What Type Of Damage Can Lightning Cause To a Home or Building?
According to the NFPA, lightning strikes cause $451 million dollars in property damage each year.
Without a designated path to reach the ground, a lightning strike may choose to utilize any conductor available inside a home or building. This could include cable lines, phone lines, electrical lines, gas pipes, water pipes, etc.
Lightning can cause the following damage to a home or building:
- Fire: A fire can start anywhere the lightning channel contacts flammable material. These can include gas pipes, wood, paper, etc. If lightning follows electrical wiring, it often times overheats, causing a fire hazard.
- Side Flashes: Side flashes can injure anyone in a room that happens to be in the way.
- Building Damage: Lightning can cause damage to walls, concrete, plaster, and glass.
- Appliance Damage: Any appliance plugged into an affected circuit can be damaged, including TVs, computers, video game systems, microwaves, lamps, phones, washers, etc.
Commercial and home lightning protection systems are designed to ensure the building and occupants are safe if hit directly or indirectly by lightning. By providing a safe path to the ground, lightning protection equipment can provide fire protection, structural damage protection, and appliance damage protection.
While lightning rods help protect a structure and all occupants from a direct strike, a complete lightning protection system, including utility bonding, proper grounding, and surge protection help prevent harmful electrical surges and possible fires caused by lightning entering a structure via wire and pipes.
Lightning Protection System
A complete lightning protection system includes
- lightning rods
- conductor cables
- ground electrodes
- utility bonding clamps (for water pipes, sprinkler, & gas and/or oil pipes)
- surge protection
Northeast Lightning Protection has been installing lightning protection equipment, including lightning rods in Connecticut (CT), Massachusetts (MA), New York (NY), Rhode Island (RI), New Hampshire (NH) and Vermont (VT), since 1976.
Northeast Lightning Protection, a Connecticut (CT) based company, provides the most advanced commercial and home lightning protection systems according to the codes of Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. 96A, Lightning Protection Institute 175, and National Fire Protection Association 780.
For a free estimate, contact New England’s #1 lightning protection company, Northeast Lightning Protection.
Northeast Lightning Protection LLC
10 Peters Road
Bloomfield, CT 06002
Tel: (860) 243-0010
