One of our friends had the unthinkable happen- his home was hit by lightning and destroyed. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but the home is a total loss. We’ve had clients that have suffered myriad lightning strikes and had various levels of damage-this was the worst. Lightning can hit any part of your home, and it will destroy something- we’ve seen chimneys blown up, chimney caps blown off, electrical or plumbing systems destroyed and disrupted-fortunately no injuries. The best protection is a lighting rod system installed by a trained professional company, but sometimes even that isn’t sufficient. Lightning can get into your home through any metallic raceway-conduit, wire, nails, piping-anything metal. It is seeking a way to the ground-and will go through anything that leads it that way that conducts. If it’s a body, it will generate heat and still try to go through it. So, when thinking about lightning protection, it isn’t sufficient to protect only the line voltage part of your home, or to make sure your plumbing is grounded, but also to make sure that-if you have a low voltage system (lighting or sound control) that it too is protected in some way. One thing you don’t want is to have a lightning strike be a major life-changing event!
