Friggin' lightning

We've lost two cordless phones in the last few months.
 
Zapped a bunch of gas stations around the Bragg area. I waited about 15 minutes at a BP for the pumps to reboot only for it to not happen. Ended up being forced into buying premium. Good thing I had a half tank, but needed to fill the 5 gallon can too. Ended up being like $42. Bastards.
 
Last big storm that rolled through, lost 2 security cameras (might just be the power adapter).
Last night, 2 ports on the Asus wireless router.

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I had a storm last year that got my AC, stove , water heater, washer AND dryer. Every appliance on one side of my house.

Gee thanks
 
fieldgrade said:
I thought you were a bachelor. You even use those things?
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I maybe a bachelor but Ima cookin SOB. And someone has to wash my clothes
 
McDirkale said:
You still have cordless phones?
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We're far enough out that cell service is a little spotty sometimes and we needed a local number landline for business purposes. Both times I think the spike came in on the phone line, not the power.
 
DrPhudd said:
Lightning killed a 58" flat screen here a couple months ago
Cost me less that $50 to replace the main board. easy peasy
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You know a lot of folks give away nice TVs that have little things wrong with them. Same with washer and dryers. A little YouTube help and some skill, you can save / make some money. I don't know crap about TVs tho.
 
Most recent TV's that I've had, have fail ways that didn't justify the price of repairing them. More cost effective to buy a new one with the latest features. Two were 55" or larger.
 
georgel said:
Most recent TV's that I've had, have fail ways that didn't justify the price of repairing them. More cost effective to buy a new one with the latest features. Two were 55" or larger.
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If the screen is gone, toss it. Anything else can be replaced for cheap in like ten minutes
 
Folks ask me all the time about a surge protector that will stop lightning.
It doesn't exist.
Surge protectors do well with spikes from the energy company, or ambient electrical spikes from say, a lightning strike 1/4 mile away.
Nothing will stop a direct lightning strike. One customer had a direct strike at their house and it blew the toilet clean off the floor.
@georgel mentioned spikes on low voltage lines..ie; phone and cable. Happens all the time.
Lightning is hotter than the surface of the sun. It's bad ass. Respect.
 
Grounding is key. The little ground rod your electrician installed beside the meter base to pass inspection is a joke. You need a trench all the way around your house with 8' ground rods no less than 10' apart, and a lead that runs out 20ish feet from each corner. If you have really tall trees around your house, you do not need lightning rods. If you don't, then you need an elevated lightning rod at each end of your house, at least 8' above the roof line, and it should be bonded to the trench ring. ALL of your connections should be exothermic. Then, run a 2/0 stranded from your main panel inside to the trench ring, and bond it in. Also, run a #6 solid from the land line buss panel, and the cable buss panel. If all this sounds expensive, it is, and STILL not a 100% guarantee, but compared to a #6 mechanically clamped to a rod, it's huge! I put a ground system in for a customer in Knoxville, TN, and when KUD came out and connected the service, their system-wide impedance dropped 1/2 ohm. The structure took a direct lightning hit (hilltop with zero trees). The ONLY thing that happened was the little breaker on a power strip got tripped. That's it.

And yes, I do these types of ground systems for money. It's basically insurance. Not a foolproof guarantee against damages, but it's foolish to not have it. Also, like insurance, the more you spend, the better protected you are...

Feel free to PM me if you're interested...


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mj1angier said:
I will ad hail to the shit list.
Wife car has 14000 miles.
All top surfaces hit...
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Hail beat my 2014 F350 to pieces as well as my daughters Mustang and my old Jeep Wrangler.
 
1911gobang said:
Grounding is key. The little ground rod your electrician installed beside the meter base to pass inspection is a joke. You need a trench all the way around your house with 8' ground rods no less than 10' apart, and a lead that runs out 20ish feet from each corner. If you have really tall trees around your house, you do not need lightning rods. If you don't, then you need an elevated lightning rod at each end of your house, at least 8' above the roof line, and it should be bonded to the trench ring. ALL of your connections should be exothermic. Then, run a 2/0 stranded from your main panel inside to the trench ring, and bond it in. Also, run a #6 solid from the land line buss panel, and the cable buss panel. If all this sounds expensive, it is, and STILL not a 100% guarantee, but compared to a #6 mechanically clamped to a rod, it's huge! I put a ground system in for a customer in Knoxville, TN, and when KUD came out and connected the service, their system-wide impedance dropped 1/2 ohm. The structure took a direct lightning hit (hilltop with zero trees). The ONLY thing that happened was the little breaker on a power strip got tripped. That's it.

And yes, I do these types of ground systems for money. It's basically insurance. Not a foolproof guarantee against damages, but it's foolish to not have it. Also, like insurance, the more you spend, the better protected you are...

Feel free to PM me if you're interested...


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Very true.

Most people think that lightning rods are only there to safely redirect a strike. They actually do more to dissipate the charge in the air, preventing or reducing the severity.
 
Having a 50' ham radio tower in the back yard makes grounding more "real" to me. :)
 
1911gobang said:
The little ground rod your electrician installed beside the meter base to pass inspection is a joke.
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:bow-down: !
NEC states that there shall be no more than 25 ohms of resistance regarding the grounding electrodes.
The Chief inspector for Henderson county borrowed a meter from Duke energy and went around to 78 different houses and measured the resistance of the grounding electrodes (ground rods). The lowest number he got was 470 ohms.
All the ground rods do is provide *some* potential difference in case you lose the neutral from the power company.
If you have high dollar computer main frames and/or pricey & sensitive equipment...pay someone like @1911gobang to come out and do his thing. Cheap insurance.
 
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Oneofsix said:
still have both corded and cordless, backups for the backup...
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If we loose track of our cordless phones in the house ONE MORE TIME, I'm going to dig out an old wall-mounted corded phone and install it.

See how our oldest teen likes THEM apples...

Grrr...
 
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