Lightning & Power Surges

Patty

OK, guys, I need your expert advice. Last Sunday night, we had a thunderstorm in the Chicago area. At one point, there was a loud crash of thunder. At the same time, a stream of lightning ran across the South side of my home. It blew a few breakers out. The power went out for a few seconds; then it came back on. No big deal, so I thought.
Well, since then, I made a few discoveries.

1. One furnace needed a new 'panel'. ($700.00)
2. Culligan Water Softener was fried out, also. ($...not sure of charges)
3. Garage door opener fried out, too. (Not sure of $cost yet,$)

Had all three serviced this week. Will soon have to 'work' on a corner to afford all these repairs.

Here's my question. Is my house not grounded properly? Could this have been avoided with some sort of preventative measure? Keep in mind, I have just completed a total renovation of this house. I've never had this happen before. Any suggestions what to do to prevent this from happening again, in the future?

K2

Often the main grounds get disconnected/cut during a remodel sometimes after inspection. I'm still learning proper grounding so someone should be along to tell you what to look for but it might be worth it to get the electrician back out to have a look.

Teetorbilt

I have studied lightning for years. There is theory and there is reality.

Theory says that it will follow the path of least resistance and lightning rods appear to work well to protect structures.

The reality, from hundreds of observances, is that it can pretty well go wherever it wants to. I have seen some pretty quirky strikes that defy any theories that I have read.

__________________
You can't solve you're problems with the same level of thinking that created the problems.

Albert Einstein

ATS

Patty, your homeowners policy "may" cover the repairs. As for looking for a defect in your electrical system, I doubt it. Lightning strikes can't be contained for the most part. Heck even people that spend tens of thousands on lightning protection systems for their homes still have damage from strikes. Albeit, it wouldn't hurt to make sure your electrical system is up to snuff, especially now. One of the first electrical classes I took the instructor passed around a cylindrical shaped toasted something, nobody knew what it was. Turns out it was the remnants of the end of a ground rod and the soil around it someone pulled out after the house had been struck. The house and its appliances still suffered damage.

fridaymean

Patty we sure do get some great storms around here. I have seen lightning do some pretty wierd and amazing things. The fact is there are "therories" about lightning, but understand therories are not laws. It is "normal" for lightning to do wierd things to electrical systems. I have seen wires fused together, not from a short, but from lightning. The cause most likely was from insulation that was just a .001 an inch too thin. Once this happen even wierder things happen.

Most homes do not have a "big" enough ground for lightning. Along the way through the electrical system lightning has potential to do very nasty things.

So, I would say what happened in your case is "normal", but consult your insurance person.

CE1

Just a thought concerning mother nature but no help to you . Sorry

The laws of nature are just, but terrible. There is no weak mercy in them. Cause and consequence are inseperable and inevitable. The elements have no forbearance. The fire burns, the water drowns, the air consumes, the earth buries. And perhaps it would be well for our race if the punishment of crimes against the laws of man were as inevitable as the punishment of crimes against the laws of nature, -- were man as unerring in his judgments as nature. -- Longfellow.

Patty

Wow, CE1, until I saw you quoted Longfellow, I was just going to suggest you be Glasshousebltr Bob's campaign manager when he runs for President! For a minute there, I thought YOU wrote this!
BTW, nice quote! Thanks for sharing!

CE1

I would not even think of being Bob's campaign manager. Bob would require to WAY TOO much "Spin Control".

But then again he might be better than what we have now.

jbfan

My one experence with lighting is this. Hit a tree about 50' from the house. Went undergroung, blew out 3 tires on sons car. continueed into houe, taking out all phones, and cable. Tripped all my gfci's, took oout the boiler element from my stove. Tripped breaker to subpanel, and took out 1 tv and an old vcr. Evertything is grounded and bonded per code. Lighting goes where it wants, when it wants.

__________________
We are the people (our parents warned us about) (Jimmy Buffett)

Patty

Well, jbfan, your post certainly convinced me, along with the others, that there is no fooling Mother Nature. She certainly has her way despite all of our defying efforts.

Yesterday, while doing yardwork, I took a look at my grounding rod and noticed burn marks on it. Is that peculiar? Could that mean that my grounding rod got struck?

BTW, thanks to everyone for your insightful responses. You helped me get over my feelings that, perhaps, something wasn't connected properly. I renovated this house rather extensively and had several different contractor crews here performing various work. I had this paranoid thought that someone slipped up and did not 'connect' something right. I have a friend whose husband is a very good electrician. I will have him do a 'once over' on the house just to ease my mind and possibly correct any problem, but I'm willing to bet all is well and that it was just a fluke of nature. Thanks, again for the terrific advice.

firemike

Working in the trades and the fire service, I have literaly seen dozens and dozens of lightning strikes first hand, and there is no rhyme or reason to it. One interesting strike, lightning hit a restaurant rooftop sign and the service drop mast. Left burn marks on the sign, blew all the neon tubing off it, arced across all three bus bars in the main breaker panel inside (you could see the fresh arc marks on them), blew two plugs in the store room out of the wall, burned out the motor on the meat saw, yet all the computerized cash registers, the office computer system, juke box, etc was not damaged, and worked well for years after. Go figure...

All I know for sure is that Mother Nature is a "bitch" and she will generally always win.

mas2006

Direct strike all bets off. You can protect against induced surge with suppressors, power systems act like antennas for near lightening strikes. Once they take a hit though may need to replace suppressor.
New models have indicators. Turn off main during storms, it will give some protection (less inconvient that replacing stuff). House I live in has large switch disconnect before breaker pannel. It's there because of three past lightening caused fires.

CatfishElectric

In a nut shell, there is no fool proof way to protect against lightning.

As far as ground rods go..... they can be less effective than most think. According to NEC, an adaquit(sp) ground rod should have less than 25 ohms resistance. This is something seldom checked by most electricans. In dry or drought stricken areas, it is physicaly impossible to achive such properties. Here in the Texas panhandle the best your gonna do is around 40 ohms. NEC also states, that while it is not a solution to the problem, an acceptable measure to compensate is to drive an additonal ground rod. The second ground rod should no closer to the first ground rod than the rod measures in length. Keep in mind that even if you do have 25 ohms or less at the time of installation, that dosent mean you will still have it a year later of even sooner. Over a period of time the ground rod will corrode and/or (bake out) as it does its job.

Ideal grounding means consist of bonding to copper or steel water pipe. And most effectively, bonding to concrete encased steel, such as rebarb. Reason being, concrete always pulls in moisture, thus creating the least resistance. Typicly a ground rod should be used as a secondary means of grounding. However, due to the increased usage of PVC pipe for water lines and such, a ground rod is accepted as a sole means of ground by the NEC.

Quoting the NEC could go on untill my computer runs out of ink so I'll leave you with that for now. Hope it helps.

Catfish 8)

Neil_K

I know there are whole-house surge protectors that protect power from coming in from the pole. However, a direct hit to the house won't protect it. You can further protect electronics with simple, inexpensive surge protectors. However, you have to protect cable and phone lines on the device or you risk damage. I've got a surge protector on every TV/computer/stereo device in the house.

I said inexpensive surge protectors, but my standard disclaimer "any surge protector that has a $$$ protection guarantee should be good."

Neil