Talk of The Villages Florida - Another Lightning Strike!

Quote:

Originally Posted by brightspot01 (Post 913390)

Important information about lightning rods published by SECO. It's long, nevertheless important, that you read the entire article.

Lightning & Surge Protection:

Is there any other lightning protection used in Florida for houses other than an indoor surge protection system, like lightning rods or ground rods?
Lightning rods, more correctly called air terminals (or Franklin rods after the inventor), are used in Florida. There are several companies located in Lake and Marion counties in the telephone directory listed under "Lightning Protection Equipment." Most electrical contractors should also be able to make a recommendation. SECO does not recommend any specific provider or vendor. Correct installation is the key and it is expensive. Lightning rods are by design a device that attracts lightning. When installed correctly to code, they divert the stroke to ground. The problem is that many people do not want to spend the money necessary to make secure connections from the rod to a sufficient size down lead cable to a proper ground with proper connection, or to pay to have them routinely inspected. Therefore what happens is the rod attracts lightning, and it sees the internal house systems as a better "route to ground" and ends up dissipating throughout the home causing major damage.

Securing a good, low resistance ground rod connection in Florida is hard to do and requires professional assistance to achieve using precision ground measuring equipment. Typically at SECO we will often drive 70 foot, or multiple rods, in a grid configuration and in a few places 90 feet of rod with connections cad-welded to the rod in order to achieve a ground below 30 ohms. Therefore the single 6-8 foot rod purchased at a hardware/electronic type store is virtually useless with undersized and poorly clamped wire tied to it and it can cause more problems than without. Most communications towers (cellular, broadcast stations and virtually all government complexes) at major locations utilize a device called a dissipation array which deters lightning from wanting to strike a structure in the first place. This technology also requires a good ground grid around the complex and proper low resistance grounding. Normally this would not be seen utilized on a residential home. If you look at a broadcast tower and see a circular device on top with many little wire brush like spikes coming out of it, that is a dissipation array. For more information and practical solutions, contact Customer Service to schedule a visit to discuss things that you, as a homeowner, can do to enhance your in-home protection system, such as our surge protection program, common point grounding and insuring that outlets are properly wired with a ground attached to the proper terminal in electrical sockets.

Another thing to keep in mind when trying to compare Florida weather to that of the northern states is that we live in the highest lightning strike region of the nation, the actual center of which is located near Lakeland, Florida. Only one place in the world, a section of Africa, is higher. Therefore, you will find the lightning strike activity in our area more vicious and more frequent than experienced anywhere else in the U.S. This means that what might work in other areas may not be sufficient or work here at all.

We opted for a surge protector and not lightning rods.

I would like to offer for your consideration several points on this message.

First, if you believe that you need lightning rods select from installers who are listed by Underwriters Laboratories and their installers have passed the exams offered by the Lightning Protection Insistute. Not all listings in the Yellow Pages will have these credentials. They may tell they do. They may also tell you that they use UL components but that is not the same as noted in the above qualifications. Most electrical contractors are skilled with NFPA 70, the National Electrical Code, designed to prevent you from being injured by electricity but may have no expertise with NFPA 780, the national standard on lightning protection systems. In fact on most commercial and industrial jobs they will sub them out to the lightning experts.

Second, lightning rods DO NOT ATTRACT lightning they simply give it a safe path to ground. See University of Florida Professor Martin Uman�s book, The Art and Science of Lightning Protection, page 17 that can be found in The Villages Library.

Third, the reason that you engage a UL and LPI listed installer is because it is their job to make sure that the system they install meets the standard on grounding using a megatester. In some places the soil may be sandy and they may have to go 30 ft. But surprisingly there is a lot of clay soil here and they may only need to go ten feet. It is not your problem � that is why you hire a qualified installer.

Fourth, when you speak of the broadcast tower it sounds like you are describing a nonconventional lightning protection system. See Dr Uman�s book on page 76 that disputes the efficacy of these systems. Also, search on line for a report regarding unsatisfactory performance of a nonconventional system at Sea World a couple of years ago.