Storm rolled through and we took a direct hit from lightning bolt.

[64BEL]

Glad no one was hurt! I've seen 2 wild sights over the years on ligntning strike calls with the FD. One was when lightning hit a house's fireplace chimney, shot down the chimney, flew across the basement, and exited through a window (breaking it). The other was lightning hitting a pole and going through the ground on exit. It turned the sand in the ground into glass. I still have a chunk of it.

Remember, if you can hear thunder, it's close enough to strike you.

 

[mopar 3 B]

Hold out to settle as long as allowed or at least make sure they will cover anything that surfaces over a reasonable length of time. Just because it works today doesn't mean there was not damage.

 

[kiwigtx]

Thanks, I checked all the panel boxes and in the attic and everything looks to be okay. I have about 16 light bulbs too replace tomorrow.

Something similar happened to my sister in law a few years ago. I had only finished wiring their new house about 6 months earlier. They live rural, so expect the odd spike or surge....but not some dopey farmhand driving the tractor down the road with his hay-rake hoisted full-lift. The rake caught a hold of the over-head lines feeding my S.I.L.'s house, causing a massive 3-phase arc...resulting in an extended period of extreme over-voltage to the house.

I got a call to say that their oven smelled funny, and a load of lights had gone out. Being an hour from where I live, I grabbed my tools and shot straight down there. The voltage spike was so severe that it actually burnt the enamel off the inside of the oven while the Sunday lunch was cooking. About half of the CFL lights in the house either exploded or just fried, the microwave, dishwasher, TV, Septic tank alarm, water filter, a Playstation 3, and various other appliances all blew components rendering them useless. The spike also took out the PLC Smart Relay I had installed to run timers and other function in the switchboard....along with one RCCB and a circuit breaker.

After a detailed and lengthy report was submitted to the Insurance Company, they were paid out. The total damage came to around $25,000

After looking into the problem a bit further, I had done nothing wrong, but decided to install surge protection devices in the Meter Box, and they haven't had so much as a shimmer on the lights since. Being rural is much worse than being in the city.

The way our earthing (ground) system works, is that your house is effectively connected to the surrounding houses, and so being rural, the distance between houses (installations) is much greater, hence lower rate of protection back-up.

 

[kiwigtx]

Oh yes, and do not agree that the issue was caused by 'Fusion' ....most Insurance companies won't pay out on that....but they won't give you their version of the definition of the word either.

 

[dart4forte]

Just an opinion, but I'd shut down all power
to your home, and have an electrician
evaluate the integrity of all the wiring
circuits. You may not know you have a
problem that can show up at a later time.
Your insurance company would probably
want you to do this anyway.
Better safe than sorry.....

Agree

 

[Charles Cook]

Agree

Had everything checked out today and the only thing they found was faulty GFI’s in the garage and bathroom’s. The electrician said we were very lucky. He was here about all day checking things out. He also checked all the lugs on all the panel boxes. I did find the safety beams on the garage door was damaged also.

 

[beanhead]

That's some s**t! When I lived in Kentucky our apartment building was hit by lightning. It was an "L" shaped building, and I was in the part of the "L" that wasn't hit. The other half caught fire and it burned half of their unit. Even though it wasn't a direct hit on my place it was like someone popped off a round of 00 buck in my ear.