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Thread: Lightning Protection

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    North Dana, Masachusetts
    Posts
    486
    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Bender View Post
    I believe my old VFD was toasted by lightning a few years ago and replaced it. It is 120 volts. The saw was wired with an "ON/OFF" switch thru the VFD and a "Power" switch on the power feed to the VFD. I replaced the power switch with a DPDT switch so lightning would not be able to fly in thru the white wire. I turn the power switch on when using the saw so it's off 99% of the time. Any value to this type of switch?
    I have had a few hits. I could tell some stories about lightning hits, but most of them are made up. However, this is not the forum where one describes extramarital affairs uncovered by untimely lightning strikes.

    I put plugs on everything after I lost some stuff. The ground was the problem. Lightning came in on the ground and cost me money.

    Knowing when I'm going to get a storm is part of the problem. The shop is pretty sound proof. I use this web site and app. https://www.lightningmaps.org/?lang=...d=2;dl=2;dc=0;

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Mt Pleasant SC
    Posts
    721
    The two best things to do, install a surge device that plugs into both legs in the main panel.
    Add another copper ground rod at least 8 feet from the other one. Clamping it to the first one is ok but make sure the clamps grind into the metal.

  3. #18
    Lightning can do some really weird things. A story I've told often happened while we were building a 10 story office building. One morning I get to work and my guys are telling me how some temp lights were bright, some were dim and some didn't work at all. The manlift wasn't working. The ironworker's foreman said the door knob to his trailer was hot, which made no sense because the trailer was grounded. As I was checking the voltage at the doorknob, the door to our trailer banged open and the guy inside threw out a smoking telephone. He said he was talking on the phone when it started smoking. And the ironworker's doorknob? I got 50 volts off it.

    We always called in Harger to do our lightning protection installations. This is a page from their residential brochure

    “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness..." - Mark Twain

  4. #19
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    McKean, PA
    Posts
    15,596
    Blog Entries
    1
    Years ago, lightning hit our steel flag pole, which is about 30 feet shorter than the surrounding trees. It melted the shackle the held the pulley to the top of the flag pole. The strike came down the flag pole, found the twisted pair wire of the dog fence 5 feet away from the base of the pole and vaporized over 200 feet of the dog fence loop. It also followed the twisted pair into the house where the supplier had a lightning protector that put the charge into the electrical ground for the house. We lost a couple of electronic devices and plug in power supplies. Not enough damage to file a claim with our insurance. The dog fence manufacturer replaced the lightning arrester free of charge.

    The Bio Fuel plant I helped build in Erie,PA installed a lightning protection system that has recorded several thousand hits in the first few years of operation with no issues. It had an extensive ground plane of copper wires and special protection dome devices with strike counters mounted on high spots around the facility. As far as I know there was no other damage done by the strikes.
    Last edited by Lee Schierer; 04-18-2021 at 9:03 AM.
    Lee Schierer
    USNA '71
    Go Navy!

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  5. #20
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Tampa Bay, FL
    Posts
    3,895
    All I have to say is that our NHL team is the Lightning. Can't be a coincidence.
    - After I ask a stranger if I can pet their dog and they say yes, I like to respond, "I'll keep that in mind" and walk off
    - It's above my pay grade. Mongo only pawn in game of life.

  6. #21
    I watched a friend trying to walk his dog on a leash - - the largest Great Dane I've ever seen.

    I've seen some very elaborate lighting protection systems.

    They have a common theme in that both the leash and the protection system are just suggestions.

  7. #22
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
    Location
    Modesto, CA, USA
    Posts
    9,889
    In theory a lightening rod drains off electron charge before it gets high enough to arc.
    Bill D

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