Robert Redelmeier wrote:
In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips Chuck Harris wrote:

It is bonded back at the service panel with a #10ga copper
wire. The pipe to the well is plastic.


#10 is good, #00 is better~!


The last time we got a direct hit by lightning, the water
changed its tint for several days. It went from grey,
to yellow/orange. We lost a chunk of terracotta flue liner
on that one, and several appliances.


Perhaps you should install a whole-house surge protector on
the panel (~$50). You lose two-wire appiances through ground
vs power surges. Your pole transformer and it's ground is
probably a ways away.

-- Robert

The lightning hit the chimney cap, went down the brickwork of the
chimney, and entered the bond system by way of an outdoor flood
light that is mounted next to the chimney. The current zapped
a 3 wire treadmill (7 ft from floodlight), and flipped the breaker
on the circuit that had the flood light. No damage through the power
to any other devices. However, the induced surge in the security
wire/telephone wires that pass through the house blew two modems and
a phone answering machine. But not a cordless phone, or any other
telephones. One modem carried its surge into the RS232 line, and
toasted the drivers and uart on a Dell motherboard. I lost a
HPJetDirect card too... a failure in the 10baseT driver circuits.

Our power is buried, and the transformer is one of those steel
enclosed boxes about 70 feet from the house.

Fun!

One thing I have never been able to determine is whether we would
be safer with a lightning rod system, or without. My insurance
company is silent on this issue... you pay the same rates either
way. In our area, there have been several houses and barns that
have burned down,due to lightning strikes, and they had lightning
rod systems. Anecdotal evidence, to be sure.

-Chuck Harris