Wowser! Lightning strike two nights ago shook our house and sent our
puppy (briefly) into hiding. Our son lives about 1/2 mi. away as the
crow flies; the hit turned off some of his breakers. His
across-the-street neighbor got interior damage (pin-hole leaks) in his
baseboard heating system.

If lightning trips some breakers, seems to me that it also damages
wiring. No appliances damaged at son's place. After his heart
restarted, he turned off main breaker, looked around, turned back on and
all seems to be okay. Suggestions? Have electrician in to check it out?

On Sunday, September 7, 2014 7:31:15 AM UTC-4, NorMinn wrote:
Wowser! Lightning strike two nights ago shook our house and sent our

puppy (briefly) into hiding. Our son lives about 1/2 mi. away as the

crow flies; the hit turned off some of his breakers. His

across-the-street neighbor got interior damage (pin-hole leaks) in his

baseboard heating system.



If lightning trips some breakers, seems to me that it also damages

wiring. No appliances damaged at son's place. After his heart

restarted, he turned off main breaker, looked around, turned back on and

all seems to be okay. Suggestions? Have electrician in to check it out?


It could certainly trip breakers without damaging wires. If there is no
evidence of anything else happening, eg devices/appliances, on those
circuits damaged, he's likely OK. I would get a whole house surge protector
installed which would protect against future events like this.

On 9/7/2014 7:31 AM, Norminn wrote:
Wowser! Lightning strike two nights ago shook our house and sent our
puppy (briefly) into hiding. Our son lives about 1/2 mi. away as the
crow flies; the hit turned off some of his breakers. His
across-the-street neighbor got interior damage (pin-hole leaks) in his
baseboard heating system.

If lightning trips some breakers, seems to me that it also damages
wiring. No appliances damaged at son's place. After his heart
restarted, he turned off main breaker, looked around, turned back on and
all seems to be okay. Suggestions? Have electrician in to check it out?

The tripping breakers probably protected the wires.
I has a similar experience a couple of years ago. Not sure where the
hit was, but the outside light on my detached garage got the main surge.
Blew out a receptacle it was plugged into, damaged the breaker in the
house, blew out the TV and receiver on that circuit.

What really ****ed me off was that I had to go out and buy a new 47"
flat screen TV to replace the 32" CRT. Would not have been able to
justify that otherwise.

On Sunday, September 7, 2014 7:31:15 AM UTC-4, NorMinn wrote:
Wowser! Lightning strike two nights ago shook our house and sent our

puppy (briefly) into hiding. Our son lives about 1/2 mi. away as the

crow flies; the hit turned off some of his breakers. His

across-the-street neighbor got interior damage (pin-hole leaks) in his

baseboard heating system.


If lightning trips some breakers, seems to me that it also damages

wiring. No appliances damaged at son's place. After his heart

restarted, he turned off main breaker, looked around, turned back on and

all seems to be okay. Suggestions? Have electrician in to check it out?


*I suggest that you do have an electrician come out to have a look at the grounding electrode system. This consists of a water pipe ground, ground rods, bonding of all interior metal pipes, a bond to the main neutral in the electrical panel, and bonding of the telephone and cable TV terminals.

Having a good ground is a simple way to protect your house from lightning. Some enhancements to a good ground for extra lightning protection would be a surge protector at the main panel and lightning rods on the roof.

The neighbor probably got the pinhole leaks because those pipes were not properly bonded to the grounding electrode system. The difference in potential caused the arc to burn through the pipes. This has been a problem with flexible jacketed gas piping. It doesn't take much of an arc to burn a hole and cause a gas leak.

John Grabowski
http://www.MrElectrician.TV

On 09/07/2014 08:37 AM, John G wrote:


snip.


*I suggest that you do have an electrician come out to have a look at the grounding electrode system. This consists of a water pipe ground, ground rods, bonding of all interior metal pipes, a bond to the main neutral in the electrical panel, and bonding of the telephone and cable TV terminals.

Having a good ground is a simple way to protect your house from lightning. Some enhancements to a good ground for extra lightning protection would be a surge protector at the main panel and lightning rods on the roof.

The neighbor probably got the pinhole leaks because those pipes were not properly bonded to the grounding electrode system. The difference in potential caused the arc to burn through the pipes. This has been a problem with flexible jacketed gas piping. It doesn't take much of an arc to burn a hole and cause a gas leak.

John Grabowski
http://www.MrElectrician.TV




Good advice.

I recently had my service upgraded by a licensed electrician and he put
in *two* 8' ground rods.

He said the requirement now is a total of 16' of grounding.


With the old ground rod disconnected I found 600 ohms of resistance
between it and the new rods...that means the old ground was fairly poor!

On Sun, 07 Sep 2014 13:02:17 -0400, wrote:

The best electrode these days is the steel in the foundation of your
house, if it is available.

If I'm correct this is what I have. My foundation is cable-tensioned.
I see steel buried in the foundation - between the framing (vertical),
at the access panel for phone, cable, etc. Coming from the foundation.

I see no ground rods anchored in the ground.

On Sunday, September 7, 2014 1:34:18 PM UTC-4, Oren wrote:
On Sun, 07 Sep 2014 13:02:17 -0400, wrote:



The best electrode these days is the steel in the foundation of your

house, if it is available.



If I'm correct this is what I have. My foundation is cable-tensioned.

I see steel buried in the foundation - between the framing (vertical),

at the access panel for phone, cable, etc. Coming from the foundation.



I see no ground rods anchored in the ground.

Sounds like a Ufer ground, which is what is used around here. They run the
ground wire into steel encased in the basement floor/foundation.

On Sun, 7 Sep 2014 11:27:22 -0700 (PDT), trader_4
wrote:

On Sunday, September 7, 2014 1:34:18 PM UTC-4, Oren wrote:
On Sun, 07 Sep 2014 13:02:17 -0400, wrote:



The best electrode these days is the steel in the foundation of your

house, if it is available.



If I'm correct this is what I have. My foundation is cable-tensioned.

I see steel buried in the foundation - between the framing (vertical),

at the access panel for phone, cable, etc. Coming from the foundation.



I see no ground rods anchored in the ground.

Sounds like a Ufer ground, which is what is used around here. They run the
ground wire into steel encased in the basement floor/foundation.

Ufer sounds correct and most likely. The grounding is tied into the
cable-tensioned foundation cables somehow (here). The electric surge
is spread in multiple directions (my guess).

Given that, I still think a whole house surge breaker at the panel is
still a good idea.

On Sun, 07 Sep 2014 12:02:40 -0700, Oren wrote:

On Sun, 7 Sep 2014 11:27:22 -0700 (PDT), trader_4
wrote:

On Sunday, September 7, 2014 1:34:18 PM UTC-4, Oren wrote:
On Sun, 07 Sep 2014 13:02:17 -0400, wrote:



The best electrode these days is the steel in the foundation of your

house, if it is available.



If I'm correct this is what I have. My foundation is cable-tensioned.

I see steel buried in the foundation - between the framing (vertical),

at the access panel for phone, cable, etc. Coming from the foundation.



I see no ground rods anchored in the ground.

Sounds like a Ufer ground, which is what is used around here. They run the
ground wire into steel encased in the basement floor/foundation.

Ufer sounds correct and most likely. The grounding is tied into the
cable-tensioned foundation cables somehow (here). The electric surge
is spread in multiple directions (my guess).

Given that, I still think a whole house surge breaker at the panel is
still a good idea.

BTW, Ufer grounding is used in arid dry climates. Military has used it
in ammo dump storage facilities, like the desert.

On Sunday, September 7, 2014 3:02:40 PM UTC-4, Oren wrote:
On Sun, 7 Sep 2014 11:27:22 -0700 (PDT), trader_4

wrote:



On Sunday, September 7, 2014 1:34:18 PM UTC-4, Oren wrote:

On Sun, 07 Sep 2014 13:02:17 -0400, wrote:







The best electrode these days is the steel in the foundation of your



house, if it is available.







If I'm correct this is what I have. My foundation is cable-tensioned.



I see steel buried in the foundation - between the framing (vertical),



at the access panel for phone, cable, etc. Coming from the foundation.







I see no ground rods anchored in the ground.



Sounds like a Ufer ground, which is what is used around here. They run the

ground wire into steel encased in the basement floor/foundation.



Ufer sounds correct and most likely. The grounding is tied into the

cable-tensioned foundation cables somehow (here). The electric surge

is spread in multiple directions (my guess).



Given that, I still think a whole house surge breaker at the panel is

still a good idea.

They are complimentary. You can have the best grounding system there
is and if 2000V winds up on the two hots from a lightning strike down
the block, the ground system isn't going to do anything to stop it
from reaching eqpt in the building. The whole house surge protector
connected to a proper ground system, will.

On Sun, 7 Sep 2014 06:37:13 -0700 (PDT), John G
wrote:

On Sunday, September 7, 2014 7:31:15 AM UTC-4, NorMinn wrote:
Wowser! Lightning strike two nights ago shook our house and sent our

puppy (briefly) into hiding. Our son lives about 1/2 mi. away as the

crow flies; the hit turned off some of his breakers. His

across-the-street neighbor got interior damage (pin-hole leaks) in his

baseboard heating system.


If lightning trips some breakers, seems to me that it also damages

wiring. No appliances damaged at son's place. After his heart

restarted, he turned off main breaker, looked around, turned back on and

all seems to be okay. Suggestions? Have electrician in to check it out?


*I suggest that you do have an electrician come out to have a look at the grounding electrode system. This consists of a water pipe ground, ground rods, bonding of all interior metal pipes, a bond to the main neutral in the electrical panel, and bonding of the telephone and cable TV terminals.

Having a good ground is a simple way to protect your house from lightning. Some enhancements to a good ground for extra lightning protection would be a surge protector at the main panel and lightning rods on the roof.

The neighbor probably got the pinhole leaks because those pipes were not properly bonded to the grounding electrode system. The difference in potential caused the arc to burn through the pipes. This has been a problem with flexible jacketed gas piping. It doesn't take much of an arc to burn a hole and cause a gas leak.

John Grabowski
http://www.MrElectrician.TV
Which is why you will NEVER see any of that my place. When I went to
have natural gas piped to my BarBQ that's all anyone wanted to
install. When I asked one plumber if he'd install if I he iron pipe
cut to size, threaded, and test fit he said ":if you can do that, you
can do the whole job yourself - just call for an inspection when you
are done" - I did.it. Called for inspection, inspector said it put a
lot of professional plumbers/pipe-fitters to shame.

On 09/07/2014 12:02 PM, wrote:
On Sun, 07 Sep 2014 11:40:55 -0500, philo wrote:

On 09/07/2014 08:37 AM, John G wrote:


snip.


*I suggest that you do have an electrician come out to have a look at the grounding electrode system. This consists of a water pipe ground, ground rods, bonding of all interior metal pipes, a bond to the main neutral in the electrical panel, and bonding of the telephone and cable TV terminals.

Having a good ground is a simple way to protect your house from lightning. Some enhancements to a good ground for extra lightning protection would be a surge protector at the main panel and lightning rods on the roof.

The neighbor probably got the pinhole leaks because those pipes were not properly bonded to the grounding electrode system. The difference in potential caused the arc to burn through the pipes. This has been a problem with flexible jacketed gas piping. It doesn't take much of an arc to burn a hole and cause a gas leak.

John Grabowski
http://www.MrElectrician.TV




Good advice.

I recently had my service upgraded by a licensed electrician and he put
in *two* 8' ground rods.

He said the requirement now is a total of 16' of grounding.


With the old ground rod disconnected I found 600 ohms of resistance
between it and the new rods...that means the old ground was fairly poor!

Ground rods are pretty poor electrodes anyway. The best was the metal
water pipe, when the whole system was metal. Now with all the plastic
used, it sucks too.
The best electrode these days is the steel in the foundation of your
house, if it is available.




My vintage 1898 house has no steel foundation but in addition to the
ground rods, there is also a cold water ground.