Lightning eats SSA Excom Minutes

From the latest SSA news:

"While I know this is going to sound like an excuse right up there with
"The dog ate my homework assignment..." last week the Carswell house in
Midlothian TX was struck by lightning (really). It blew a 10 foot hole
in the roof while Dean and his wife Tammie were trying to sleep through
a storm, traveled down two floors, and exited to ground along the path
of his internet access. The strike essentially fried everything
electrical in the house, including wiring and all computers, but
fortunately caused no fire. It remains to be seen if any of the Board
minutes Dean had on his hard drive are recoverable, but at least he had
printed out an interim version before things blew."

When I'm not flying gliders, I work with lightning stuff (typically
hardening high-tech facilities and forensic issues). We have all noted
a large increase in these sort of problems in recent years, and
coincidentally there was an article in today's Wall Street Journal
lamenting the same thing. Houses are increasingly full of expensive
electronic toys that get eaten by lightning, resulting in a sharp
increase in insurance claims in recent years.

Oh yes, and US houses, being mostly constructed out of wooden sticks
and paper, are often burned to the ground by lightning, so I guess Dean
was relatively lucky.

Mike (the Strike)

P.S. Gliders and lightning are best kept apart!

Knowing the area where they live, which is out on a small ridge looking
out over teh valley that contains TSA, I can certainly believe this. I
owned 40 acres about a mile east of there and our barn and 150 bales of
hay were taken by a small tornado... Yeoch!!!

Jack Womack

I can vouch for that nasty night. I live about 5 miles north of Deans
residence and it was a very nasty night, most notably one with about
four hours of continuous booming and a ton of lightning. I left the
house about 0430 to fly a trip, and the sky just kept lighting up.
Interesting stuff!
Snoop

Jack wrote:
Knowing the area where they live, which is out on a small ridge looking
out over teh valley that contains TSA, I can certainly believe this. I
owned 40 acres about a mile east of there and our barn and 150 bales of
hay were taken by a small tornado... Yeoch!!!

Jack Womack

hopfully the drive will work in another computer..
BT

"Mike the Strike" wrote in message
ups.com...
From the latest SSA news:

"While I know this is going to sound like an excuse right up there with
"The dog ate my homework assignment..." last week the Carswell house in
Midlothian TX was struck by lightning (really). It blew a 10 foot hole
in the roof while Dean and his wife Tammie were trying to sleep through
a storm, traveled down two floors, and exited to ground along the path
of his internet access. The strike essentially fried everything
electrical in the house, including wiring and all computers, but
fortunately caused no fire. It remains to be seen if any of the Board
minutes Dean had on his hard drive are recoverable, but at least he had
printed out an interim version before things blew."

When I'm not flying gliders, I work with lightning stuff (typically
hardening high-tech facilities and forensic issues). We have all noted
a large increase in these sort of problems in recent years, and
coincidentally there was an article in today's Wall Street Journal
lamenting the same thing. Houses are increasingly full of expensive
electronic toys that get eaten by lightning, resulting in a sharp
increase in insurance claims in recent years.

Oh yes, and US houses, being mostly constructed out of wooden sticks
and paper, are often burned to the ground by lightning, so I guess Dean
was relatively lucky.

Mike (the Strike)

P.S. Gliders and lightning are best kept apart!

So wasn't it Ben Franklin that invented the fix for this problem, the
lightning rod, connected to earth ground?
I've often wondered why home insurance companies don't insist on having them
installed on each house they insure.
And no, my house doesn't have them either.


"BT" wrote in message
...
hopfully the drive will work in another computer..
BT

"Mike the Strike" wrote in message
ups.com...
From the latest SSA news:

"While I know this is going to sound like an excuse right up there with
"The dog ate my homework assignment..." last week the Carswell house in
Midlothian TX was struck by lightning (really). It blew a 10 foot hole
in the roof while Dean and his wife Tammie were trying to sleep through
a storm, traveled down two floors, and exited to ground along the path
of his internet access. The strike essentially fried everything
electrical in the house, including wiring and all computers, but
fortunately caused no fire. It remains to be seen if any of the Board
minutes Dean had on his hard drive are recoverable, but at least he had
printed out an interim version before things blew."

When I'm not flying gliders, I work with lightning stuff (typically
hardening high-tech facilities and forensic issues). We have all noted
a large increase in these sort of problems in recent years, and
coincidentally there was an article in today's Wall Street Journal
lamenting the same thing. Houses are increasingly full of expensive
electronic toys that get eaten by lightning, resulting in a sharp
increase in insurance claims in recent years.

Oh yes, and US houses, being mostly constructed out of wooden sticks
and paper, are often burned to the ground by lightning, so I guess Dean
was relatively lucky.

Mike (the Strike)

P.S. Gliders and lightning are best kept apart!

Ray Roberts wrote:
So wasn't it Ben Franklin that invented the fix for this problem, the
lightning rod, connected to earth ground?
I've often wondered why home insurance companies don't insist on having them
installed on each house they insure.
And no, my house doesn't have them either.


"BT" wrote in message
...
hopfully the drive will work in another computer..
BT

"Mike the Strike" wrote in message
ups.com...
From the latest SSA news:

"While I know this is going to sound like an excuse right up there with
"The dog ate my homework assignment..." last week the Carswell house in
Midlothian TX was struck by lightning (really). It blew a 10 foot hole
in the roof while Dean and his wife Tammie were trying to sleep through
a storm, traveled down two floors, and exited to ground along the path
of his internet access. The strike essentially fried everything
electrical in the house, including wiring and all computers, but
fortunately caused no fire. It remains to be seen if any of the Board
minutes Dean had on his hard drive are recoverable, but at least he had
printed out an interim version before things blew."

When I'm not flying gliders, I work with lightning stuff (typically
hardening high-tech facilities and forensic issues). We have all noted
a large increase in these sort of problems in recent years, and
coincidentally there was an article in today's Wall Street Journal
lamenting the same thing. Houses are increasingly full of expensive
electronic toys that get eaten by lightning, resulting in a sharp
increase in insurance claims in recent years.

Oh yes, and US houses, being mostly constructed out of wooden sticks
and paper, are often burned to the ground by lightning, so I guess Dean
was relatively lucky.

Mike (the Strike)

P.S. Gliders and lightning are best kept apart!



One of my customers has spikes at each roof peak, connected by chains
along all ridges that continue down to grounding rods at each corner.
Another customer lost a electrical appliances to a direct hit.

Frank Whiteley

Ray Roberts wrote:
So wasn't it Ben Franklin that invented the fix for this problem, the
lightning rod, connected to earth ground?
I've often wondered why home insurance companies don't insist on having them
installed on each house they insure.
And no, my house doesn't have them either.

Well over 95% of all trees struck by lightning do not leave an
indication. If lightning is rarely so destructive, then why install
lightning rods? Of course, older homes already had a sort of lightning
rod - a cast iron sewer vent pipe. But more often struck are higher
earthing conductors - AC electric wires on telephone poles. If an
earth ground wire on utility poles is intact, then that is often a
better (electrically shorter) path to earth.

Using that paragraph, then one living in a newer home with plastic
pipes and underground utilities wires may consider Franklin lightning
rods (not to be confused with ESE devices).

A more common path to earth through a house is incoming on AC
electric wires (think of those wires as a large antenna network
connected directly to each household appliance). Few who suffer
appliance damage file insurance claims. Either a surge is harmlessly
earthed where utility wires enter a building, or lightning finds a
destructive path to earth via appliances.

Most commonly damaged are appliances that connect to telephone lines
because telco routinely earths a 'whole house' protector for every
subscriber - installed for free. Incoming on AC electric. Through
modem, portable telephone base station, or fax machine. Outgoing to
earth ground via telephone line. Many instead assume this is a surge
that enters via phone line. Fine. But then what was an outgoing path
to earth? No outgoing path means no electricity - no damage. Why did
the transient not take a shorter earthing path via a telco 'installed
for free' protector?

There is no stopping or blocking of lightning as plug-in protector
manufacturers hope you believe. Lightning damage is made irrelevant by
installing a so inexpensive and properly sized 'whole house' protector
on AC mains where that wire enters the building AND earthed to same
electrode used by telephone and cable TV. Effective protectors are
found in Lowes, Home Depot, and electrical supply houses using
responsible brand names such as Intermatic, Siemens, Cutler-Hammer,
Leviton, Square D, and GE. Effective protector for a typically most
destructive lightning path costs about $1 per protected appliance.

That protector also does not stop or absorb anything. A protector is
only as effective as its earth ground. Effective protectors make a
short and temporary connection to earth. Cable TV does not need a
protector since cable is earthed directly by hardwire.

We still build homes as we did when transistors did not exist
pre-1970. Most essential component of a protector system is earth
ground. Best protected homes have lightning protection installed when
footing are pour - halo or Ufer grounding. This because all lightnting
protection (Franklin rods, 'whole house' protector) is only as
effective as the earthing. However even upgrading household earthing
to meet and exceed post 1990 National Electrical Code requirements will
provide massive improvements.

So again, why is this protection not routinely installed? Many
believe a plug-in protector will somehow stop or absorb what 3 miles of
sky could not. Number of claims submitted to insurance companies
remains low. We still don't require effective lightning protection
that has been made essential since 1970. Lightning striking a house
via the roof is rare. Lightning directly striking household appliances
is more common - typically once every seven years. A number that
varies significantly even within neighborhoods. A problem made
irrelevant if each incoming utility wire in each cable is earthed
before it can enter the building. Effective protector earths each
incoming wire so that lightning need not damage household appliance.
How effective is your protection system? Protection begins with
quality of a single point earth ground.

w_tom wrote:
Ray Roberts wrote:
Most commonly damaged are appliances that connect to telephone lines
because telco routinely earths a 'whole house' protector for every
subscriber - installed for free. Incoming on AC electric. Through
modem, portable telephone base station, or fax machine. Outgoing to
earth ground via telephone line. Many instead assume this is a surge
that enters via phone line. Fine. But then what was an outgoing path
to earth? No outgoing path means no electricity - no damage. Why did
the transient not take a shorter earthing path via a telco 'installed
for free' protector?

Current flows in a complete circuit--direction is arbitrary and
irrelevant. What actually happens in many cases of applicance damage is
not voltage surges, it's ground potential difference. If your power,
telephone, cable TV and water services do not enter at the same point
and have common grounding, they can have different "gound" potentials
relative to each other. Even if lightning does not strike your house
directly, it disturbs the ground potential for a large area. This is
why telephones, televisions and refrigerators with ice makers are often
damaged--they are connected to two different systems.

I was working on my computer when my neighbors house got struck - 100 feet
away. The strike went through the roof hiting the upstairs copper water
pipes which set the house on fire. My neighbors were at home watching TV
and reported that a fireball danced around the living room for a few
seconds. Fortunately, all the pinholes blasted into the water pipes put the
fire out within a minute but the total insured damage was still in excess of
$50,000.

My lights dimmed for a second but the computer never blinked. I use a good
UPS.

Bill Daniels


"Doug Haluza" wrote in message
ups.com...

w_tom wrote:
Ray Roberts wrote:
Most commonly damaged are appliances that connect to telephone lines
because telco routinely earths a 'whole house' protector for every
subscriber - installed for free. Incoming on AC electric. Through
modem, portable telephone base station, or fax machine. Outgoing to
earth ground via telephone line. Many instead assume this is a surge
that enters via phone line. Fine. But then what was an outgoing path
to earth? No outgoing path means no electricity - no damage. Why did
the transient not take a shorter earthing path via a telco 'installed
for free' protector?

Current flows in a complete circuit--direction is arbitrary and
irrelevant. What actually happens in many cases of applicance damage is
not voltage surges, it's ground potential difference. If your power,
telephone, cable TV and water services do not enter at the same point
and have common grounding, they can have different "gound" potentials
relative to each other. Even if lightning does not strike your house
directly, it disturbs the ground potential for a large area. This is
why telephones, televisions and refrigerators with ice makers are often
damaged--they are connected to two different systems.

Doug Haluza wrote:

Current flows in a complete circuit--direction is arbitrary and
irrelevant. What actually happens in many cases of applicance damage is
not voltage surges, it's ground potential difference. If your power,
telephone, cable TV and water services do not enter at the same point
and have common grounding, they can have different "gound" potentials
relative to each other. Even if lightning does not strike your house
directly, it disturbs the ground potential for a large area. This is
why telephones, televisions and refrigerators with ice makers are often
damaged--they are connected to two different systems.

If the surge protector has a cable or phone jack connector in addition
to the AC sockets, would that protect the TV or telephone?

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

"Transponders in Sailplanes" on the Soaring Safety Foundation website
www.soaringsafety.org/prevention/articles.html

"A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org