lightning rods any believers ?
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doall
Platinum Member
If I already had them there, I know I would put them back up. For the classy look and function too.
/pine
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imho...the metal roof makes no difference at all ...unless it (the metal) is "somehow" grounded to the earth...
what makes the most difference is where the building is located...if it's on the top of a hill and is the highest thing in the area..(i.e., on a hill in the middle of a field)...it makes sense to protect (ground) it from strikes...
otherwise, so called "grounding rods" only attract strikes...if there are tall trees in close proximity lightning is more apt to strike the most "grounded" object...
In older structures where cast iron was the prominent material used for plumbing and vent stacks protruded through the roofs...they essentially became "lightning rods"...logic is the key to determining whether they (lightning rods) are beneficial or not...IMO
what makes the most difference is where the building is located...if it's on the top of a hill and is the highest thing in the area..(i.e., on a hill in the middle of a field)...it makes sense to protect (ground) it from strikes...
otherwise, so called "grounding rods" only attract strikes...if there are tall trees in close proximity lightning is more apt to strike the most "grounded" object...
In older structures where cast iron was the prominent material used for plumbing and vent stacks protruded through the roofs...they essentially became "lightning rods"...logic is the key to determining whether they (lightning rods) are beneficial or not...IMO
doall
Platinum Member
don't be sitting on the toilet in a lightning storm
AHNC
Gold Member
When I was a kid our neighbor, who knew it all, had improperly installed not only the lightening rods but the panel ground on his new barn. We had just gotten the hay in. I was looking out the window at home watching this lightening storm when I saw the barn get hit. My Dad and I got there and got the horses out, but it was a pretty depressing sight watching that barn go, and boy did it go fast. Do it once, so it right.:thumbsup:
LD1
Epic Contributor
What was done incorrectly about it??
Did he put the rods on and no cable to ground??
It's kinda simple system that is hard to screw up
It is imposable to say what went wrong from [When I was a kid....]. Had the rods and panel ground all gone wrong? Could the neighbor have used the panel ground for the rod ground? Who can say?
It may be simple for you LD1, but I have seen pros screw up a string.
Case in point, we had a 230 volt, 30 kVA UPS go up in smoke, it is about the size of mid size refrigerator.
Looking for the cause, I noticed water stains on and in the cabinet, ceiling and other overhead things. The first thing that came to mind, rain water got in. But wait, this is on the ground floor two levels below the station platform, no way.
Walking up to the platform looking for signs of water there is a landing with a Janitors closet. And what is in that closet? A sink, hose bib, water meter and the pipes connecting it all, directly to the inch over the UPS below. A pipe had burst and was repaired before anyone noticed that the UPS was blown. The new Mt Arlington station Park & Ride was designed by an Architectural firm and singed off by our PE's [Professional Engineers]. Enough said.
It may be simple for you LD1, but I have seen pros screw up a string.
Case in point, we had a 230 volt, 30 kVA UPS go up in smoke, it is about the size of mid size refrigerator.
Looking for the cause, I noticed water stains on and in the cabinet, ceiling and other overhead things. The first thing that came to mind, rain water got in. But wait, this is on the ground floor two levels below the station platform, no way.
Walking up to the platform looking for signs of water there is a landing with a Janitors closet. And what is in that closet? A sink, hose bib, water meter and the pipes connecting it all, directly to the inch over the UPS below. A pipe had burst and was repaired before anyone noticed that the UPS was blown. The new Mt Arlington station Park & Ride was designed by an Architectural firm and singed off by our PE's [Professional Engineers]. Enough said.
Dargo
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I want to preface my comments by stating that I have zero education in working with lightning rods, but I did have a shovel I was holding get hit once and it burnt my belt buckle and blew the steel toe off my right shoe. I lived, as you may have guessed.
Anyway, my wife's family always had lightning rods on their single story home and it got hit 3 or 4 times, doing a good bit of damage each time. My FIL credits the lightning rods for the home not burning to the ground. My dad's house and my house are 2 story homes pretty well sitting alone on hill tops and neither have ever been hit by lightning nor has either of my barns and both are over 30' tall.
There is no scientific evidence whatsoever for me to say it's better to not have them as opposed to having a home with spikes all over it. However, based on this personal bit of history, I'm not going to put any on my homes or barns.
varmint
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As a guy who's worked in architecture and the building trades since 1963 or so, I have heard arguments pro and con for lightning rods, as you can imagine. I am pretty sure that I would have them installed, by a professional, if I had a building that seemed to be a prime target. Our bungalow, built in 1923, and at that time a high object, has had lightning rods on it from the get go. Trees now surround, and dwarf, the house, but I had the rods reinstalled when we reroofed it. I noticed that the grounding cables are heavy woven copper, and though they wouldn't handle thousands of amps, they would give it a start. Maybe the fact there are a number of them helps?? My two other metal roofed buildings are not protected, so you could say I am running an experiment.
LD1
Epic Contributor
IMO what you need to do is install a 1000' tall tower on top of the house. This will for sure get struck by lightning the next storm. Once you collect the insurance money and rebuild, you wont have to worry about it because we all know that lightning wont strike the same place twice
