If lightening hit my well head, a pipe about 2 feet tall with a cap
sticking out of the ground, can it follow the pipe down to the water,
come in to the pump and out to my show head and zap me?




--
LSMFT

I look outside this morning and everything was in 3D!

On Aug 10, 6:40*pm, LSMFT wrote:
If lightening *hit my well head, a pipe about 2 feet tall with a cap
sticking out of the ground, can it follow the pipe down to the water,
come in to the pump and out to my show head and zap me?

Yup.
-----

- gpsman

On 8/10/2010 5:40 PM, LSMFT wrote:
If lightening hit my well head, a pipe about 2 feet tall with a cap
sticking out of the ground, can it follow the pipe down to the water,
come in to the pump and out to my show head and zap me?





nope

--
Steve Barker
remove the "not" from my address to email

On Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:40:07 -0400, LSMFT wrote:

If lightening hit my well head, a pipe about 2 feet tall with a cap
sticking out of the ground, can it follow the pipe down to the water,
come in to the pump and out to my show head and zap me?

Well, lightning (no e) can go almost anywhere it "wants" but it's
headed to the earth. Since most of your pipe down to the water is
underground, and the earch around the pipe isn't bone dry or even very
dry (is it?) I doubt it would do that. I think it would head from the
pipe straight to the ground. But what do I know?

Also lightning tends to hit high things and pointed things. If your
well is nearer your house than the height of the house, or nearer a
tree than the height of the tree, it might not be too attractive.

And your pipe and cap are probably not pointed.

There was a lightning hotline 25 years ago. Maybe it's still around.
OTOH, the person on the phone kept assuming I lived in Florida and
seemed to wonder why I was asking if I didn't live in Florida.

On Aug 10, 5:40*pm, LSMFT wrote:
If lightening *hit my well head, a pipe about 2 feet tall with a cap
sticking out of the ground, can it follow the pipe down to the water,
come in to the pump and out to my show head and zap me?

--
LSMFT

I look outside this morning and everything was in 3D!

Metal or PVC pipe? Assuming you mean metal, it would be highly
unlikely but possible. It is looking for ground and it found it so
why would it go back up to your shower? However if the whole volume
of water built up a charge (unlikely), it may be possible. The whole
scenario changes though if the lightning hits the house instead of the
well head pipe.

mm wrote:
On Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:40:07 -0400, LSMFT wrote:

If lightening hit my well head, a pipe about 2 feet tall with a cap
sticking out of the ground, can it follow the pipe down to the water,
come in to the pump and out to my show head and zap me?

Well, lightning (no e) can go almost anywhere it "wants" but it's
headed to the earth. Since most of your pipe down to the water is
underground, and the earch around the pipe isn't bone dry or even very
dry (is it?) I doubt it would do that. I think it would head from the
pipe straight to the ground. But what do I know?

Also lightning tends to hit high things and pointed things. If your
well is nearer your house than the height of the house, or nearer a
tree than the height of the tree, it might not be too attractive.

And your pipe and cap are probably not pointed.

Actually the "point" is to deter lightning by streaming negatively charged
ions in the rod's vicinity. In this sense, it actually repels lightning. If
the lightning bolt does not take the hint, however, the rod - with or
without a point - will attempt to channel the current to the earth.

On Aug 10, 6:40*pm, LSMFT wrote:
If lightening *hit my well head, a pipe about 2 feet tall with a cap
sticking out of the ground, can it follow the pipe down to the water,
come in to the pump and out to my show head and zap me?

--
LSMFT

I look outside this morning and everything was in 3D!

Since anything is poosible, just to be safe, I have a suggestion.

Avoid the possibility by not using the shower if lightning (no e)
might occur.

Instead, go outside in the rain and wash up au natural.

I believe that there's a pipe about 2 feet tall with a cap sticking
out of the ground that you could rest your soap and shampoo on.

On Aug 10, 5:40*pm, LSMFT wrote:
If lightening *hit my well head, a pipe about 2 feet tall with a cap
sticking out of the ground, can it follow the pipe down to the water,
come in to the pump and out to my show head and zap me?

--
LSMFT

I look outside this morning and everything was in 3D!

I try to stay out of the shower when lightening is in the area.

I remember one instance in our area where lightning hit a tree that
was 30 feet or more from a feller's house. The lightning followed the
shallow roots of the tree right over to the foundation of the house,
went up the wall of the house and popped open a hole in the drywall
just above the head of the sleeping homeowner in his bedroom.
Lightning is flat out unpredictable.

On Aug 10, 5:40*pm, LSMFT wrote:
If lightening *hit my well head, a pipe about 2 feet tall with a cap
sticking out of the ground, can it follow the pipe down to the water,
come in to the pump and out to my show head and zap me?

--
LSMFT

I look outside this morning and everything was in 3D!

Do you mean lightning?? Lightening is what Michael Jackson did to his
skin.

"LSMFT" wrote in message
...
If lightening hit my well head, a pipe about 2 feet tall with a cap
sticking out of the ground, can it follow the pipe down to the water, come
in to the pump and out to my show head and zap me?



I've seen three rather strong instances with lightning that would keep me
out of the shower. In all three cases, the strike was close enough to cause
a scare or damage.

1. The utility pole outside on the street is the last one on the street and
it has a guy wire to anchor it on the side with no lines. When a strike
hit, there was enough power to blow out a trough of dirt from the cable to
the curb and blow out a 6" hunk of curbing. Power was not lost.

2. During a storm, lighting hit someplace nearby. My family room slider has
an aluminum frame at ground level. There was an arc that went from the door
frame to the baseboard heat under the sofa, a distance of about 6 feet.

3. About 6 weeks ago, it hit someplace outside. The arc(s) burned a hole
in the downspout where it was a few inches from a spotlight fixture. It
burned the bulbs, the inside plug and a controller and receptacle, travelled
from the detached garage, back into the house, blew out a breaker in the
main panel and took out my TV, Receiver, doorbell, DSL modem.

In all cases, the hit was never pinpointed but the power surge was enough to
show its ugly head. Could have been 10 feet, 100 feet, or a half mile.
I'd stay out of the shower.

On Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:28:13 -0700 (PDT), hibb
wrote:

On Aug 10, 5:40Â*pm, LSMFT wrote:
If lightening Â*hit my well head, a pipe about 2 feet tall with a cap
sticking out of the ground, can it follow the pipe down to the water,
come in to the pump and out to my show head and zap me?

--
LSMFT

I look outside this morning and everything was in 3D!

I try to stay out of the shower when lightening is in the area.

I remember one instance in our area where lightning hit a tree that
was 30 feet or more from a feller's house. The lightning followed the
shallow roots of the tree right over to the foundation of the house,
went up the wall of the house and popped open a hole in the drywall
just above the head of the sleeping homeowner in his bedroom.
Lightning is flat out unpredictable.

Several times in the old farmhouse my mother grew up in, lightning hit
the cistern pump at the back of the house, jumpedthrough the doorway
to the aluminum edge trim of the kitchen counter, from there to the
Findlay Oval cookstove, and from there to the sink which was grounded
to the wellwater pump - blowing chips of enamel off the stove and the
sink each time.

Hit the old oak tree in front of the house numerous times too. - and
the lightning rods on both the house and the barn. The farmstead stood
(actually still stands) on a hill - out in the open with nothing else
around, about a mile and a half downstream of the Conestoga Dam in
Ontario Canada - and the old oak was about 3 times as tall as the
farmhouse.

On 2010-08-11, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

I've seen three rather strong instances with lightning that would keep me
out of the shower. In all three cases, the strike was close enough to cause
a scare or damage.

1. The utility pole outside on the street is the last one on the street and
it has a guy wire to anchor it on the side with no lines. When a strike
hit, there was enough power to blow out a trough of dirt from the cable to
the curb and blow out a 6" hunk of curbing. Power was not lost.

2. During a storm, lighting hit someplace nearby. My family room slider has
an aluminum frame at ground level. There was an arc that went from the door
frame to the baseboard heat under the sofa, a distance of about 6 feet.

3. About 6 weeks ago, it hit someplace outside. The arc(s) burned a hole
in the downspout where it was a few inches from a spotlight fixture. It
burned the bulbs, the inside plug and a controller and receptacle, travelled
from the detached garage, back into the house, blew out a breaker in the
main panel and took out my TV, Receiver, doorbell, DSL modem.

In all cases, the hit was never pinpointed but the power surge was enough to
show its ugly head. Could have been 10 feet, 100 feet, or a half mile.
I'd stay out of the shower.

Once, I was playing Nintendo during a thunderstorm, holding a controller
with my sweat soaked hands, and I received a light shock through the
controller when lightning struck off in the distance.

It seemed so odd considering that the strike wasn't even very close.
There were at lest several seconds delay between light and sound.

On Wed, 11 Aug 2010 02:40:16 +0000 (UTC), ShadowTek
wrote:

On 2010-08-11, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

I've seen three rather strong instances with lightning that would keep me
out of the shower. In all three cases, the strike was close enough to cause
a scare or damage.

1. The utility pole outside on the street is the last one on the street and
it has a guy wire to anchor it on the side with no lines. When a strike
hit, there was enough power to blow out a trough of dirt from the cable to
the curb and blow out a 6" hunk of curbing. Power was not lost.

2. During a storm, lighting hit someplace nearby. My family room slider has
an aluminum frame at ground level. There was an arc that went from the door
frame to the baseboard heat under the sofa, a distance of about 6 feet.

3. About 6 weeks ago, it hit someplace outside. The arc(s) burned a hole
in the downspout where it was a few inches from a spotlight fixture. It
burned the bulbs, the inside plug and a controller and receptacle, travelled
from the detached garage, back into the house, blew out a breaker in the
main panel and took out my TV, Receiver, doorbell, DSL modem.

In all cases, the hit was never pinpointed but the power surge was enough to
show its ugly head. Could have been 10 feet, 100 feet, or a half mile.
I'd stay out of the shower.

Once, I was playing Nintendo during a thunderstorm, holding a controller
with my sweat soaked hands, and I received a light shock through the
controller when lightning struck off in the distance.

It seemed so odd considering that the strike wasn't even very close.
There were at lest several seconds delay between light and sound.

Wow to all these stories. How long between the light and the shock
you felt?

ShadowTek wrote:
On 2010-08-11, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
I've seen three rather strong instances with lightning that would keep me
out of the shower. In all three cases, the strike was close enough to cause
a scare or damage.

1. The utility pole outside on the street is the last one on the street and
it has a guy wire to anchor it on the side with no lines. When a strike
hit, there was enough power to blow out a trough of dirt from the cable to
the curb and blow out a 6" hunk of curbing. Power was not lost.

2. During a storm, lighting hit someplace nearby. My family room slider has
an aluminum frame at ground level. There was an arc that went from the door
frame to the baseboard heat under the sofa, a distance of about 6 feet.

3. About 6 weeks ago, it hit someplace outside. The arc(s) burned a hole
in the downspout where it was a few inches from a spotlight fixture. It
burned the bulbs, the inside plug and a controller and receptacle, travelled
from the detached garage, back into the house, blew out a breaker in the
main panel and took out my TV, Receiver, doorbell, DSL modem.

In all cases, the hit was never pinpointed but the power surge was enough to
show its ugly head. Could have been 10 feet, 100 feet, or a half mile.
I'd stay out of the shower.

Once, I was playing Nintendo during a thunderstorm, holding a controller
with my sweat soaked hands, and I received a light shock through the
controller when lightning struck off in the distance.

It seemed so odd considering that the strike wasn't even very close.
There were at lest several seconds delay between light and sound.

Shrug. Induced current. Back in dial-up days, I once lost a modem to a
distant lightning strike, even though the phones kept working fine. They
said it was likely the local loop acting as antenna for the stray
current. In your case, if the TV had a roof antenna, you acting as a
ground probably kept the TV from getting fried. I presume it was on one
of those game-tv RF modulator switch boxes?

--
aem sends...

On Tue, 10 Aug 2010 22:56:49 -0400, aemeijers
wrote:

ShadowTek wrote:
On 2010-08-11, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
I've seen three rather strong instances with lightning that would keep me
out of the shower. In all three cases, the strike was close enough to cause
a scare or damage.

1. The utility pole outside on the street is the last one on the street and
it has a guy wire to anchor it on the side with no lines. When a strike
hit, there was enough power to blow out a trough of dirt from the cable to
the curb and blow out a 6" hunk of curbing. Power was not lost.

2. During a storm, lighting hit someplace nearby. My family room slider has
an aluminum frame at ground level. There was an arc that went from the door
frame to the baseboard heat under the sofa, a distance of about 6 feet.

3. About 6 weeks ago, it hit someplace outside. The arc(s) burned a hole
in the downspout where it was a few inches from a spotlight fixture. It
burned the bulbs, the inside plug and a controller and receptacle, travelled
from the detached garage, back into the house, blew out a breaker in the
main panel and took out my TV, Receiver, doorbell, DSL modem.

In all cases, the hit was never pinpointed but the power surge was enough to
show its ugly head. Could have been 10 feet, 100 feet, or a half mile.
I'd stay out of the shower.

Once, I was playing Nintendo during a thunderstorm, holding a controller
with my sweat soaked hands, and I received a light shock through the
controller when lightning struck off in the distance.

It seemed so odd considering that the strike wasn't even very close.
There were at lest several seconds delay between light and sound.

Shrug. Induced current. Back in dial-up days, I once lost a modem to a
distant lightning strike, even though the phones kept working fine. They
said it was likely the local loop acting as antenna for the stray
current. In your case, if the TV had a roof antenna, you acting as a
ground probably kept the TV from getting fried. I presume it was on one
of those game-tv RF modulator switch boxes?

Was it a USRobitics modem? I had lightning hit mine twice. They
replaced it both times. It would burn out the phone port but all the
lights still worked. My phones were unaffected as well. I should
have taken that as a warning, but I didn't.

I had a lightning hit again and burned up two computers through the
LAN cards. Both the phone and the cable were bonded to the copper
water pipe.

I ended up driving a separate ground rod for the copper pipe in my
basement and bonding it to my existing ground rod.

On Aug 10, 5:40*pm, LSMFT wrote:
If lightening *hit my well head, a pipe about 2 feet tall with a cap
sticking out of the ground, can it follow the pipe down to the water,
come in to the pump and out to my show head and zap me?


Yes.
--
Work is the curse of the drinking class.

On Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:40:07 -0400, LSMFT wrote:

If lightening hit my well head, a pipe about 2 feet tall with a cap
sticking out of the ground, can it follow the pipe down to the water,
come in to the pump and out to my show head and zap me?

A proximity strike can energize you plumbing. You decide from there.

hr(bob) wrote:
On Aug 10, 5:40 pm, LSMFT wrote:
If lightening hit my well head, a pipe about 2 feet tall with a cap
sticking out of the ground, can it follow the pipe down to the water,
come in to the pump and out to my show head and zap me?

--
LSMFT

I look outside this morning and everything was in 3D!

Do you mean lightning?? Lightening is what Michael Jackson did to his
skin.

LOL, I didn't catch that.

LSMFT wrote:
If lightening hit my well head, a pipe about 2 feet tall with a cap
sticking out of the ground, can it follow the pipe down to the water,
come in to the pump and out to my show head and zap me?


It is possible but most of it would *probably* take the path through the
casing and into the ground. I don't shower during a thunderstorm.

ShadowTek wrote:
On 2010-08-11, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
I've seen three rather strong instances with lightning that would keep me
out of the shower. In all three cases, the strike was close enough to cause
a scare or damage.

1. The utility pole outside on the street is the last one on the street and
it has a guy wire to anchor it on the side with no lines. When a strike
hit, there was enough power to blow out a trough of dirt from the cable to
the curb and blow out a 6" hunk of curbing. Power was not lost.

2. During a storm, lighting hit someplace nearby. My family room slider has
an aluminum frame at ground level. There was an arc that went from the door
frame to the baseboard heat under the sofa, a distance of about 6 feet.

3. About 6 weeks ago, it hit someplace outside. The arc(s) burned a hole
in the downspout where it was a few inches from a spotlight fixture. It
burned the bulbs, the inside plug and a controller and receptacle, travelled
from the detached garage, back into the house, blew out a breaker in the
main panel and took out my TV, Receiver, doorbell, DSL modem.

In all cases, the hit was never pinpointed but the power surge was enough to
show its ugly head. Could have been 10 feet, 100 feet, or a half mile.
I'd stay out of the shower.

Once, I was playing Nintendo during a thunderstorm, holding a controller
with my sweat soaked hands, and I received a light shock through the
controller when lightning struck off in the distance.

It seemed so odd considering that the strike wasn't even very close.
There were at lest several seconds delay between light and sound.

As teenagers, as friend and I were getting out of a creek, pulling on
the farmers barbed wire fence, a strike hit about a half mile away, not
sure how close to the fence it hit. With our feet in water and our
hands on the fence, we got zapped but not nearly as bad as you may
think. Probably took a path down every wet fence post before reaching us.

On 2010-08-11, aemeijers wrote:
ShadowTek wrote:

Once, I was playing Nintendo during a thunderstorm, holding a controller
with my sweat soaked hands, and I received a light shock through the
controller when lightning struck off in the distance.

It seemed so odd considering that the strike wasn't even very close.
There were at lest several seconds delay between light and sound.

Shrug. Induced current. Back in dial-up days, I once lost a modem to a
distant lightning strike, even though the phones kept working fine. They
said it was likely the local loop acting as antenna for the stray
current. In your case, if the TV had a roof antenna, you acting as a
ground probably kept the TV from getting fried. I presume it was on one
of those game-tv RF modulator switch boxes?

I think that I had cable run to the TV at that point, but I can't
remember clearly. The console had always been run through RCA plugs.

Another interesting fact that I forgot to mention: I was in a treehouse
at the time, which was actually at a higher point than any other part of
the house. lol

HeyBub wrote:
mm wrote:
On Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:40:07 -0400, LSMFT wrote:

If lightening hit my well head, a pipe about 2 feet tall with a cap
sticking out of the ground, can it follow the pipe down to the water,
come in to the pump and out to my show head and zap me?
Well, lightning (no e) can go almost anywhere it "wants" but it's
headed to the earth. Since most of your pipe down to the water is
underground, and the earch around the pipe isn't bone dry or even very
dry (is it?) I doubt it would do that. I think it would head from the
pipe straight to the ground. But what do I know?

Also lightning tends to hit high things and pointed things. If your
well is nearer your house than the height of the house, or nearer a
tree than the height of the tree, it might not be too attractive.

And your pipe and cap are probably not pointed.

Actually the "point" is to deter lightning by streaming negatively charged
ions in the rod's vicinity. In this sense, it actually repels lightning.

There is a company that sells lightning protection that allegedly works
like that. It doesn't work. Their devices do work as lightning rods. On
the other hand, the limited research that has been done is that a
somewhat rounded rod end is slightly more effective as a lightning rod
than a sharp point.

Lightning would be happy to hit the well cap. As someone said, there are
probably higher targets. Lightning rods work by being higher than the
building they protect.

If
the lightning bolt does not take the hint, however, the rod - with or
without a point - will attempt to channel the current to the earth.



There is a very light chance of a problem in a shower. But I believe the
advice from "experts" is to not take a shower. And to not use a wired phone.

--
bud--

On Aug 10, 9:05*pm, "Ed Pawlowski" wrote:
"LSMFT" wrote in message

...

If lightening *hit my well head, a pipe about 2 feet tall with a cap
sticking out of the ground, can it follow the pipe down to the water, come
in to the pump and out to my show head and zap me?

I've seen three rather strong instances with lightning that would keep me
out of the shower. *In all three cases, the strike was close enough to cause
a scare or damage.

1. *The utility pole outside on the street is the last one on the street and
it has a guy wire to anchor it on the side with no lines. *When a strike
hit, there was enough power to blow out a trough of dirt from the cable to
the curb and blow out a 6" hunk of curbing. *Power was not lost.

2. *During a storm, lighting hit someplace nearby. My family room slider has
an aluminum frame at ground level. *There was an arc that went from the door
frame to the baseboard heat under the sofa, a distance of about 6 feet.

3. *About 6 weeks ago, it hit someplace outside. *The arc(s) burned a hole
in the downspout where it was a few inches from a spotlight fixture. *It
burned the bulbs, the inside plug and a controller and receptacle, travelled
from the detached garage, back into the house, blew out a breaker in the
main panel and took out my TV, Receiver, doorbell, DSL modem.

In all cases, the hit was never pinpointed but the power surge was enough to
show its ugly head. *Could have been 10 feet, 100 feet, or a half mile.
I'd stay out of the shower.

Years back at an Army infiltration course (barbed wire overhead, GIs
crawling underneath, 1/4 sticks of tnt in sandbagged berms exploding
near them, live machine gun fire overhead), lightning struck the
controllers bunker, injured a few, went down the control wiring and
set off every charge in the course at the same time.

On Aug 10, 11:16*pm, Metspitzer wrote:
?

Was it a USRobitics modem? *I had lightning hit mine twice. *They
replaced it both times. *It would burn out the phone port but all the
lights still worked. *My phones were unaffected as well. *I should
have taken that as a warning, but I didn't.


Ditto. I lost 2 with the same symptoms. I think they had a design
flaw.
I changed brands and never had it happen since.

Red

On Aug 10, 6:40*pm, LSMFT wrote:
If lightening *hit my well head, a pipe about 2 feet tall with a cap
sticking out of the ground, can it follow the pipe down to the water,
come in to the pump and out to my show head and zap me?

--
LSMFT

I look outside this morning and everything was in 3D!

NO!
LIGHTNING IS NATURAL ELECTRICITY
ELECTRICITY TRAVELS THROUGH THE EASIEST AND SHORTEST PATH TO GROUND
REACHING YOUR SHOWER HEAD IS NOT IN IT'S AGENDA [

IAP

On Wed, 11 Aug 2010 09:46:34 -0500, bud--
wrote:

HeyBub wrote:
mm wrote:
On Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:40:07 -0400, LSMFT wrote:

If lightening hit my well head, a pipe about 2 feet tall with a cap
sticking out of the ground, can it follow the pipe down to the water,
come in to the pump and out to my show head and zap me?
Well, lightning (no e) can go almost anywhere it "wants" but it's
headed to the earth. Since most of your pipe down to the water is
underground, and the earch around the pipe isn't bone dry or even very
dry (is it?) I doubt it would do that. I think it would head from the
pipe straight to the ground. But what do I know?

Also lightning tends to hit high things and pointed things. If your
well is nearer your house than the height of the house, or nearer a
tree than the height of the tree, it might not be too attractive.

And your pipe and cap are probably not pointed.

Actually the "point" is to deter lightning by streaming negatively charged
ions in the rod's vicinity. In this sense, it actually repels lightning.

There is a company that sells lightning protection that allegedly works
like that. It doesn't work. Their devices do work as lightning rods. On
the other hand, the limited research that has been done is that a
somewhat rounded rod end is slightly more effective as a lightning rod
than a sharp point.

Lightning would be happy to hit the well cap. As someone said, there are
probably higher targets. Lightning rods work by being higher than the
building they protect.

And by being pointed. Bub is right. I forgot and had it that part
wrong. I'm still not sure of the details and it's too hot here to
look it up, but somehow the pointed and high nature of the lighning
rods with their points discharges, or something, the likely target and
makes lightning much less likely to strike. Because if lightning did
strike the lightning rod, the relatively small diameter wire that
leads to the ground could never carry 1/100th of the current it would
have to, would probably vaporize if metal can do that, but at least
melt, and the house and its contents would have to carry much of the
lightning to ground.

Somone told me a story about selling lightning rods and one of his
customers broke off the "needles" because he thought it looked nicer
that way, but they work either not at all or not much without the
needles. .

If
the lightning bolt does not take the hint, however, the rod - with or
without a point - will attempt to channel the current to the earth.



There is a very light chance of a problem in a shower. But I believe the
advice from "experts" is to not take a shower. And to not use a wired phone.

On Wed, 11 Aug 2010 09:13:15 -0700 (PDT), Red
wrote:

On Aug 10, 9:05*pm, "Ed Pawlowski" wrote:
"LSMFT" wrote in message

...

If lightening *hit my well head, a pipe about 2 feet tall with a cap
sticking out of the ground, can it follow the pipe down to the water, come
in to the pump and out to my show head and zap me?

I've seen three rather strong instances with lightning that would keep me
out of the shower. *In all three cases, the strike was close enough to cause
a scare or damage.

1. *The utility pole outside on the street is the last one on the street and
it has a guy wire to anchor it on the side with no lines. *When a strike
hit, there was enough power to blow out a trough of dirt from the cable to
the curb and blow out a 6" hunk of curbing. *Power was not lost.

2. *During a storm, lighting hit someplace nearby. My family room slider has
an aluminum frame at ground level. *There was an arc that went from the door
frame to the baseboard heat under the sofa, a distance of about 6 feet.

3. *About 6 weeks ago, it hit someplace outside. *The arc(s) burned a hole
in the downspout where it was a few inches from a spotlight fixture. *It
burned the bulbs, the inside plug and a controller and receptacle, travelled
from the detached garage, back into the house, blew out a breaker in the
main panel and took out my TV, Receiver, doorbell, DSL modem.

In all cases, the hit was never pinpointed but the power surge was enough to
show its ugly head. *Could have been 10 feet, 100 feet, or a half mile.
I'd stay out of the shower.

Years back at an Army infiltration course (barbed wire overhead, GIs
crawling underneath, 1/4 sticks of tnt in sandbagged berms exploding
near them, live machine gun fire overhead), lightning struck the
controllers bunker, injured a few, went down the control wiring and
set off every charge in the course at the same time.

Wow. That's why I never crawl under barbed wire with TNT nearby.

mm wrote:
On Wed, 11 Aug 2010 09:46:34 -0500, bud--
wrote:

HeyBub wrote:
mm wrote:
On Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:40:07 -0400, LSMFT wrote:

If lightening hit my well head, a pipe about 2 feet tall with a cap
sticking out of the ground, can it follow the pipe down to the water,
come in to the pump and out to my show head and zap me?
Well, lightning (no e) can go almost anywhere it "wants" but it's
headed to the earth. Since most of your pipe down to the water is
underground, and the earch around the pipe isn't bone dry or even very
dry (is it?) I doubt it would do that. I think it would head from the
pipe straight to the ground. But what do I know?

Also lightning tends to hit high things and pointed things. If your
well is nearer your house than the height of the house, or nearer a
tree than the height of the tree, it might not be too attractive.

And your pipe and cap are probably not pointed.
Actually the "point" is to deter lightning by streaming negatively charged
ions in the rod's vicinity. In this sense, it actually repels lightning.
There is a company that sells lightning protection that allegedly works
like that. It doesn't work. Their devices do work as lightning rods. On
the other hand, the limited research that has been done is that a
somewhat rounded rod end is slightly more effective as a lightning rod
than a sharp point.

Lightning would be happy to hit the well cap. As someone said, there are
probably higher targets. Lightning rods work by being higher than the
building they protect.

And by being pointed. Bub is right. I forgot and had it that part
wrong. I'm still not sure of the details and it's too hot here to
look it up, but somehow the pointed and high nature of the lighning
rods with their points discharges, or something, the likely target and
makes lightning much less likely to strike.

There is an alternate protection scheme that claims that their systems
prevent strikes. It is not accepted by lightning researchers and the
lightning protection industry. Lightning starts with a stepped leader
that descends from the clouds in steps. The path of the stepped leader
will not be affected by a lightning rod. The final step is to an upward
leader from something connected to earth. The emitters in the alternate
scheme do not prevent strikes - tests include NASA and airports.
One source of details (fairly technical) is:
http://www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_lhm/Uman_Rakov.pdf

Lightning rods are designed to be the closest point on a building for
the final descent step. They are higher than the building. They work by
being the preferential point for lightning to strike (if it is going to
strike the building). The source above says "properly designed
conventional lightning protection systems ... provide lightning
attachment points and paths for the lightning current to follow from the
attachment points into the ground without harm to the protected structure."

The only research I have heard of is that the most effective point on
the end of a rod is about 5/8" diameter, and there is not much
difference anyway. (One source is an engineer that designs lightning
protection.)

(Lightning rods are now called air terminals.)

Because if lightning did
strike the lightning rod, the relatively small diameter wire that
leads to the ground could never carry 1/100th of the current it would
have to, would probably vaporize if metal can do that, but at least
melt, and the house and its contents would have to carry much of the
lightning to ground.

Complete nonsense. Lightning rod down conductors are plenty large enough
to carry the full lightning strike. You need far less conductor for the
about 0.01 millisecond duration of lightning than you would need for a
continuous current. Lightning rod systems get hit all the time and
remain intact and effective.


Somone told me a story about selling lightning rods and one of his
customers broke off the "needles" because he thought it looked nicer
that way, but they work either not at all or not much without the
needles. .

The proof by anecdote. The building was hit by lightning? Or someone
thought the rods wouldn't work? (But I wouldn't advise changing an
installed system.)

--
bud--

On Thu, 12 Aug 2010 12:17:17 -0500, bud--
wrote:


(Lightning rods are now called air terminals.)

I'd be afraid of an air terminal. I'd be afraid the bus would drop me
off at the terminal, I'd walk out the door and fall 500 feet.