Nevermind, found his recent video presentation from the POA meeting.

Are there any powerline techs in the audience?
Notice that there's a lighter weight line running along the top of power lines, especially the high tension lines. That line is an artificial ground, placed there to afford lightning protection to the towers and power lines. I've witnessed those lines taking lightning strikes and saving the grid they were on from outage.

So... it seems to me that there should also be a "cone of protection" from these lines. We live in Chitty Chatty which has a high tension set of lines running right down the middle of the village. Is it reasonable to imagine the protection on those towers provides a cone of protection for nearby homes? If so, to what distance?

One model shows Protection @45 degrees from perpendicular or for a distance equal to the height of the ground wire.

Another model would use a 150 ft diameter arc tangent with the wire and the ground.

Unlikely homes are that close.

Agree with Altavia. I doubt if there are any homes close enough to the Duke transmission line right-of-way to receive any benefit from their lightning protection system.

The grounds can be widely spaced for power transmission so wondering if there is risk of of a side flash from the power lines to a home?

The homes are not close enough for a side flash, HOWEVER, if you are standing next to a tower when the line gets struck there is a very real possibility that you will be struck also. The smaller overhead wire at the top of some lines (typically called a static or ground wire) is there for the protection of the conductors below from a lightning strike. Lastly, the homes would be outside the 'cone' of protection for the power lines. While I am not a transmission engineer, I was a profession electrical engineer with an electric utility for over 40 years.

A-1 and Triangle seem to be the two local companies. Is one better than the other? Are there other companies to consider?

I used A-1 and am very satisfied with them. If you attend one of Len Hathaway's "lightning" talks he lists the local vendors which follow standard procedures -- and A-1 is one of them.

Phone App Question
 

While this thread is about home protection, does anyone have a good phone app that alerts to approaching lightning? I'm looking for one that alerts when the lightning is about 10 miles away, so that I have time to get inside. Or off of the golf course.

WeatherBug does. I also downloaded the SumterCountySheriff app. They send out alerts from the NWS along with other useful information.

My Lightning Tracker is a good app for monitoring lightning strikes all around the world in close to real-time.

My Lightning Tracker | jRustonApps

John Sherlock at Lightening Defense has 50 yrs experience.

https://lightningdefense.com/

Thank you!

Thanks!