Talk of The Villages Florida - Lightning protection

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I would think that homeowners insurance would take care of lightning damage, minus the deductible, of course.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tommy steam (Post 899350)

I had a neighbor where I used to live have a strike on her front lawn. It hit the buried underground elect cable that was feeding her home. I saw her front yard smoking as I looked out the window when I heard it hit. Every appliance in her home was ruined and anything plugged into the outlets was also gone. So what I am thinking ,it can also cause damage if it hits the ground. On the news last night it stated that lighting does not always hit the highest point in an area.

Very True, lightning is very unpredictable and there's no way of telling what it will hit. Homeowners Ins. does cover lightning strikes, at least mine does however mine has a $1K deductible so we will be lucky to recoup maybe half of what we lost the rest will come out of our wallet :(

Like I said before we have a house and were ok so things always can be worse.

I did have the surge protection provided by SECO and that was destroyed when they checked the meter. The very helpful rep told me that reimbursement from the surge protection company is minimal. You must have all your appliances plugged into individual surge protection outlets. He cited the refrigerator as a very iffy covered item because they can say that the surge came in thru the water line hooked up for the icemaker. He is processing a claim for my garage door operator that fried the PCB and both sensors. He warned that these might not be covered because they can claim lightning came in thru the sensors. So I keep all my receipts and will turn them into my homeowner's insurance.
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Quote:

Originally Posted by Skip2MySue (Post 899073)

So I started this post with good intentions because you just never know what's gonna happen. And then Friday night the storm moved in and decided to rock me out of my chair with a large boom and the sky lit up. Figuring it was about time to shut everything down and head for bed I didn't give it further thought. Then Sat. morning arrived and lots of clocks were blinking and I noticed the coffee pot didn't come on. Now that's major early in the morning but I found that was just gonna be the beginning of a fun day.:undecided: I then began the chore of checking various outlets and then out to the panel box to reset a bunch of breakers. Hoping that would be the extent of the damage I continued on with the inventory and found the garage door opener not working, the irrigation controller blank, no cable, no internet, no landline phones and the search continued. My first call was to SECO who had a repair truck out the house in 1 hour. I did have surge protection on the meter and that was blown out. They'll be back during the week to replace the surge protector and a settlement on our losses will be forthcoming. How much will be covered is an unknown as of now. But what a great company they are. Next on the list was to call an electrician to check out the damage and advise repairs. He came out and assured me the house wasn't going to topple over and that most of the power was available. He would be back on Monday to replace 3 GFI outlets in the kitchen and 1 circuit breaker to the tune of $285. Then it was off to contact the other contractor's to repair A) Garage door opener $380 which was completed on Monday, B) replace irrigation controller $175 on Tuesday, C) repair ethernet connection on computer and clean up cookies and download new virus protection on Thurs $120. The problems with the phones and computer couldn't be resolved until the Cable Company arrived. The real fun was trying to get our beloved cable provider Comcast to come out to restore the 3 services that I pay them for. I called the first thing Sat. morning to arrange for a repair person ASAP. I was told someone would be there on Thursday. I explained to them that that was 6 days from now and that was unacceptable. They told me they'd see what they could do. I called again Monday and they had now moved me up to a Wednesday repair appointment. I explained to them that I had no cable, phone or internet and I felt that they should certainly be able to provide me with repair service sooner. They told me they'd move it thru upper management to secure a better date. I then called Tuesday because of course they hadn't called me back again. They confirmed I was scheduled for the Thursday appointment. To say that I wanted to jump thru the phone would be an understatement but I realized that all the different people I had been talking to where only small spokes in the massive cog. Finally I got to a supervisor who then moved my repair appointment up to Wednesday with a time period of 8 AM until 7 PM. So the wait on Wed. began and of course you're all expecting another horror story regarding this appointment.:a040: Nope, not to be. Repairman showed up around 2 PM and 2 1/2 hours later I had cable. My phone system was shorted out so that went in the garbage and the computer needed outside help. To say Comcast was the least helpful of any people or companies I dealt with would be putting it very politely. So now back to the original message of this post......Based on I didn't suffer any damage to 2 large screen TV's, refrigerator or the AC system.........Lightning Rods or not :D
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Thank you for sharing your experience as it may be helpful to others to think about surge protection living here in the Lightning Capital of the US. These events are usually caused by an indirect lightning strike to a nearby tree, flag pole, wall, house, or even the ground. This is in contrast to the more powerful but far less frequent direct lightning strikes that was experienced in the Village of Pinealls last month and Calumet Grove last year.

You reference that you had SECO surge protection on your electric meter that is intended to protect hardwired (that which you do not plug into a 120 volt wall outlet) equipment such as the A/C. This is frequently misinterpreted to mean "whole house" surge protection. SECO also provides a starter kit of secondary surge protection devices or point of use plug in protectors for any piece of electronic equipment that has a microprocessor and is of value. TVs should have surge protection that includes the coaxial cable that comes out of the wall should pass through the surge protector before going into the TV. The same concept usually applies to computers with a telephone connection. And do not let a Comcast contractor tell you that this isn't necessary because there is surge protection on their box outside of your house.

The only fact that has remained constant about this lightning issue in the 8 years that I have lived here is that this is the lightning capital of the US.

The recent POA Bulletin featured an article about lightning and those homes equipped with CSST gas lines which would give one to pause but for the fact that the recent total loss of the million dollar home was all electric.

There has been contradictory opinions on the efficacy of lightning rods, surge protectors at electrical boxes. By the way I had SECO install a surge protector on my electrical box and now a posters explains that the surge protector did not help him and any claims made appear to return a minimal return

As to the CSST gas lines the question I have is why would TV install such lines when they were well aware of the lightning problem in this area? The answer is because such installation is the least expensive

Quote:

Originally Posted by rubicon (Post 901191)

According to the article in the POA, it was not until a decade ago that they realized that a lightning strike would breach the CSST gas lines. In 2007 there was a class action suit on CSST gas lines. I am not sure when TV started building all electric homes but I suspect it was in that timeframe so I think that they were proactive and got rid of the gas lines in the new housing. Or it could have been that they did not have gas lines out that way.

After reading the article, I might have to look into replacing the CSST gas lines with the galvanized pipe that was mentioned in the article. I think that even with lightning rods there is still a potential with the CSST gas lines being punctured or wearing.

Z

Quote:

Originally Posted by zcaveman (Post 898839)

It is too bad that these lightning rod systems do not have an indicator or something to tell the people that have them that they worked. At least a blinking light. Then they could report it to someone that keeps track of successful redirects to lightning strikes.

Z

Quote:

Originally Posted by raynan (Post 898894)

A neighbor said they paid $2700 for whole house protection with rods. Don't know what company they used and didn't ask because I'm not interested in getting them.

FYI....

Watch Lightning Strike the Willis (Sears) Tower in Chicago!

We used A-1 Lightning Protection, very happy with workmenship and owner Jeff Lewis very nice gentlemen to deal with.

Quote:

Originally Posted by B & B III Home Services (Post 901717)

In Southeast, Ground Rods May Not Protect Homes Against Lightning � News � University of Florida

You all should read this article before spending any money on Lightning Rods

The title should have added the word "alone" after Ground Rods. It is clearly stated that a surge protector at the meter protected the test house in two of three tests. In the third test, the meter did not have a surge protector and was destroyed. The article also states that the use of surge protectors inside for all electronic equipment and appliances in addition to a surge protector at the meter is recommended. When I had my lightning rods installed, we were told exactly that. We have a SECO surge protector at the meter, another surge protector at the panel, and individual surge protectors at the outlets that also include the cable for the TV and modem.

The article was published in August 2002. I'm sure the technology has improved immensely since then.

Update! We'll we have now made sure everything in the house has surge protectors (not just power strips) that includes ones that have cable hook up on them and phone line. We have replaced all that was lost and in some instances found some good deals.
Now I have to give HUGE kudos to our AAA Ins. They had an adjuster out in a couple of days and in less than 2 weeks after the lightning strike took out one electronics and tree and garage door opener, we have received 2 checks from AAA that even after they took out out $1000 deductible will covers all replacements! I am very impressed with AAA!

Quote:

Originally Posted by B & B III Home Services (Post 901717)

In Southeast, Ground Rods May Not Protect Homes Against Lightning � News � University of Florida

You all should read this article before spending any money on Lightning Rods

If the article you are talking about relates to grounding in sandy soil - this is why you hire a UL and LPI listed installer as it is their job to get a proper ground.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vic&Judy (Post 895862)

It seems the greatest threat is from indirect hits, and surge protectors are no guarantee of safety for equipment. It seems that unplugging everything is the only way to be sure, but given the frequency of storms at this time of year in TV, that seems pretty cumbersome.

Speaking of guarantees, there might not be any guarantee that an expensive (whole house) lightning rod system will keep your house from catching fire from a massive lightning strike.

Did A-1 Lightning Protection give a guarantee? Not that I expect they would, I'm just asking.

We used Pike Electric and let me tell you they arrived on time, sent a great worker and we are very pleased and will use them again in the future!

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikeod (Post 901867)

Is it necessary to put surge protectors at the outlets for appliances like refrigerator, washer/dryer, built-in microwave, range, dishwasher? Not sure how to do that -is it recommended?