Lightning strikes are a danger in North Florida, especially during our rainy summer season. The power and fury of lightning storms unleashes as much as 100 million volts of electricity in a single bolt of lightning, according to State Farm Insurance.
How To Safeguard Your Home From Lightning Strikes
Lighting that hits your house directly can actually explode the concrete and bricks and tear through the chimney and roof, leading to an inferno as it sets off fires. What's more, lightning can get into your home through an antenna, satellite dish or weather vane, as well as cable or phone lines, so you have to stay on guard during dangerous weather.
Practice common sense when there is a lighting storm, such as by going inside immediately, refraining from using a corded telephone, and not washing dishes or your hands, since electricity can travel through water as well as pipes made of metal, as noted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
How can you safeguard your home from lightning strikes to prevent damage and injury? Here are some steps you can start taking now to protect your property and family.
Unplug Appliances and Electronics
During a storm, go through your home, turning off all appliances as well as expensive electronics, such as computers and home audio/video entertainment systems.
Invest in a Surge Protector
To protect items from being overwhelmed by a surge in power from a lightning strike, install surge protectors between the wall outlet to divert electrical spikes.
Install Air Terminals
Homeowners would do well to install air terminals, which are typically rods made from aluminum or copper and go on the roof to attract lighting during a storm instead of tearing through the roof. When you install air terminals, you will need to connect them to the ground using cables called primary conductors.
Add Grounds to Your Home
Grounding has to do with guiding electricity from lighting to the ground instead of into your home. Made of aluminum or copper like air terminals, grounds must be installed at regular intervals to divert dangerous lighting strikes to dissipate safely into the earth.
Bonds
If you're not an expert yourself, it's a good idea to hire licensed electricians, such as the team at David Gray Electrical Services to take care of bonds. In bonding, you connect building systems that are grounded to the metal components on the roof. The bonds keep side flashing from occurring, with lighting actually jumping from one object to another.
Surge Arresters and Suppressors
Also referred to as surge protectors, these are essential pieces of equipment that you can use to protect expensive devices from experiencing a power overload and frying their circuits. Tour your home and make an inventory of each thing that needs this additional layer of protection. For example, items such as computers, printers, and copy/fax machines in the home office are high priority candidates for the first surge arrestors you install.
Ready to schedule installation services for these devices to keep your Florida home safe? Call us at (904) 605-8190 today for expert electrical service.
Do You Need Assistance Protecting Your Family and Home from Lighting Strikes?
At David Gray Electrical Services, we treat each residential project as if we were taking care of an electrical issue for a member of our own family. Because lighting strikes can be so dangerous, leading to damage and destruction as well as injury or even fatalities, we take this work seriously and follow industry best practices to help protect the dwellings of each customer.
To learn more about our approach to safeguarding homes in Florida against lightning or to make an appointment for service, please get in touch with us today.