Talk of The Villages Florida - Lightning Strikes in the Villages

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- - Lightning Strikes in the Villages (https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/villages-florida-general-discussion-73/lightning-strikes-villages-350968/)

I see few in my neighborhood, any idea guess how much lightning rod setup cost on small CYV?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Altavia (Post 2344056)

What would happen to PVC gas line In a fire?

I think these are in most older homes in villages?

“”. The gas piping is known as corrugated stainless steel tubing, or “yellow CSST.” “Homes with yellow CSST are at risk of perforation to the gas line caused by lightning strikes which could cause gas leaks or fires,” says Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart.Jun 18, 2015 “””

IMO needs to be class action law suit.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Altavia (Post 2344056)

What would happen to PVC gas line In a fire?

Enclosed in garage wall and insulated. Just wondering if there was a way to isolate attic metal gas pipe from ground.

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It occurred to me that the appliance end of the gas line is grounded anyhow, so my idea has no merit. :>(

Quote:

Originally Posted by Topspinmo (Post 2344067)

Many jurisdictions hav banned the use of "yellow CSST" "black CSST" is more resistant to electrical energy.

My friend had a lightning rod it got hit and started a fire in the attic

We had a LPS installed several years ago after attending a talk at the Science & Technology Club. Made absolute sense & we feel it’s kind of like an extra ‘insurance’ on our villa, paid a reasonable price and feel a bit ‘easier’ when there’s a storm.

There are many ways that lightning can damage your home and it doesn’t have to be a direct strike, and most aren’t direct hits. Right now, my friend that lives 1/2 mile away from the home that got hit with lightning, his internet service has been out since then and his neighbors had their TVs destroyed. Again all explainable.

Let’s ignore the direct hit, this is self explanatory, get lightning spikes installed on your house.
Power surges are very common and can damage equipment in your house so a whole house surge suppressor will help eliminate these surges.
The 3rd issue is something nobody addresses and that’s the copper cable coming into your home from a network or cable tv provider, which nobody suppresses. Every device that is connected to this copper cables is susceptible to a surge and will be damaged. Most of my surge suppressor indoor units have a rg6 connection to eliminate any surges.
There are many stories on lightning hitting a tree then having the voltage go down the tree trunk, hitting the power lines and then the neighbors experience a surge which damages their indoor appliances

Quote:

Originally Posted by MidWestIA (Post 2344117)

My friend had a lightning rod it got hit and started a fire in the attic

- If the fire was in the attic then the charge from the lightning went into the attic
- A lightning protection system (LPS) should carry the charge along cables to the ground and not let it into the structure
- A poorly installed LPS might not have sufficient grounding and therefore would not carry the charge away
- You mention a singular lightning rod installed. A proper LPS would have multiple "rods" at different points on the roof, at least one at each end of the peak. If he had only a single rod then it was not a properly installed LPS system.
- Nothing is 100% effective; the LPS should significantly decrease the likelihood of damage but cannot totally eliminate it

Quote:

Originally Posted by Topspinmo (Post 2344067)

There was, so they added a black plastic coating to CSST imtended to seal a pinhole leak to "reduce" the risk from that can happen with a nearby lightning strike. I would have happily paid the extra cost of iron pipe.

Having metallic gas lines in the attic is one of the main reasons I had a LPS installed.

Lightening hit the iron gas line where it comes into the garage at the meter on three homes near us the past 5 years. One home completely destroyed, still not habitable two years later.

It almost as if the homes have a single lightening rod consisting of the grounded iron pipe from the gas meter into the attic where it connects to the metallic gas line?

What evidence is there to prove or disprove if they work? Often there is a storm in the middle of the night (last night for instance) when I woke up hearing a loud crack of lightning very close. Apparently no homes burned down, no sirens. Quite a few of the homes in my area do have lightning systems so maybe one was stuck but the system worked. Unless there is a witness to a direct strike how do we really know? I imagine over the years at least a few people in TV must have witnessed one of these events.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MidWestIA (Post 2344117)

My friend had a lightning rod it got hit and started a fire in the attic

Your anecdote says nothing about whether having a lightning protection system reduces the risk of a lightning strike anymore than saying another friend who installed a lightning rod has not been hit by lightning.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jameson (Post 2344129)

The best evidence you could look for would be examples of protected houses being damaged by lightning. Have there been examples of homes with an LPS being damaged?

It still would be valid to suggest that maybe no homes with LPS were damaged because none were hit. But over time as more and more homes are damaged, it would statistically significant if none of those homes had an LPS system.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jrref (Post 2344061)

I'm not sure how you can classify one home in the Villages more of a target than another. In all the cases the study group has documented, there was nothing that would indicate one home being more volunerable than another. In fact the strike in Osceola Hills last month was just an ordinary large designer home.

If there were some technology to prevent lightning strikes that would be great but until there is something like that, that's proven, its best to just install a lightning and surge protection system which is better than doing nothing.

Just to be clear. Eventhough your home is insured, the insurance company is not going to quickly pay a very large claim like this especially if the strike causes a large fire and does a lot of damage. Also, there are not contractors waiting to rush and fix and or rebuild your home. We have documented case information from actual homeowners here in the Villages who can colloborate that it's a life changing event if your home is struck by lightning and it causes a lot of damage. Some of these homeowners have not been able to return to their homes for over a year and in some cases rebuilt as best they could and sold the home. So all this said, you need to determine your tolerance for risk then decide to do what you can or nothing and play the lottery since we live in one of the lightning capitals in the world and there is no denying that fact.

your paragraph #1, I didn't say that I was classifying each home differently just because they were hit, I am saying that given the number of houses in TV, each house has a low probability versus a 10 story building, or a large metal structure such as an electrical substation in the same area.

your paragraph #2, there is lightning strike prevention equipment, regardless whether your group has validated their effectiveness or not. . they are in use around the country in high value / high probability targets.

your paragraph #3, FUD bias as its not related to points about strike versus damage prevention systems, but the results of damage when hit.

LPS will NOT prevent a strike.

If you have a LPS & you have a strike, you will have damage.