Home Lightning Protection: How it Can Save You Money

Protecting your home from electrical damage during a lightning storm is important in preventing damages to electrical systems, appliances, and electrical devices. This type of preparation can ultimately save you money by helping to mitigate the risk of damages associated with electrical storms. Taking preventative measures to prepare and protect your home from potential damage during a lightning storm is the best way to protect valuables and save money on repairing any damages. Lighting storms can be powerful forces, so doing everything possible to reduce the risk of damage and protect your home is a good financial decision above all.

Lightning Protection Systems

The basic principle of home lightning protection systems is to form a continuous, conductive path from high points on the house to the ground, where copper rods or metal rings are buried to capture electric currents. When lightning strikes a house lacking this type of protective system, there is huge risk for fire and severe damage to the electrical system, all electronics, and even neighboring electrical systems. Lightning protection systems include lightning arrestors that can be installed on cable, electric, and telephone lines to prevent a lightning strike from destroying electronics. There is still a risk, however, of destruction by way of unprotected neighboring homes.

A combination of aluminum rods, high gauge copper, cables, and connectors work to keep electric currents brought on by lightning strikes on a direct path to the ground. These individual components work together to offer an uninterrupted path to discharge voltage safely into the earth, but all metal parts throughout the house must be connected to these grounding points to prevent transmission of the electrical current. One of the most important things to keep in mind about these systems is that they must be properly installed to resist lightning strikes. Lightning can carry several hundred million volts of electricity and reach temperatures upwards of 54,000 degrees, so making sure that the lightning protection system is fully resistant is essential for the system to function as intended.

Keeping Costs Down

Aside from fires, the bulk of the costs associated with home lightning strikes comes from destruction of sensitive, expensive electronic equipment. Computers, audio/visual, and any appliance are common victims of lightning strikes. Damage to the entire electrical system of your home is also a serious risk. Surge protectors are virtually helpless to protect any electronics during a lightning strike, so the best defense against lightning comes back to a complete lightning protection system. Ensuring that you evade the high costs of electrical systems, appliances, and device destruction through a home lightning protection system is the best peace of mind when lightning strikes.