I'm hoping my neighbors have them installed. Let them attract the lightning to their homes!

The current thinking is that lightning rods don't actually attract lightning so the presence of lightning rods on your neighbor's house does not offer you any protection. In the event that lightning was going to strike your house, lightning rods (and their cables to the ground) offer a discharge pathway to the ground instead of the energy discharging through the house structure to the ground.

I agree your neighbor will not protect you.

We have them. Have lived in The Villages or Tampa since 1983. Lightning is horrendous in this area. I believe all Rec Centers have them.

No, all the rec centers do not have lightning rods. Specifically, Manatee and Eisenhower don't have lightning rods. I haven't seen any neighborhood pools structures with them either. The firehouse across from Eisenhower doesn't appear to have them either.

Anyone that wishes to do his or her due diligence should visit The Villages Library on Belvedere Drive and check out University of Florida's Dr. Martin Uman's book The Art and Science of Lightning Protection. Dr Uman has been studying lightning for over 40 years.

If you would like to attend a class based on Dr. Uman's book see page 53 under Science in the current Lifelong Learning Catalog.

One of the myths that dates back to Benjamin Franklin's time is that lightning rods attract lightning and therefore they should be avoided. Over 260 years of experience and science debunks this commonly held and often repeated myth. See page 17 the aforementioned Uman book.

We've had lightening rods for many years now, it jut made me feel better....LOL However as far as the rods attracting lightening let me just say, we had a very tall queen palm next to the house and last year lightening found it! Killed the tree and ran into the ground to cable , even with whole house surge protector killed a number of electronics in the house because it came in through cable and phone line. Just my experience.

This is an example of a random lightning strike where the palm was struck. It is unlikely that the LPS on your home played any role it. Lightning is highly UNPREDICTABLE!

The term "whole house" surge protection is a misnomer. To prevent surge damage to sensitive electronic equipment in the home you need primary and secondary surge protection for appliances and the electronics that you value.

PRIMARAY SURGE PROTECTION is when you have your electric utility install a surge protection device on your electric meter or you engage a licensed electrician to install a surge protection device on your electric panel. Many people believe that you are now protected from surges including those induced by lightning. You are not totally protected as demonstrated in the description in your post. You also need secondary surge protection.

SECONDARY SURGE PROTECTION is when you your install point-of-use and power strips on your appliances and electronics such as computers, TVs, garage door operators, microwave ovens, etc. This will protect the electronics where the surge comes into your home through cable, satellite, and telephone lines. This is why SECO gives you a starter set of surge protection devices if you contract with them for primary surge protection.

I guess you can consider the palm tree to be your lightning protection system ;-).Taller structures are generally hit first. My home owner's insurance policy does not provide a discount for lightning rods. I assume, from an actuarial point of view, it doesn't make sense to do so. I also find it interesting that they are not part of the building codes but there are a number of hurricane features such as roof tie downs, wind loading requirements for windows, and reinforcements for garage doors in the building codes. This actually surprises me as the cost during new home construction would be minimall and FL has some pretty good building codes. The odds of getting hit would appear to be relatively low as we seem to hear about 1 home being hit per year out of 55,000 homes in The Villages. That, however, is little consolation if it is your home. I guess you can think of lightning rods as insurance and insurance generally lets you sleep better at night. Lightning rods appear to be relatively rare in The Villages - as far as I can tell there are none in my Village.