Do not install a lightning rod yourself: find an electrician certified to install lightning systems. If lightning hits your house or nearby power lines, it can follow the wiring or phone lines into your home — ruining computers, TVs, stereos and other electronics. San Francisco is fortunate to be in one of the areas least hit by lightning strikes. The other 80 percent usually suffer from severe burns and other, Best Of Mother Earth News: Heat Your Home For Free E-Book, Natural Cold Storage: Fresh Food in Winter, Keeping Crops Cool During Hot Weather: 13 Ways to Beat the Heat, Subscribe Today - Pay Now & Save 64% Off the Cover Price. To prevent this capricious element of nature from hitting your home is not always possible, but protecting your house is. A positive charge also develops on the ground below. When this happens, anything — or anyone — in its path could be in danger. Lightning can damage the electronics, telephone and other systems in your house connected to an electrical outlet. You'll find tips for slashing heating bills, growing fresh, natural produce at home, and more. Lightning rods are not 100 percent effective in eliminating fires from lightning, but they reduce the likelihood of a lightning strike igniting the building. Your house has a greater chance of being hit on a hilltop than on a hillside. (It actually functions as a lightning rod for surrounding buildings.). However, terrain does play a part in where lightning strikes. In less than a microsecond a lightning discharge can generate upwards of 200,000 amps of … The lightening could strike your house and do damage. You can't really stop lightning from hitting your house. Use a home lightning protection system One of the best ways for homeowners, in particular, to protect their homes from lightning is to install a home lightning protection system. Carrie Cross has been writing for profit and pleasure for more than 35 years. © Copyright 2020 Hearst Communications, Inc. The National Weather Service maintains that the mechanism of lightning creation is still unknown. What Appliances Can Be Connected to a Portable Generator? don't have an online It’s been known to jump across an entire room (called side-flashing). How to Troubleshoot Household Electricity. Severe weather in the form of powerful electricity and heat make lightning doubly dangerous. Lightning rods will not keep lightning from striking but will help direct it safely away from your home if properly installed. Sign in with your online account. Ensure lightning rods are attached to your house’s roof securely and embedded in the ground by a cable. But one safeguard against electronics being “fried” by lightning is simply to unplug them whenever you’re expecting rain or a storm. The highest concentration of lightning occurs in Florida. You may also use the Bill Me option and pay $17.95 for 6 issues. Lightning is so hot that fires caused by direct strikes are instantaneous. account? Whether you're a homeowner or renter, there are steps you can take to prevent your property from being damaged. Canadian Subscribers - Click Here
But when lightning strikes, the electricity needs to move to the ground. Your homeowner’s insurance may or may not cover damage from lightning. Lightning Facts. This bolt of energy has neither rhyme nor reason to where it hits. Avoid using landline telephones and water (showering, washing your hands or dishes) during a storm. In less than a microsecond a lightning discharge can generate upwards of 200,000 amps of electricity. Some people love a great thunderstorm; others are petrified by the first flash of lightning or rumble of thunder. Lightning also tends to travel across the ground, so if you’re considering planting trees in your yard, keep the taller ones at a safe distance from your house. At MOTHER EARTH NEWS for 50 years and counting, we are dedicated to conserving our planet's natural resources while helping you conserve your financial resources. When lightning hits the ground, a tree, a tower or even a building, it doesn’t go straight down but usually spreads along the ground first, so being near something that’s struck by lightning is almost as dangerous as being hit directly by lightning. Hi, thanks for stopping by. Already a Member? Lightning rods do not attract lightning but do provide a path of least resistance if lightning hits your house. Surge protectors can help but are not fail-proof if the strike is a powerful one. Canadian subscriptions: 1 year (includes postage & GST). If you smell smoke or feel heat during a … What Is a Hardwired Fire Alarm With a Fire Panel? International Subscribers - Click Here
If you look to the rooftops of some period buildings, you can see a row of sentinel-like lightning rods—often adorned with glass balls—stationed along the ridge, on chimneys, or atop turrets. It can strike directly beneath the cloud that generates it or stretch 18 miles away. Prevent lightning damage with lightning rods. But there are easy steps you can take to protect your home and property (and your life) from lightning. Make sure your house is equipped with smoke and fire detectors. Lightning hits the rods (instead of the building itself) because they’re higher than other points on the building. Stay off the phone as well. The rods at the top of the building are only the first part of a good system. Already a Member but One of the most accepted theories is the separation of electrical fields within the cloud. If lightning hits your house or nearby power lines, it can follow the wiring or phone lines into your home — ruining computers, TVs, stereos and other electronics. Love ’em or hate ’em, thunderstorms produce lightning that is dangerous. LightningSafety.com: How to Protect Your House and Its Contents From Lightning, National Weather Service: JetStream - National School for Weather, NOAA National Severe Weather Laboratory: Severe Weather Primer, MotherEarthNews.com: How to Protect Your Home from Lightning, How to Protect Electrical Appliances From Lightning Strikes, How to Install Deep Cycle Batteries for Home Electricity. By paying with a credit card, you save an additional $5 and get 6 issues of MOTHER EARTH NEWS for only $12.95 (USA only). When they connect, lightning occurs. That can be relevant in San Francisco. According to the National Severe Storms Laboratory, San Francisco and most of the Pacific west coast receive the least amount of lightning flashes in the United States. The cloud develops a positive charge in its top half and a negative charge in its lower half. Her background includes business, real estate, entrepreneurship, management, health and nutrition. Ways to Prevent Your House From Getting Struck by Lightning. Lightning rods protect a building from catching fire, not from electrical surges. According to the National Weather Service, 4 percent to 5 percent of people struck by lightning were talking on their corded phones. If that area has a tendency to be charged, that's due to the nature of the area. That's why we want you to save money and trees by subscribing through our earth-friendly automatic renewal savings plan. The easiest way to protect your appliances is to unplug them when you first hear the clap of thunder. Ice particles must also be present for lightning formation. You might want to consider protecting an entire building. But nearby lightning is so powerful it can jump through surge protectors. To protect family members, stay away from all plumbing including toilets, sinks and faucets as the pipes of your house make excellent conductors. Surge protectors help protect equipment from power spikes (and distant lightning strikes that hit the electrical grid). Add a lightning rod to your roof. The positive ions on the ground tend to climb up tall objects, such as telephone poles, trees and houses or collect in open areas, such as baseball fields and meadows. But what you CAN do is … However, by putting up a piece of metal on the roof of your house you are making it more 'tempting' for the lightening to strike it, rather than your house. A registered nurse, she has published various pieces, including web content, numerous newspaper and magazine articles and columns and six books. They don’t increase or decrease the chance of lightning striking your house; they just provide a path for the electricity to reach the ground more safely. About 20 percent of people who are struck by lightning are killed instantly. What Residential Electrical Circuits Have to Be Arc-Fault? Disconnect Internet, antenna and satellite-dish connections, even if your TV antenna is grounded (connected to the Earth by metal wires or cables so electricity has a quick path to the soil). An invisible channel of negative ions from the cloud, called a step leader, reaches down to the positive ground ions as they reach up. And it can strike the same place twice: The Empire State Building is struck by lightning about 100 times each year. You may want to invest in a lightning system installed by a professional company that takes your entire house, surrounding structures and landscaping into consideration when grounding for lightning strikes. Electrical outlet ; others are petrified by the first flash of lightning or hear thunder take. To ALL current video workshops and prerecorded webinars plus anything new that we add the... 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