Lightening

[patrickg]

Re: Lightning

Richard (AKA Cowboydoc), What an event! Probably not so rare as we might think. My mom's uncle always took his lunch to the field in a metal bucket (pail with bail). A storm came up and he unhitched the plow horse to ride it to the barn to make good time and not get caught out in the storm. It started hailing really large hailstones and he credits the pail which he wore on his head as a helmet with saving his life. He was leaning forward trying to shield the horse as best he could and still ride. He and the horse got quite bruised but except for the mostly temporary hearing damage from hail pounding on the pail like a drum neither he nor the horse suffered damage to the head. I hadn't thought of it this way before but he was probably extremely lucky not to have been hit by lightening as it frequently accompanies hailstorms and the land he was working would have had him atop a horse as the tallest conductor around.

Still, your story could be sold to Ripley's believe it or not!

Patrick

 

[ERNIEB]

Re: Lightning

Patrick, I've never took a leak on a hot wire myself. But I was with a guy fishing in a stock tank one time and he did. It used a battery for power. In those days their were 6, 8, and 12 volt around, I don't know which it was. You should have seen him jump./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif I thought I was going to die laughing. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif
Enough of that. What about ball lightning, or rolling lighting? Anybody ever see that?

Ernie

 

[RPM]

Re: Lightning

Knew a guy who had taken a leak on a transformer for a bet. To this day he has minimal kidney function and severe nerve damage in his legs and lower back. He also has very poor bladder and bowel control - slightest change in weather and he's in big trouble. The evils of alcohol and youth!

 

[GlueGuy]

Re: Lightning

OUCH!!! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

That could have been funny if it weren't true. Sheesh.


The GlueGuy

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Patrickg

They make whole house surge arrestors. These are available from our local power company. They charge about $5.00 a month and also provide a number of stand alone suppressors for the outlets. The whole house job attaches at your power meter. My problem with this is that I HAD a surge arrestor attached to the rotor control on my antenna. Absolutely fried it, (at least that's what I assume the white casing turned to a black casing means). /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif I don't think they were meant to handle power surges flowing backward through them. I kind of like the switch idea, but remember, lightening can jump! Call me old fashioned, but I think I'll just keep unpluggin.

SHF

 

[patrickg]

SHF, Any suficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic...

Yes, high voltage/lightning can "jump". You need multiple switches because high voltage can jump. A minimum is one to open the path between power and load and another switch to short the load side to ground so that if the open switch is "jumped over" a good path to ground is offered to the invading voltage. Lightening, not having read the appropriate engineering texts, might not understand all this and eat your delicate electronics anyway. Oh, by the way, regular run of the mill switches aren't going to do it. You need late night B&W scifi switches like the mad scientist used to activate the monster. Big UGLY knife switches with W I D E spacings are a good start.

Local power companies that still offer incentives to consume more power and do not offer any programs to encourage energy star appliances etc are not the type to offer surge protection (guess what kind of utility I have). I can buy surge protectors at the eletrical supply house, essentially MOV (Metal Oxide Varistor) technology. They deteriorate over time as they accumulate "hits" and can be fried in one big hit but they are about the only technology close to my pocketbook that I know about and trust (sort of).

And in closing, a couple further thoughts... U N P L U G G I N G is good, very good but since lightning can be sneaky and you can't use your stuff with it unplugged we should all have as a minimum, breaker panel mounted MOV surge protection and remember folks turning something off will not protect from lightning of even moderate energy, it must be physically unplugged cause as SHF said, lightning jumps.

Patrick

 

[jinman]

Re: Lightning

This is not rolling lightning, but this microburst looks just like a ball. I'd hate to be trying to fly through this./w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

Go to this link and scroll down to the end to photos taken by Bill Bunting. WOW!

http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/~doswell/microbursts/Additions.html

JimI

 

[ERNIEB]

Re: Lightning

Wow is an understatement. Flying through it?/w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif I'd hate to be on the ground anywhere near it. Great Pictures/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Ernie

 

[AndyR]

Patrick,

On our place I have panel mounted whole house surge supressors on both main panels (2 utility feeds) and every phone line (6 of those). I used Intermatic units for the panels (they have indicators to show when they blow) and 2 APC 4 line units for the phone lines. The phone system for the office has its own UPS as do the server and the fax and most of the computers. (Our offices are in a section of the house). The thing with protecting against lightening is you have to cover every path you can. 'Course I am still working on fixinf the barn which has NO lightening rods - it's on the list.

Andy in NH

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Patrickg

I think the meter base mounted units are also available to the public. I did a search a few months ago and I seem to recall finding info about them. Of course, after you get one, you need the power company to install it, otherwise you break the little plastic seal on the meter. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

SHF