[gfmucci]

There appears to be a number of things that we would need to do if we really wanted to protect our house and electrical equipment from lightning.

We know that whole house surge protectors are not the complete answer.* Even SECO provides individual surge protectors for specific electronic components when they install a "whole house" surge protector.* And you still need to make sure your phone and cable lines have surge protection.* And surge protectors are only good for one solid hit.* They too need to be replaced occasionally.

Lightning rods have been known to be effective to draw lightning into the ground instead of into the structure of your house in the case of a direct hit.* But as Redwitch said, if the hit is into the ground and spiders into your house laterally, things can still get fried.

It boils down to protecting your house in a cost-effective manner:* Choose the combination of measures that are likely to suppress the most likely causes of damage.* These are through electrical circuits, phone and cable, and from direct hits.* A combination of whole house suppression (less than $200) individual suppressors (another $100) and a lightning rod system (I have no idea of the cost) would be all the practical measures one could take.