't have really good options for it. It sits in the center of the house, downstairs on the concrete slab, and I lack for a good ground, since the water pipes into the house there are poly. It wouldn't surprise me if someday I find a crater blown in the concrete under one of the furnace feet!
One thing's for sure, when the thunder threatens here, I don't care what I was doing, you'll find me in a vehicle, on the sofa upstairs, or in bed. Not outside, and as far from anything with cords or a chimney as I can get. It's been too close, too often, for me.
