Does anyone know about how lightning enters a home without being a direct lightning strike to the house?
Question:When lightining strikes the ground/trees closeby our home, we hear popping noises (like light bulbs blowing, small explostions kinda)in our house. Our breakers in our bedrooms kick. Our lights in our ceiling fan light up (with the switch OFF). We've had our local power company check everything, and they found nothing. We had an electrician come down and check and even put in an extra copper ground rod near our meter base. We can't seem to get anyone to determine the cause of these problems. We built our home three years ago. We had NO problems until after we had lived here for 2 years. I appreciate your help!
Answers:
Mountaindesertminer probably has the best answer. You may have an electrical problem. It could even be something like a utility owned transformer that is causing the problem. The probable name of the problem is "stray voltage". But I am only guessing. (http://www.bassengineering.com/sv_cause. http://www.sncmfg.com/telecom/stray_volt... )
You may want to post your question here. This website has industrial grade experts.
http://expert.ecmweb.com/resistance_grou...
http://expert.ecmweb.com/resistance_grou...
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/rep...
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/face/in-house/f...
Spikes in voltages can be fixed by something called a line filter. http://www.controlledpwr.com/ltn_series_...
I've seen lightning hit the ground once in 41 years. Where the hell do you live that it happens so often?
Lightning can come in your house from the power pole outside..Maybe you are at the end of a run of power lines and you are taking the brunt of some serious surges...that would explain why the power compant didnt want to find anything. you can put a surge arrestor in line with your house but nothing will protect against a direct strike.
It is possibly hitting electric line/ phone lines outside and traveling into your house that way. Otherwise, there is no path for it to follow if it is truly hitting the ground outside.
Did your utility company check for a crossed ground/common wire? If your ceiling fan is in the bedroom, start the search there. good luck
Hi. One primary way which lightning can enter a home is by a draft. Open windows particularly if they are on opposing ends of the house, or the room, can flush a draft of air through the house. It is on this draft of air current that the electrical power of lightning can ride upon. It will enter the window in which air is flowing in and exit the window which is drawing the air back out. Lightning will follow any draft however, including open basement doors or even windows that are just slightly cracked. During a thunder storm, make certain that all windows and doors are closed, as well as all basement doors and windows, or other areas where you perceive a reasonable draft of air may be circulating through the house. Lightning can also travel along underground pipe lines. Once lightning enters a home it will wreak havoc on the electrical system, not to mention the danger of a person being in its line of path. Check for drafts in the attic as well as the basement. And observe where your pipes enter the home and look to see if there is draft there, or how close those pipes are to electrical systems. Also, remember that large trees close by a house will attract lightning. When lightning does strike nearby, it is common for the house electrical systems to flutter.
Do you have water in your cellar or anything like that? Or is there a water source close by? We have a small spring that runs through our cellar but if you don't have anything like that I'm not sure what would conduct a strike into the house.
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