[eeroger]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

Do Lightning rods, properly installed, safely direct lightning strikes that hit your home down into the earth near your home?

Or is this a scam?

Yes they work. My house was hit a couple of years ago & we didn't even know it until someone mentioned that one of our rods was crooked. We called the installer who checked the rod and confirmed the lightning strike. Insurance doesn't help, if your house burns down or is so damaged that it is uninhabitable.

Indirect lightning strikes are another story. That is why you should have a 3 prong protection: lightning protection system on the house; SECO or panel surge protection; & in-home surge protection on each valuable electronic devise.

[sentry]

In my opinion when you live in a group of houses close to each other, that you are attracting the lighting to your house.

[riley2011]

Originally Posted by Chellybean

I will regret posting this BUT!
If your house gets hit by lightning, start play the lottery! The odds of a lightning hitting your house is in the millions.
Furthermore why would you want to attract lightning to your home with lightning rods on your roof!
Its a personal preference and a waste of money!
Being all sand in Florida the conductivity to ground is minimum!
Furthermore your footer in your home has rebar around throughout your footer that your main electrical panel home ground rod is hooked too.
Now if you get a direct hit you would be electrifying your home electrical system.
Either way Bye Bye to all your electrical equipment.
Just be sure your insurance on the home is well covering your expensive electrical equipment and invest in a main panel surge suppressor and APC on your electrical Equipment.
I will not answer or elaborate further, there are to many know it all here and will debate this!
This is coming from 42 years in the business with electrical engineering background.
Let the negativity start LOL

My home has been hit three times. Seems the odds are against me.

[riley2011]

Originally Posted by Chellybean

I will regret posting this BUT!
If your house gets hit by lightning, start play the lottery! The odds of a lightning hitting your house is in the millions.
Furthermore why would you want to attract lightning to your home with lightning rods on your roof!
Its a personal preference and a waste of money!
Being all sand in Florida the conductivity to ground is minimum!
Furthermore your footer in your home has rebar around throughout your footer that your main electrical panel home ground rod is hooked too.
Now if you get a direct hit you would be electrifying your home electrical system.
Either way Bye Bye to all your electrical equipment.
Just be sure your insurance on the home is well covering your expensive electrical equipment and invest in a main panel surge suppressor and APC on your electrical Equipment.
I will not answer or elaborate further, there are to many know it all here and will debate this!
This is coming from 42 years in the business with electrical engineering background.
Let the negativity start LOL

My home has been hit three times. Seems the odds are against me.

[Oneiric]

Our lightning rod system was put in by A-1 with a good surge protector on the electrical box. We also have small individual surge protectors on all of our electronics and appliances. Had a strike several years ago and had no damage to anything. Although we have a grounded gas line running through the attic, we felt the cost was worth avoiding any hassle/and or fire.
Our outdoor pool control box though, was toasted once by a ground strike near a neighbor, so make sure your pool electronics has its own separate grounding.

[Altavia]

Originally Posted by eeroger

Yes they work. My house was hit a couple of years ago & we didn't even know it until someone mentioned that one of our rods was crooked. We called the installer who checked the rod and confirmed the lightning strike. Insurance doesn't help, if your house burns down or is so damaged that it is uninhabitable.

Indirect lightning strikes are another story. That is why you should have a 3 prong protection: lightning protection system on the house; SECO or panel surge protection; & in-home surge protection on each valuable electronic devise.

Agree, similar experience here. They are a risk reduction. Replacing the major appliances in your home is not fun. Especially now with most everything on bacj order.

Google Len Hathaways articles in the V-N online news for good info.

Aware of at least three lightening strikes In The Villages the past two month.

Several have hit the metallic gas lines which run through the attic.

. . .

Firefighters declare ‘miracle’ after Villager escapes injury in lightning strike
By
Meta Minton
June 20, 2021
A Village of Monarch Grove man said firefighters told him it was a miracle that he and his home survived a lightning strike.

Owen Steele was at home at 12:45 p.m. June 14 when his home took a direct hit.

“It cooked my gas line,” said Steele, who bought the home on Sarakinis Path in 2019.

The lightning strike left a hole in the roof of his garage about the size of a bowling ball. Steele’s 28-year-old son, a U.S. Marine who has served in hotspots around the globe and was staying with his father on the day of the strike, couldn’t believe the sound.

The Villages Public Safety Department arrived on the scene to secure the home and survey the damage.

“They said it was nothing short of a miracle the whole house didn’t blow,” said Steele, who has been a longtime renter in The Villages and whose parents moved here many years ago.

...

After the firefighters cleared the scene, Steele began an inventory of the damage and started to try to make sense of what had happened.

The electrical wiring and tankless water heater were among the long list of damages.

“The gas meter itself outside had to be removed and replaced that day. It was fried from the lightning traveling through it. Obviously, the heat alone melted the tracer wire on the pipe where it meets the ground,” Steele said.

Heat melted the tracer wire that connects to the gas line
Heat melted the tracer wire that connects to the gas line.

He obtained a report that showed there had been 22 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes within one mile of his front door. The most powerful of the strikes hit his home.

“There were seven simultaneous strikes at 12:44:55 pm totaling more than 300,000 amps peak current that possibly caused the damage,” said Frank Criste of LightningProtectionTheVillages.com, who assisted Steele in analyzing the data.

Up to 30 of Steele’s neighbors’ homes also sustained damage. Many have had to replace cable boxes, modems and garage door openers.

In the week since the lightning strike, Steele has vigorously absorbed everything he could learn about lightning. He said he would like to save his fellow residents a similar fate.

“The only thing I want to convey personally is that had I known the reasonably priced safety measures that I could’ve taken before this incident, I wouldn’t have hesitated,” Steele said.

He said he could have had a lightning protection system installed for about $1,800.

...

[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by Ritagoyer

Even if you get lighting rods I think it has to be tested every so often to make sure we are working. Not just one and done

And recharged as well

[biker1]

I don't think the odds are "in the millions". I would ballpark it at 1 in 20,000 each year. I would base this on the 3 or so lightning strikes on homes that I hear about in The Villages each year and the fact that there are about 65,000 homes in The Villages.

Originally Posted by Chellybean

I will regret posting this BUT!
If your house gets hit by lightning, start play the lottery! The odds of a lightning hitting your house is in the millions.
Furthermore why would you want to attract lightning to your home with lightning rods on your roof!
Its a personal preference and a waste of money!
Being all sand in Florida the conductivity to ground is minimum!
Furthermore your footer in your home has rebar around throughout your footer that your main electrical panel home ground rod is hooked too.
Now if you get a direct hit you would be electrifying your home electrical system.
Either way Bye Bye to all your electrical equipment.
Just be sure your insurance on the home is well covering your expensive electrical equipment and invest in a main panel surge suppressor and APC on your electrical Equipment.
I will not answer or elaborate further, there are to many know it all here and will debate this!
This is coming from 42 years in the business with electrical engineering background.
Let the negativity start LOL

[Ptmckiou]

We called our power company and they came out and put in a whole house surge protector at the meter. It will cover all our appliances and electronics. $12 a month seems cheap to not experience the hassle of frying everything in your house.

[TC_Arch]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

Do Lightning rods, properly installed, safely direct lightning strikes that hit your home down into the earth near your home?

Or is this a scam?

Get a metal flag pole. Works just as good and is not attached to your house.

[larbud]

For 3 grand I’d say scam..

[Astotz]

I wish I have had the money the lottery gives out for as many times as my house has been hit by lightning in Florida.

[bluecenturian]

That is FALSE. My sister in law lives in the villages and had her rods hit twice and the only damage was once to the low voltage transformer to her landscaping lights and that was because it wasn’t grounded to the system.

[bluecenturian]

Originally Posted by MrFlorida

Yes they work, but if lightning hits one, everything electronic in your house will be toast anyway.

That is FALSE. My sister in law lives in the villages and had her rods hit twice and the only damage was once to the low voltage transformer to her landscaping lights and that was because it wasn’t grounded to the system.

[jbrown132]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

Do Lightning rods, properly installed, safely direct lightning strikes that hit your home down into the earth near your home?

Or is this a scam?

I do not know if this is a scam but I do believe they are not effective. In order to be effective the have to be tall enough to provide a cone of protection to your house. For example if you want a 60 degree cone of protection the lightning rod would have to be installed on the highest point of your home and be tall enough that if hit at the top would provide 60 degrees of protection for every thing under and within that cone of protection. One foot lightning rods do not provide any type of a cone of protection. If you can find access to the FAA document FAA-019B this will give you a better understanding of lightning protection. This document may have been updated since I retired 10 years ago, but it will provide you with a better understanding of how lightning strikes.