Lightening Protection System
 

Why is it that not one home here in The Villages with LPS, Lightening Protection System, has not been damaged by lightening? (Notice I did not say hit by lightning.)

What are Lightening Protection Systems? Do blinds, curtains, and shutters qualify?

Why has no home here with an LPS *not* been damaged? Are you aware of homes with an LPS that *have* been damaged? In one or more of the multiple threads on this topic it has been stated that 17 strikes on protected homes have resulted in no damage.

Lightning does not need to hit the LPS on a house to cause damage within.
The strike can happen near, and blow out your irrigation, appliances, technology, cable, pool equipment.

It happened at the coastal home. LPS didn’t have a strike so we were told. But traveled to the home only taking our irrigation. Since nothing else was plugged in no other damage.

Interesting. How did those 17 know they had been hit with lightening? Would love to see that article/thread about this. Please share.

LOL. It reminds me of the comedian, Steven Wright, who said that he left his house and when he returned all of his furniture had been stolen and replaced with exact duplicates.

The statement was made by someone at least loosely associated with the Villages Lightning Study group. He can provide more information.

I remember reading that at least one of the homes showed damage to the lighting rod but not the house.

LPS is like insurance:thumbup: no guarantee it will pay off, BUT it’s usually better to have it and not need it than wait for something to happen :throwtomatoes:.

Here is a first hand story from a Villager who gave me permission to post his experience.

>>>>>
At approximately 6:30 PM on June 10, 2014, our house sustained a direct hit by lightning. The thunderstorm had passed, the skies were clearing, we had left for a meeting when the strike occurred.

While at the meeting, a neighbor three houses down the street called me and said his house was struck by lightening and asked for a reference for an electrician, as several of his circuit breakers had tripped wouldn’t reset.

We finished our meeting and headed home. When we turned onto our street, we noticed many of the neighbors standing in their front yards. When we pulled into our driveway, the garage door didn’t work. Uh oh.

Turns out it wasn’t our neighbors house that was hit… it was ours. And the strike blew out circuit breakers up and down our side of the street.

When we entered our home and investigated, we discovered our telephone point of interface had been blown off the outside wall (damaging the neighbor’s vinyl siding), so the telephones were dead, and many lights were out.

On further investigation we discovered our SECO whole house surge protector was totally destroyed, the Eaton whole-house surge protector was tripped, and most of the circuit breakers were tripped. Several of the circuit breakers couldn’t be reset. I checked in the attic, and there was no evidence of fire or structural damage.

SECO arrive that evening and replaced the SECO whole house surge protector and our electrician replaced the bad circuit breakers and checked the house wiring. We also three satellite receivers and a modem destroyed, all of which were connected to the unprotected telephone lines, a washing machine circuit card, and the garage door button.

The following day the lightening protection system technician came and inspected our lightening protection system. The system was unharmed, except for the top air terminal which had 1/4 to 1/2 inch burned off the top. The technician replaced that air terminal, which I subsequently gave to Len Hathaway.
<<<<<<

Other stories are where a Villager was sitting on his lanai during a storm and saw the lightning strike the air terminal on his lanai. In another case, the homeowner heard the "bang" and upon inspecting his home he saw one of the LPS cables scortched a bush.

I know I'm being picky, but can we please use the word:

LIGHTNING when referring to an electrical storm; and

LIGHTENING when referring to what Michael Jackson did to his face

I am still not sold on these systems. Why is it there are so many homes struck here in The Villages? I have a friend in Ocala and I'm not aware of this many strikes there.

Homes may have been built in places where there is a lot of lightning. Ocala may have less lightning activity.

Construction differences may increase the chances of a fire in homes here. If construction was different in Ocala then the number of fires may be less.

There might be more attention here. We have the local paper and a couple of prolific posters here pointing out the fires caused by lightning. Perhaps there are as many fires in Ocala but fewer individuals drawing attention to them.

Hold on, my man. Our house in Glenbrook has a complete lightning protection system. When I got a new roof, I had to have the roofers come back and make the little antenna vertical again. Have had no problems with the system.

My knee jerk reaction may be that there are more mature trees in Ocala surrounding the homes there and thus take the brunt of strikes. All of Florida has the same iscocronic level of 100. Other then groves of old oak, TV’s pretty much strips everything else away to build up the ground elevation level to build above flood areas.

Speaking of lightning the house in my area still has Hugh 1/3 hole in roof rain to poor in, now I guessing there going to big mold problem? You would think it would have been trapped to try keep rain from pouring in?

If the owners don't live there maybe they don't know.