Guardian Equipment Company

Because Lightning Does Strike Twice

Category:	Lightning Protection
Address:	44375 Grand River Ave.
City:	Novi
Map:	Click to map location
Phone:	248-449-5200
Website:	www.guardianequipment.com

There are reasons why a growing number of homes are struck by lightning each year, often with devastating results worthy of video on the evening news. With more homes elevated higher into the sky, plus more square footage that makes them likelier targets, many southeast Michigan homes have become lightning rods, of sorts, for fiery bolts out of the sky.

To compound the issue, there is yet another possible reason for the increase in lightning damage — and it’s one that may affect your home, as well, according to Philip Youtsey, president of Guardian Equipment Company.

“Within a 60-mile-wide stretch that extends all the way from Adrian to Port Huron lies one of the most mineral-rich areas of Michigan,” he says. “If your home is situated in this stretch, the earth beneath it may be attracting lightning. If you have a well, one way to know if there is a high mineral content surrounding your home is to look at your sidewalks. Have they turned slightly orange in color after being doused repeatedly by your sprinkler systems? If so, you have a high iron content, possibly putting your home at greater risk for a lightning strike.”

Most people believe a surge protector will keep their home computers, plasma TVs, theater rooms, and other electronics safe in the event of an electrical storm. Although a surge protector will help, in no way will it fully protect your home from the destruction lightning can cause. In a direct hit, the electrical impulses are strong enough to rip through the wiring in your home — destroying walls, frying circuits, damaging appliances, and causing devastation so intense that homeowners have had to move out of their homes for up to a year before restoration could be completed.

“Every architect has a story,” says Youtsey, who serves on the national board of directors for the Lightning Protection Institute, and who has heard them all. There are so many stories, in fact, that builders have begun to incorporate specialized grounding systems in new residential projects, anticipating that the protection will soon be mandated by local building codes. “In Florida, where lightning damage is in the millions of dollars annually, lightning protection systems are already mandated in governmental buildings,” he says, “and a law is in the works to mandate them in residential buildings, as well.”

Even insurance companies understand the wisdom of installing home systems. Some have begun offering savings on their policies when customers install such protection.

The systems don’t actually stop lightning from hitting a home – you cannot attract it to or deter it from hitting any certain place. Instead, protective systems give the lightning a better path to the ground, diminishing the chances of a fire or extensive damage. “It works like an umbrella in a rain storm,” explains Youtsey. “The system shields your home by connecting cable on the roof to a ground rod buried below grade. Installation is possible on both new and existing structures.

“To put the costs into perspective,” he adds, “many of these systems cost less than the Sub-Zero refrigerators that are regularly installed in new homes today.”

If your home has never been hit by lightning, consider yourself fortunate. Michigan ranks No. 2 in the nation for lightning damage, and “It is a myth that lightning never strikes the same place twice,” says Youtsey. “We used to have a monitor on the GM Headquarters building after we installed the U/L Certified System. One year, the tower was hit by lightning as many as six times without damage.”

Guardian Equipment Company has been engineering and installing U/L Certified lightning protection systems on the most important buildings in Michigan and Ohio for more than 50 years — including Ford Field, Comerica Park, the Fox Theatre, and the Michigan State Capitol Building. Guardian has never had a system fail, in part because it strictly adheres to national lightning protection codes issued by the National Fire Protection Association and Underwriters Laboratories. For more information about the systems, please call 248-449-5200.