lightning strikes..

[Jelj360]

afternoon all,

might be a silly question but here goes,

my house got hit by lightning in june which destroyed our phone, router, melted the copper in an aerial socket connection upstairs and turned the computer and tv screen green for a few days!

what i wanna know is should this have tripped the 30mA RCD main switch at the board?

also the mains water wasnt earthed at the time-could this have been dangerous if someone was touching a pipe, Rad or in the bath?

 

[pushrod]

afternoon all,

might be a silly question but here goes,

my house got hit by lightning in june which destroyed our phone, router, melted the copper in an aerial socket connection upstairs and turned the computer and tv screen green for a few days!

what i wanna know is should this have tripped the 30mA RCD main switch at the board?

also the mains water wasnt earthed at the time-could this have been dangerous if someone was touching a pipe, Rad or in the bath?

An RCD is an earth fault device that detects imbalances between current flowing out in the live and back into the consumer unit in the neutral. So if yours didn't trip i would say that it is still very possible that it is still doing what it is supposed to. Any electrician would be able to test it if you are concerned. Did you not get the electrics checked out thoroughly after the strike? If you haven't already you should.

And yes if the extraneous conductors in the house were not earthed the risk would be greatly increased in the event of a lightning strike.

 

[xraytek]

I dont think RCD's or bonding are going to make any difference what so ever to a direct lightning strike.

The only real defence is to encourage the bolt to strike elsewhere ie a lightning conductor.
Ideally a lightning conductor wants to be away from the house, but if it is up the side of the building then should be bonded to the electrical installation.

The idea being that as the lightning hits the conductor, it causes a rise in voltage to any extraneous parts in the house too. This encourages the bolt to stick to the lightning conductor, instead of taking parallel paths through the house.

With lightning you are talking about MegaVolts, so insulation needs to be several metres thick.
12 inches of brickwork offers no insulation what so ever, and if anything will be used as a conductor.

Hope that helps.