When we remodeled the old farmhouse - they took down the lightening rod. I have a tin roof on the house.

Is there any connection to the missing rod and the fact that everytime there is a storm I lose another brand new phone, ( or two), and the last storm took out the modem on the computer?

Why, ( or why not ) install a rod? Where do you get them? Should they be professionally installed or is "do-it-yourself" sufficient? What location on the roof?

Thanks for any help!

-- Judy McFerrin (JMcFerrin@aol.com), September 02, 2000

Answers

I'll take a stab at answering.

Within the past couple of months I ran across a source for lightening rods and accessories, but cannot find it now. I'll probably wake up at 3AM some morning and remember the source. You might find some at a salvage yard or be able to remove them from an abandoned farm house - with the owner's permission of course.

When they were used many farm houses and barns not only had metal roofs, but were the tallest structure in the area. Thus, the most likely target for lightening. The rods were placed on the highest points with a grounding wire to a grounding rod.

At that time they didn't have mile upon mile of phone and electrical wiring. Lightening doesn't necessarily need to hit the wire, just come close to induce a surge down the wire. Strike may have been miles from your house at it travels at the speed of light.

Thus, I doubt you having a metal roof was the problem.

You can buy surge protectors which will not only help protect anyting electrical plugged into them, but phone lines as well. They are more expensive. Bought mine at W-Mart. It is an Interex Surge/Slayer. Lost a modem also, but I didn't have the telephone line plugged into it at the time. I do now.

-- Ken S. in TN (scharabo@aol.com), September 02, 2000.

Try Lehman's, 1-888-438-5346, if they don't stock lightning rods they can probably put you onto someone that does. In addition to Ken's suggestions regarding surge protectors make sure your phone service line is grounded where it comes into your house, often the phone and electric service lines share the same ground rod.

Bob

-- Robert (STBARB@usa.net), September 02, 2000.

Judy I had the rods on my house and was constantly geting hit. Had the power co outfor alot of dicussion.Finally I remove the rods and have cut my hits to being very rare. I think my rods was drawing lighting. it is important to have only one ground driven in to hard damp ground with all your grounds tied together. Good Luck Jay Vance

-- jay l vance (jay.l.vance@worldnet.att.net), September 03, 2000.

I found my source but they only sell accessories, not the rod and grounding system. Apparently lightning rods often had weather vanes and colored glass globes on them. Does anyone know the purpose the the glass globes if they were something other than pure decoration?

-- Ken S. in TN (scharabo@aol.com), September 03, 2000.

Looks to me that you can find everything you need here at:

http://www.surgearrestor.com/main.html

click on "Parts and Prices" to see what they have. I've looked over all 8 pages and I think they have everything one would need if in fact you do need/want them. I'll leave the "advice" to others as I don't have any experience using them however.

-- Bob Johnson (backwoods_bob_2000@yahoo.com), September 03, 2000.

Don't count on your surge protector to save you. We got hit about noon time, a couple-three weeks ago. Took out the main breaker to the shed and thus to the well pump. I was asleep about 3 feet from the answering machine/phone and it blew the plugs out of the surge protector, the surge protector cord out of the wall, shattered the teansformer thingy on the answering machine and fried the answering machine, phone and phone line and jack (just one jack and the line to it). I think I woke up hanging from the ceiling fan!! Very large boom!!

When we leave the house, and if there are storms forcast or our barometer is dropping, we unplug the computer from both the outlet and the phone jack. Insurance won't give you diddley for a 2 or 3 year old computer - but it sure works better than none at all!

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), September 03, 2000.

Ken, This may be my imagination, but I believe at one time I read that the glass balls were on the lightning rods as an indicator. The glass ball would break if the rod had been struck. I know that they cost a mint in antique stores now. Tami in WI

-- Tami Bowser (windridg@chorus.net), September 07, 2000.

All structures need Lightning Protection. A complete system includes lightning rods, copper or aluminum main conductors, ground rods, and secondary bonding cables to all metal bodies within the structure. Grounding must include a common ground with the electrical service. Also all incoming services,ie. gas, water, cable tv, satellite dish, phone, electricity and any other piping or wiring must be bonded to the lightning system. This protects the structure. If any part of the interconnecting of services is not done properly the integrity of the entire system is compromised. Once you have protected the structure it is now necessary to protect the appliances, tv,computers, phones, and especially alarm circuits. This is done by installing a main panel surge suppression module on the incoming electrical service. This unit should be UL 1449 second edition approved and rated at 40,000 amps or higher. This unit protects the circuits going to the house. Secondary surge suppression is recommended at point of use. Plug- in units that are UL approved should be used in the outlets wherever appliances or electrical items are plugged. Some units provide connections for cable and phone lines. These should be used at all points of use. If you provide complete protection from lightning you will not have problems. But an incomplete system is only inviting in problems. Use a Lightning Protection Institute Certified installer to insure compliance with accepted standards.

-- Oliver J Pitts (jandkpitts@wnm.net), July 10, 2001.

lots of sources for lightning rods- http://www.thebluebook.com/cl/all2700.htm

-- somebody (something@somewhere.com), July 10, 2001.

here's a source for the old glass ball type rods http://www.oldworlddistributors.com/lightningindex.html

-- somebody (something@somewhere.com), July 10, 2001.

sorry about the multiple postings... here's one more http://www.lightning.org/

-- somebody (something@somewhere.com), July 10, 2001.