For my home an Ivy, Triangle installed 6 air terminals not one. This will vary on the size and design of your home. This is why you need to hire a UL certified LPS company who has the knowlege to do the installation correctly.

I understand that’s what they do. But how high are the terminals. If the are only a foot high your cone of protection only goes out so many degrees from the tip of the rod. At least that’s the way I understand lightning protection.

Does the LPS protect the the gas lines in the attic? Lightening struck a neighbors home, arked and split our gas line in the attic. We were fortunate and were able to have it mitigated right away, but troubling nevertheless.

Lightning Protection Discussion
 

Wow. Great discussion on LPS. TOV at its best. Thank you all posters. FYI, I have SECO installed surge protector on my meter, excellent surge protector electrical outlets installed on my electrical circuits feeding major appliances, and a roof mounted LPS installed by A-1 Lightning. Danny (owner/installer) apparently has done thousands of TV properties, many industrial sites, and knows his craft. I learned a lot from asking him a lot of Qs; many of his answers confirmed in this discussion. Taking the above steps seemed logical considering TV is a “lightning capital” of the U.S. Good luck to all in your decision making process.

I would think they would have to attract lightning, since you are effectively raising the ground potential up over the roof.

I don't see any talk about the static discharge or drain that provide some protection from lightning. Just keeping ground mounted components from building up a static charge -- helps.

My understanding is: The lightning rod is not intended to attract the lightening bolt, but to attract the charged ions in the air around the house during an electrical storm. the lightening bolt follows the richest path of charged ions to the earth. Since your house is surrounded by relatively ion-free air, lightening bolts go elsewhere.

I did the math on the probability of being struck by lightening. I took the total number of lightening induced house fires among all the houses in TV. I don't remember the calculated probability, but it was something like my house would be struck, on average, every 400 years. (Maybe it was more, I don't remember.) Of those numbers, few people are killed, and all of the houses have fire insurance. My calculations led me to conclude that lightening rods were an expensive insurance for an extremely unlikely event. Now, every person has a different tolerance for risk, but for me, there were many more likely catastrophes I should insure against first.

Stu: Allow me to describe our lightning strike of about 20 years ago. Our two story gable-roof home (northern Indiana) took a direct hit at one end of the highest ridge. We did not have rods but did have surge protectors on several sensitive electronic devices (stereo hifi and desktop computer). It hit at 6 in the morning while we were all sleeping. The strike was absolutely deafening - the whole house shook and instantly strongly smelled of ozone. The strike blew 4 8-inch diameter holes in the roof - through the shingles and plywood sheathing and spaced about 2-feet apart.

The damage: In addition to the roof damage our entire land-line phone system was destroyed - all the wiring was literally fried beyond repair and the phone units as well. All plugged in electronic devices were toast beyond repair - small radios, clocks, microwave, the computers and my beloved HiFi. We had a in-ground 900 foot "Invisible" dog fence. The fence control unit was blown across the garage (25 feet). Interestingly, at about every 50 feet of the buried perimeter wire was a 4 inch crater with a broken wire at the bottom. It even blew out a smaller crater in the concrete driveway where the wire crossed. There was even a 18 inch charred streak across a wall-to-wall carpet from a floor lamp to a forced-air register. The washer, dryer, stove, furnace and AC unit were not affected. My neighbors' computers on both sides were toast. One of these homes had lightning rod protection. Neither had surge protectors.

Home owners insurance (Allstate) took care of everything post haste although we received a pro rata allowance on replacing the charred carpet and HiFi due to their age. The surge protectors were worthless for a direct lightning strike as would a whole-house surge protector as I now understand these devices. As regarding the SECO units I urge you to read the warnings and limitations part of deal - eye opening.

The official data on lightning strikes in TV is useful; the unofficial, directly observable (not hearsay) and perhaps unreported data on TV lightning strikes also is instructive. E.g., my neighbor across the street has had two lightning strikes, one causing major damage, a house down the street from mine was struck resulting in a total loss and a rebuild, a house on a nearby street also was recently struck. We live on higher ground; perhaps a reason for a lot of lightning activity, or simply bad luck. Lightning — one of nature’s greatest free shows. I’ve personally been within 50 yards of lightning strikes. That sealed the deal for me. Scary and fascinating.

Wow thanks so much for sharing. Scary stuff.

I don't think anyone would challenge this analysis but at the end of the day you may hit the lottery and have lightning strike your house. That said, are you saying if you do get hit the time and effort to re-build your home, loosing all your personal momentos and the value of your familie's lives is not worth the $2,000 one time expense to mitigate a catastrophic event like this?

Having your house burn down here in the Villages is also a very low probability but does that mean you shouldn't waste your money on smoke detectors and or fire extinguishers?

You should go over to that home that was recently destroyed over in Amelia and see if that influences your decision.

Stu, it is pretty scary but i've found most of my friends who have a LPS installed here in the Villages had suffered a lightning strike in a previous home.

Yes. the LPS will prevent the lightning from entering your attic. Also, the LPS company will bond the grounding grid to your gas manifold as well. Remember the purpose of the LPS is to direct the charge safely to ground via the LPS grounding system and not let it enter and richochet aroung your attic and home possibly killing one of the occupants.

The bottom line is stay away from the villiages

You are talking to the lightning -- right ? You want the discharge to stay away !!