Country Home Lightning Safety: How to Prepare Yourself and Your Electrical Systems

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Country homes and barns are often the highest points in a farm landscape, and therefore are notorious lightning attractors, so it's crucial to invest in a reliable lightning-protection system.
Country homes and barns are often the highest points in a farm landscape, and therefore are notorious lightning attractors, so it's crucial to invest in a reliable lightning-protection system.
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Contrary to conventional wisdom, lightning can indeed strike the same place twice. The Empire State Building in New York City has been hit as many as 48 times in a year.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, lightning can indeed strike the same place twice. The Empire State Building in New York City has been hit as many as 48 times in a year.
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Lightning occurs when violent winds inside clouds separate positive and negative charged air particles into layers, with the negative charges at the bottom of the cloud. When enough negative charged particles accumulate, they will arc through as much as a mile of air to meet the positive charges on the ground. 
Lightning occurs when violent winds inside clouds separate positive and negative charged air particles into layers, with the negative charges at the bottom of the cloud. When enough negative charged particles accumulate, they will arc through as much as a mile of air to meet the positive charges on the ground. 
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A spike protector is designed to be plugged into a 3-prong electric wall socket connected to an independent ground, as well as to the power-in and power-out lines. The wire ground is essential if a spike protector is to function.
A spike protector is designed to be plugged into a 3-prong electric wall socket connected to an independent ground, as well as to the power-in and power-out lines. The wire ground is essential if a spike protector is to function.

A good many years ago, when I was new to country living, I was talking on the phone–handset tucked between ear, chin, and shoulder–while replacing a washer on the kitchen faucet. It was drizzling outside, and I could hear occasional distant thunder but saw no lightning. Suddenly I felt a snap! in my ear and fell back, stunned. I never heard the thunderclap or saw the lightning bolt that must have hit the phone line miles away before seeking the best route to ground–my open phone line, literally an arm’s length away from a wet iron sink.

My outer ear was singed, but not severely. Had the bolt been nearer or stronger, I could have been injured or even killed. There was no damage to the old-style Bell telephone, either, but a modern electronic telephone could have had its delicate chip-innards fried.

In 1990 (a typical year), 72 people were killed and 252 injured by lightning in the United States. The number of livestock and buildings lost nationwide isn’t tabulated, but is substantially higher. And the solid-state electronic devices damaged by transients, spikes, and surges from lightning and other sources in the power and telephone lines are more numerous still.

Most of these losses could have been avoided. Here’s how you can reduce the chance of electrical damage to the people, animals, and buildings on your property.

Electricity Basics

  • Published on Apr 1, 1992
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