Please give me a moment to chime in here.
As far as code compliance, bonding to the electrical ground is all that is needed, however, here is the problem I have found.
1) When they come out to build out your house, the supplier takes the rebar and drops it in the yard. I have even seen it where it comes in rusted.
2) The rebar is tied together with metal twist-ties (note: rust on rust) limited to no continuity through out the house.
If you are on the marion side, they do use ground rods instead of rebar grounding. The problem with that is they use, "galvanized steel" rods. Which in about 10 years are about rusted out due to soil deterioration.
My solution is to install (in addition to rebar grounding) a COPPER CLAD stainless steel ground rod that is 5/8X8ft (with a #4 or #6 wire). Please make sure you locate your property for underground utilities.
If you do decide to get lightning protection. Make sure your installer grounds to the electrical, phone, and cable grounds. As if he did not, you have actually made your lightning protection system worst as you created more different electrical potentials. I also have to agree with the post above me that 25 OHMs or less is great grounding, but national code writers UL and NFPA do not state a actual number when it comes to OHMs to ground. Getting 25 OHMs to ground in the Villages (except where the lightning cable connects to the electric) is almost not possible unless living by the water or having great clay soil. I have been on projects where we had to sink ground rods up to 100ft to obtain 50 OHM's to ground.
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