Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: BreakingBad on January 25, 2012, 01:45:13 PM
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Last night my neighbors house was hit by lighting and caught fire. The family escaped unharmed, but the roof is lost.
I heard the lighting strike, it startled me awake, but I went back to sleep.
Lesson learned: Next time I hear a lightning strike like that, I'm getting out of bed and policing the house for a fire, just to be safe. :salute
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Scary stuff. It's always confused me a bit why one never sees lightning rods anymore. The house and barn I grew up in both had them, and I know they got hit more than once. Yet modern residential areas you just about never see them. I wonder if it just happens so rarely it's stopped being a consideration, particularly in cities that have highrises with lightning rods on them?
Wiley.
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Scary stuff. It's always confused me a bit why one never sees lightning rods anymore. The house and barn I grew up in both had them, and I know they got hit more than once. Yet modern residential areas you just about never see them. I wonder if it just happens so rarely it's stopped being a consideration, particularly in cities that have highrises with lightning rods on them?
Wiley.
Even if it is extremely rare how much does it cost for the builders to put one up? Next to nothing and it's basically simple seems weird.
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Scary stuff. It's always confused me a bit why one never sees lightning rods anymore. The house and barn I grew up in both had them, and I know they got hit more than once. Yet modern residential areas you just about never see them. I wonder if it just happens so rarely it's stopped being a consideration, particularly in cities that have highrises with lightning rods on them?
Wiley.
I know most of the buildings in NYC have them. So they might be there, they're just hidden. Doesn't look real pretty if you imagine a giant lightning rod sticking out of the Empire State Building.
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ex-friend lost his house to a lightning strike, it started a fire in the cellar and the oil rags they had down there put it in motion
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Might have to do with modern electrical codes - as electricity in homes has become a standard, and a standard practice for having electricity wired in your home is to have the entire system well grounded. This would negate strikes that come through the electrical grid potentialy miles away or on the power pole right outside your house. But this would do nothing unless your electrical utility connection is conveniently made ontop a conduit that is also at highest point on the structure (most just run a line to the side of your house above your meter).
I know some municipalities have codes mandating lighting rods on structures above a certain height (I think the way it is in NY), but a single-story residential building probabley falls well under it.
Another issue could simpley be enforcement - this would fall under fire and safety or building fire and safety regulations. IE: many places may have lighting rod mandates, but have all-volunteer fire departments (and lack the personel or funding to make sure every house in the county has their lightning rod and that it's properly installed) or lack building departments to aproove plans or the personel in those departments to review them all thuroughly (in the last few years, at least in my industry, plan reviewers are getting younger and less trained and everoyne is becoming more reliant on the superiors - they throw the book at you on some things and overlook everything else).
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I've lectured my dad on the importance of a lightning rod on our roof, he says it will never happen to us, we will see :devil
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Week ago had a very close strike less then 100ft away. Checked around, didnt see no damage
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my friend's tree got hit with lightening once, it knocked off about half the tree and burned the rest
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I know most of the buildings in NYC have them. So they might be there, they're just hidden. Doesn't look real pretty if you imagine a giant lightning rod sticking out of the Empire State Building.
What do you thnk the old dirigible mast is today? Lightning is about the only thing that uses it now lol.
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What do you thnk the old dirigible mast is today? Lightning is about the only thing that uses it now lol.
I know most of the buildings in NYC have them. So they might be there, they're just hidden. Doesn't look real pretty if you imagine a giant lightning rod sticking out of the Empire State Building.
(http://hazards.umwblogs.org/files/2011/04/4.jpg)
wrongway
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(http://hazards.umwblogs.org/files/2011/04/4.jpg)
wrongway
sweet, i figured there would be tons of photos online of that, but didnt look... I dont get how people can photograph lightning like that...
it happens so fast... seems like it would be gone b4 i even get my finger moving for the shutter button.
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Last night my neighbors house was hit by lighting and caught fire. The family escaped unharmed, but the roof is lost.
I heard the lighting strike, it startled me awake, but I went back to sleep.
Lesson learned: Next time I hear a lightning strike like that, I'm getting out of bed and policing the house for a fire, just to be safe. :salute
I know that sound all too well. Twice i had lighting strike so close that Ifelt it before you see it. And that "snap" sound it makes is enough to tell you how close you got from it.
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Might have to do with modern electrical codes - as electricity in homes has become a standard, and a standard practice for having electricity wired in your home is to have the entire system well grounded. This would negate strikes that come through the electrical grid potentialy miles away or on the power pole right outside your house. But this would do nothing unless your electrical utility connection is conveniently made ontop a conduit that is also at highest point on the structure (most just run a line to the side of your house above your meter).
I know some municipalities have codes mandating lighting rods on structures above a certain height (I think the way it is in NY), but a single-story residential building probabley falls well under it.
Another issue could simpley be enforcement - this would fall under fire and safety or building fire and safety regulations. IE: many places may have lighting rod mandates, but have all-volunteer fire departments (and lack the personel or funding to make sure every house in the county has their lightning rod and that it's properly installed) or lack building departments to aproove plans or the personel in those departments to review them all thuroughly (in the last few years, at least in my industry, plan reviewers are getting younger and less trained and everoyne is becoming more reliant on the superiors - they throw the book at you on some things and overlook everything else).
LOGIC BE DAMNED!!!
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Hmm, electrical engineering. It's quite the field. Perhaps having lightning rods every few hundred meters or so would protect houses from such damage. Furthermore, building these simple structures in a way that absorbs as much lightning as possible could power capacitors that would release electricity into the grid. To those who have studied Electrical Engineering, would this work?
-Penguin
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I have been struck twice, don't remember much about it, except it hurt for a while afterwords. The first time I was trying to get an antenna down before the storm got to us, didn't quite make it in time. The good thing is that my 1SG authorized a Direct exchange for my boots, and uniform. The second time I was standing by a light pole on base and the pole got hit, too bad I was leaning against it. You wanna hear the kicker, I still ain't won the lotto. But I haven't told Thor that he was a Jackwagon in a long time.
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Hmm, electrical engineering. It's quite the field. Perhaps having lightning rods every few hundred meters or so would protect houses from such damage. Furthermore, building these simple structures in a way that absorbs as much lightning as possible could power capacitors that would release electricity into the grid. To those who have studied Electrical Engineering, would this work?
-Penguin
Here is an article on why no one has commercialized lightning.
http://www.weatherimagery.com/blog/harnessing-lightning-power/
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I have been struck twice, don't remember much about it, except it hurt for a while afterwords. The first time I was trying to get an antenna down before the storm got to us, didn't quite make it in time. The good thing is that my 1SG authorized a Direct exchange for my boots, and uniform. The second time I was standing by a light pole on base and the pole got hit, too bad I was leaning against it. You wanna hear the kicker, I still ain't won the lotto. But I haven't told Thor that he was a Jackwagon in a long time.
Seriously? you've been hit before?
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Yep twice. And I don't even twitch,,,, too bad.
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Lightning rods are now only common on buildings that are at an elevated risk of lightning strike (because lightning rods attract nearby lightning). Here in Iowa you see them on farmhouses and outbuildings. This is because out in the country the houses and buildings are the tallest objects and we only have trees on hills and in river valleys. So basically if your house or barn is taller than corn, it's going to get struck before the corn does.
You don't see them in town because lightning will find it's way to ground regardless, if you put a lightning rod on top of your house, and nobody else on your block does any lightning hitting your block will hit your house.
In Big cities the buildings are not only very tall, but generally have a large footprint. It gives the lightning a safer, predictable path to ground. You also don't see row after row of buildings that are all the same height like you do in a residential neighborhood where all the structures are 2 stories tall.