[Flying05]

I know, long read. Please Ignore if too much.

So this week, my house either got directly struck by lightning or close to which has destroyed a number of things in my house including my Jeep Wrangler as it appears. I was at home at the time and have never been so close to such a hit. Was outside under my patio (was a safe spot) when it hit and seemed to be maybe 40 yards away, but couldn't tell as it was instantaneous with the thunder and was the loudest thunder and brightest lightning I have ever seen. I knew something was going to be bad out of this.

For the house, it completely destroyed my internet modem and most all other power boxes for the fiber system inside and out. Finally have internet again as they had to run a whole new line to the house. They were very shocked that lightning destroyed the fiber line. Additionally, my directv boxes are fried, home theater receiver, possibly my home theater projector, front door wired ring camera, pool robot cleaner, sprinkler system controller, half my landscape lighting, security system, and who knows what else as I'm still checking everything. It tripped one of my main house breakers, pool system breakers, several other breakers, and a number of the GFI outlets in the house.

Here's the bigger one, thank goodness my M is garaged, but my 2020 wrangler rubicon sits outside in the driveway. Car has been 100% perfect for the 2 years that I have had it and even drove it before the storm hit. The next morning after the storm, I get my daughter in the Jeep ready for her first day of 1st grade. Press the start button, and all of a sudden, the car barely tries to turn over and would not, the dash lights were all over the place showing tons of error messages about the car not being in park, traction control error, you name it. Tons of errors all over the place. The dash lights were flickering, mileage till empty was doing the same, and the windshield wipers were running and were not even on. You could not put it in neutral, literally could not do anything with it. So I was like damn, did this thing get something from the lightning. Called the insurance company to give them a heads up to be safe then had to call for a tow to the dealer. The tow truck driver that came out was baffled and said that he had never seen anything like this before. He couldn't even get it in neutral after trying many things and had to use skid plates to drag it onto the flat bed. Even disconnected the main battery and at this point, the interior dash lights and wipers would not even turn off.

Fast forward to yesterday, the dealer checked the batteries and everything was good as they thought that was the problem as I never mentioned the lightning. He said the car was pulling a ton of codes and they can't look into it for at least 3 weeks due to being backed up. I then filed a claim with insurance as I can see where this is going and to be safe. At this point based on my research, I would want the car totaled if it was hit, which does suck, but no way in hell do I want this car now and not to mention if they did somewhat fix, this thing would be a long term lemon. And my other worry is would it show up on car fax.

Any of you guys have experience with cars getting impacted by lightning and how did it turn out? Really bummed about this and also stressed out about how this all turns out.

[Llarry]

Some years back, lightning struck a tree near the house, traveled via the tree roots to a hardware cloth fence, thence to a brick on the outside wall and blew out a section of drywall and started a tiny, smoky fire in the wall. The transformer outside tripped so no power. After the fire dept was done, we had a couple of thousand damage inside the room where the tiny fire was. Once the power company reset the transformer, we were good to go electrically except for a Tivo receiver which had to be repaired. The tree roots almost literally exploded when struck -- there were bit of root and dirt on the roof of the house! Scary stuff!

The cars were garaged on the other side of the house and were not impacted, thank goodness.

[OkieSnuffBox]

With that much stuff inside the house destroyed, depending on total replacement costs, it may be worth it to file a claim with your Home Owners insurance, lightning damage is a covered loss.

We had a lightning strike 3-4 years ago close that killed a bunch of electronics inside our house. They were on the little cheapy surge protectors.

Now everything electronic of any value is connected to BIG battery backup, surge protectors. The 4 in the house together were north of $1k. Lightning strikes close by and constant power flickers due to electric overload in the heat haven't damaged a thing.

[cmyx6go]

Wow. I thought you were posting a link to a news story. Glad no one was hurt.

[1and1]

Originally Posted by OkieSnuffBox

...We had a lightning strike 3-4 years ago close that killed a bunch of electronics inside our house. They were on the little cheapy surge protectors...

Live in FL, and have played that game twice ourselves, and watched it happen countless times to others

We claimed the first time, just ate it the second, but reinforced the infrastructure with UPS systems that have prevented any further issues

Originally Posted by OkieSnuffBox

Now everything electronic of any value is connected to ... battery backup...

Battery UPS is the business for sure, even if you have a backup generator.

[zx10guy]

A whole house surge protector would be something I would add that you all haven't. I have one in my house. I installed it myself. Not hard at all. It's installed at the main panel. So in addition to the whole house surge protector, I have surge protectors at the devices, UPS', and a backup generator.

[2000cs]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

A whole house surge protector would be something I would add that you all haven't. I have one in my house. I installed it myself. Not hard at all. It's installed at the main panel. So in addition to the whole house surge protector, I have surge protectors at the devices, UPS', and a backup generator.

Which mfgr did you use for the whole house? I’ve been looking at them, esp Siemens since that is my breaker.

[OldDudesBimmer]

Wow. glad you and family are OK, sounds like you had a front row seat too .

Curious to know how the Jeep story turns out. Keep us posted. You typically think of vehicles on rubber tires (especially large ones) to be somewhat safe, so wondering how it took more of a direct hit, i.e. arc to the metal (tub and/or frame). Seems like there would be some entry/exit "marks" somewhere. Were you able to inspect it close enough to see anything? Or, perhaps the electromagnetic energy was so strong for a given moment, it behaved more like a mini EMP on some of the delicate circuits? This is what it sounds like, but I'm just spitballing here of course. I feel for you on this one especially, since I also would not want the vehicle any longer, even if they somehow get it running.

Also, great advice from others on how to protect yourself. I'm sure many of us need some hardening in this area!

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by 2000cs

Which mfgr did you use for the whole house? I’ve been looking at them, esp Siemens since that is my breaker.

The rule of thumb is to stick with the manufacturer of your main panel for a whole house protector. So in your case it would be Siemens. Here's one on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Siemens-QSA20...eae8f9840&th=1

They're really pretty easy to install if your comfortable with electrical work. Pretty much all of them from what I've seen snap in like a normal breaker with a ground wire that needs to be attached to the grounding bus bar in the panel.

My panel is from Square D so I used one from them. Mine required a dual breaker that I then wired the surge protector to the breaker. The nice thing about the Square D setup is the system is modular. I can replace the line power surge protector separate from the land line phone and cable surge modules. The surge protector also has a status LED I can view as the setup is an auxiliary enclosure that mounts to the outside of the panel.

[vreihen16]

I'm amazed that the EMI/RF shielding on the airbag circuits worked to prevent the giant marshmallows from deploying.....

[shiftdnb]

Strangely just this past week we had a crack of lightening and thunder right when I was about to get out of bed and the power seemed to go out. My wife came up to tell me that she couldn't turn off our living room light (a smart light attached to Alexa). I was baffled and pointed to the fan and said the power went out, how could it be on. I went downstairs to check the breakers and all but one breaker to my upstairs was tripped. Didn't seem to be any electrical device damage but man I'm glad I have a battery backup system for my computer and network stuff or they probably would have been fried.

[Flying05]

Originally Posted by OldDudesBimmer

Wow. glad you and family are OK, sounds like you had a front row seat too .

Curious to know how the Jeep story turns out. Keep us posted. You typically think of vehicles on rubber tires (especially large ones) to be somewhat safe, so wondering how it took more of a direct hit, i.e. arc to the metal (tub and/or frame). Seems like there would be some entry/exit "marks" somewhere. Were you able to inspect it close enough to see anything? Or, perhaps the electromagnetic energy was so strong for a given moment, it behaved more like a mini EMP on some of the delicate circuits? This is what it sounds like, but I'm just spitballing here of course. I feel for you on this one especially, since I also would not want the vehicle any longer, even if they somehow get it running.

Also, great advice from others on how to protect yourself. I'm sure many of us need some hardening in this area!

Yeah, it was definitely an experience. I did not see any marks on the jeep. Granted I did not inspect it overly well. Something from the lighting had to fry something though, never seen a car behave the way it did. It's throwing a ton of codes so I am praying g that my insurance company will total it. No way the problem is something minor.

Just found out this morning to add to the list, looks like my theater projector is screwed and my ring front door bell. Though it doesn't seem to be getting any power, or it's fried. Most likely at this point will file a claim on the house as well. Hoping they don't end up dropping me after or skyrocketing my rates.

[2000cs]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

The rule of thumb is to stick with the manufacturer of your main panel for a whole house protector. So in your case it would be Siemens. Here's one on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Siemens-QSA20...eae8f9840&th=1

They're really pretty easy to install if your comfortable with electrical work. Pretty much all of them from what I've seen snap in like a normal breaker with a ground wire that needs to be attached to the grounding bus bar in the panel.

My panel is from Square D so I used one from them. Mine required a dual breaker that I then wired the surge protector to the breaker. The nice thing about the Square D setup is the system is modular. I can replace the line power surge protector separate from the land line phone and cable surge modules. The surge protector also has a status LED I can view as the setup is an auxiliary enclosure that mounts to the outside of the panel.

Thanks - I was looking at the Siemens FS140 which is more expensive and requires a dedicated 2-pole breaker. A bit more of an install but a lot more protection given the lightening around here. I’ve already replaced one of our AC air handlers because of a surge that fried the NLA control boards.

[2000cs]

Curious if anyone knows if a lightening rod would have protected the OP from the damage?

[kscarrol]

We never installed but many older homes in New Orleans had a system on the roof with rods at the high points on the roof connected to grounding cables. Can't vouch for how effective they are, just noting they are used.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by 2000cs

Thanks - I was looking at the Siemens FS140 which is more expensive and requires a dedicated 2-pole breaker. A bit more of an install but a lot more protection given the lightening around here. I’ve already replaced one of our AC air handlers because of a surge that fried the NLA control boards.

The FS140 seems to be the same as the Square D surge protector I installed. If it is, it's only a little bit more complicated to install versus the snap in all in one surge protectors. I installed mine well before I had my backup generator put in. The county inspector was all over the main panel for obvious reasons during the generator install. He never once made a comment on my install of the whole house surge protector as it was clearly in plain view.

[evil-G-nius]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

A whole house surge protector would be something I would add that you all haven't. I have one in my house. I installed it myself. Not hard at all. It's installed at the main panel. So in addition to the whole house surge protector, I have surge protectors at the devices, UPS', and a backup generator.

I just had one of these installed last week! I also sent one to my aunt in Alabama because her house has been hit 2 times over the years and fried a ton of stuff. She is 84 now and I didn't want her to have to go through that again.

OP, glad you guys are safe and things are not TOO bad...it could have been worse for sure