Talk of The Villages Florida - Lightning Strikes Burns Two Villages Homes 8/7/25

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Interesting thread. We have the seco unit and recently put in a whole house surge protector.

Surprised that insurance companies will not offer a discount for protecting your home from lightning.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stu from NYC (Post 2452853)

Interesting thread. We have the seco unit and recently put in a whole house surge protector.

Surprised that insurance companies will not offer a discount for protecting your home from lightning.

I recently sighed up with Frontline insurance for my home and they offer a discount for a whole house surge protector. It's minimal but a discount nevertheless.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jrref (Post 2452838)

There is a Villager from Hadley who's house was struck by lightning several years ago. He's one of the 17 that was struck here in the Villages that had a Lightning Protection System installed. He's not on Talk of the Villages so he sent me the following to post on this thread so everyone can read about his experience.
>>>>>
At approximately 6:30 PM on June 10, 2014, our house sustained a direct hit by lightning. The thunderstorm had passed, the skies were clearing, we had left for a meeting when the strike occurred.

While at the meeting, a neighbor three houses down the street called me and said his house was struck by lightening and asked for a reference for an electrician, as several of his circuit breakers had tripped wouldn’t reset.

We finished our meeting and headed home. When we turned onto our street, we noticed many of the neighbors standing in their front yards. When we pulled into our driveway, the garage door didn’t work. Uh oh.

Turns out it wasn’t our neighbors house that was hit… it was ours. And the strike blew out circuit breakers up and down our side of the street.

When we entered our home and investigated, we discovered our telephone point of interface had been blown off the outside wall (damaging the neighbor’s vinyl siding), so the telephones were dead, and many lights were out.

On further investigation we discovered our SECO whole house surge protector was totally destroyed, the Eaton whole-house surge protector was tripped, and most of the circuit breakers were tripped. Several of the circuit breakers couldn’t be reset. I checked in the attic, and there was no evidence of fire or structural damage.

SECO arrive that evening and replaced the SECO whole house surge protector and our electrician replaced the bad circuit breakers and checked the house wiring. We also three satellite receivers and a modem destroyed, all of which were connected to the unprotected telephone lines, a washing machine circuit card, and the garage door button.

The following day the lightening protection system technician came and inspected our lightening protection system. The system was unharmed, except for the top air terminal which had 1/4 to 1/2 inch burned off the top. The technician replaced that air terminal, which I subsequently gave to Len Hathaway.

Hope this helps…
Dana
<<<<<<

We talk about and show Dana's experience and show the damaged lightning rod at our presentations.

As I would have suspected. Same result by putting a flag pole outside in the ground, just that the pole can take more than the system can, either way same result. The difference being that when it strikes the house with no system, there is a "limited" amount of damage depending on the bolt. Max damage would include some sort of effect on the houses on either side of the strike house. When you use the system, (much like a flag pole), yes you are attempting tolimit house damage however IF (which in your case) that lame ground wire they use survives the strike, more than 1 or 2 houses will be effected. This is what occured with all those homes around him losing power etc. The strike actually electrified the ground and sought out other avenues of "release". This is where something the size of a flag pole, much like a tree, has enough to it to help absorb that release of energy and subdue it.

This is exactly why when we were looking at houses I refused anything with or near that system. If I'm going to potentially attract lightening it's going to be with something that can absorb the energy.

Would be a good project for POA to take on, would not you agree? Or some local government agency? Isn’t it their job to keep people safe?

This has been a good thread. We are in the process of purchasing a home in TV. I can't recall any seller that has listed lightning protection as an asset, either surge protection or LPS. Which is a little surprising given the lightning intensity of the region. We live on Long Island which gets occasional intense lightning storms. My house has never been struck but other houses in the neighborhood have. One near neighbor had his front brick steps blown apart when the metal handrail was struck and another neighbor had his cable box blown off the garage wall by a strike. LPS or whole house surge protection is not common here. As a result of nearby strikes I've lost a TV, a garage door opener, an answering machine and a computer. The computer was individually surge protected, but the surge came through a land phone line to a modem board in the computer. The surge effects are as random as the strikes. A direct or indirect strike can cost anywhere from hundreds to many thousands of dollars and maybe the loss of things that money can't buy. Getting protection is a matter of risk assessment much like travel insurance, how much is at stake. You don't get it if you're traveling to the coast for a long weekend. But if you're doing a two-week cruise to Europe, you probably get it. To me, in Florida having whole house surge protection looks to be essential. The cost of a LPS seems to be less than 1% of the cost of the houses I'm considering. I expect I will get one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by midiwiz (Post 2452864)

So,...... A couple of points.

1) If what you say were true, all you would need is one lightning rod at the top of the house or maybe bolt and ground one of your old golf Irons to the top of your house and you will be all set.

2) Electicity travels on the surface of the wire which is why stranded wire is better than a single conductor. Even a very large strike only lasts for about a milisecond which is why the wires used to ground your LPS are sufficient to carry the charge safely to ground. By code, each lightning rod needs at least two cable connections to ground. What your eye sees is the heat generated by the strike vaproizing the moisture and what ever else is in the air.

3) If lightning rods attracted lighting and your neighbor's had an LPS, their homes would attract the lightning and yours would be safe. Or maybe your neighbor has a flag pole? Either way, it doesn't work like that and we have multipule cases where a home was hit and burned down here in the Villages while a home across the street and next to it had a LPS which proves the point. The one in Sunset Pointe that burned last year had both and in addition had towering palm trees in the front and the house still got hit.

4) When a home takes a direct hit, an EMP or an induced surge is produced which can and often does travel to neighboring homes destroying their electronic devices if they do not have surge protection.

5) Being serious, Flag poles are never anchored deep enough in the ground to provide an adequate earth ground so lightning typically, doesn't strike flag poles like the ones people put in front of their homes here in the Villages. If I had a flag pole, I would try to ground it with a 10ft ground rod and then, you are right, it would act as an air terminal or lightning rod in front of your house.

As mentioned, a lightning protection system doesn't prevent your home from being hit by lightning but it will reduce the probability that there will be significant damage and fire because the charge will strike the lightning rod and the cables will send the charge safely to earth ground via the ground rods vs striking your roof and setting it on fire. And if you look at the science, having a LPS doesn't increase the chances of your home being hit by lightning.

What are these el-cheapo $600 systems of which people speak? Will they keep my house from burning down?

If a drive a 10ft ground rod into the ground and attach a 1-iron to it (even god can't hit a one iron being the joke).....will that actually work?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stu from NYC (Post 2452853)

Interesting thread. We have the seco unit and recently put in a whole house surge protector.

Surprised that insurance companies will not offer a discount for protecting your home from lightning.

I just called USAA and they don't offer discounts for LPS or whole house surge protectors, but the representative said they are points of discussion with management for future policy changes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimhoward (Post 2452901)

As far as the 1-iron, technically if you earth ground it properly it may provide some protection. I don't believe anyone has tested that yet.

It depends on how small you house is LOL

I don't know where the $600 system came from but typically a LPS can cost about $1,500 for a Villa, to $2,800 for a Designer home to $3,800 for a large Designer or Premier home. Note, there are some very large Premier homes that will be more but I'm sure those Villagers are not concerned with the cost.

So how do units like the CMCE Lightning Suppressor come into the discussion?

I’ve seen two houses in our Village that have them installed on the roof. There’s never any one outside to stop and chat with.

I haven’t found any independent information about them in the webs.

Do they work?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ignatz (Post 2452965)

There have been studies on CMCE lightning suppressors for over 20 years and there is no definitive proof that they actually work. You will see some companies that install them saying that they do but when you ask them for any study documentation, you never get it. They are way more expensive than traditional lightning protections systems. Roughly 2x+ more. With most here in the Villages so price sensitive, I don't understand why anyone would consider a CMCE system.

From my personal point of view, these systems may work with a small storm but with a medium to large storm I don't see how the capacitive element in the head could ever "bleed" off that very high charge. And if it can't, it will act as a normal lightning rod and cover whatever area it can on your roof.

I know one was installed in Osceola Hills. Where is the other?

If you don't have whole house surge protection, call Lake Deaton Electric, Dave Robinson on 352-630-3579 and get an Eaton Ultra installed at your circuit breaker panel. This is needed in addition to the surge protector from Seco that is on you meter since that protector is designed to manage surges coming from the electric utility.

Surge protection is also very important when we talk about ligtning since induced power surges happen everytime we have a storm with lightning when lightning hits near your house. There is no spectacular fire so it's not reported but an induced power surge from lightning will damage your electrical devices and appliances in your home. In my opinion, for the one time cost, whole house surge protection is mandatory. Call Dave, he has a very fair price to install this device and does a great job.

For more on surge protection see this link -> With all the recent storms we have had in the past couple of months here in the Villages, many have realized the need for surge protection.

In addition to the good advice that jref provided there have been cases when a flag pole was hit by lightning andthe 2" of rock at the base was blown around and struck a neighbors car across the street. A proper arrangement would be a lighting protection system that is connected to the flag pole per the lightning standard NFPA-780. Remember lightning is unpredictable and you have no ideal what it will do once it reaches the ground - or your house.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sounding (Post 2452228)

One home in Calumet Grove and the other in Sabal Chase - and neither had lightning rods.

What was the damage? Total loss?

Quote:

Originally Posted by sounding (Post 2452905)

I just called USAA and they don't offer discounts for LPS or whole house surge protectors, but the representative said they are points of discussion with management for future policy changes.

Our home insurance is with Allstate and based on this thread asked about a discount and the answer is they do not offer one for surge protector or even LPS.