Lightning Revisited [RE-wrenches]

[Lawrence Elliott]

Joe.
Somehow I tend to agree.
I have no exact data trail or figures on why this is so.
I only have 25 years of observing cause and affect.

When I lived in Pennsylvania where the ground was heavy wet clay and you
could actually get a recordable ground in ohms it was a toss up as to
where lightning would go. It was a real crap shoot in spite of the best
efforts.

Out here in the desert you could bury the battleship Missouri with a ton
of salt and get barely a trace on conductivity to ground.

In many many installs of wind turbines  and remote well pumps over these
years odds of getting a fried component went up as a direct result of
how good your equipment to earth ground was.

I have yet to see a strike in a system where the system was floated.

Like I said this is anecdotal evidence so it may or may not be valid.
But then if I see it raining cats and dogs I prefer to believe what I
see over the technical forecast given on the nightly news stating that
it is a sunny day.

I'm not so sure about Bills statement that lightning is "not such a
black art"
It certainly can make "black art" out of an electronic component.

Perhaps there's enough empirical evidence accumulated over the years
from mountain repeater sites,radio towers,skyscrapers etc to support one
argument or another.

I would also like to see evidence from Europe ,where they do not see
grounding as a religious right like Americans do, and compare notes. I'm
sure this has already been done.  I'm just not so sure this evidence
would be commonly available to "the lowly masses" if it conflicted with
convential, long term, and most times entrenched accepted practice.

I swear this is all true! May lightning strike me dead if I'm lying ;-)
Larry



> Hey Jeff,
>
> One place I flat out refuse to follow the NEC is bonding wind
> generator equipment grounds to the main system equipment ground. Take
> a 100' metal pole (talk about a lightning rod) and connect it to the
> same ground system servicing inverters and charge controllers? Don't
> think so!
>
> Joe
>

>
>

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