Is the price of lightning strike protection worth it?

By Mike Cherney

The Virginian-Pilot

NORFOLK

Leon Bernard dreamed he was choking. He woke to a bedroom that was filling with smoke.

Two hours earlier, a lightning bolt had struck the Norfolk home he shared with his wife. Not seeing any damage, they went back to bed, unaware that their home's electrical circuits were smoldering.

Soon, their house was on fire. They did not even have time to put on shoes, said Bernard, 67. It was a total loss.

"We had a lot of antiques in there from all the family," he said. "My wife says that when we build this new home, there will be only two antiques – she and I."

At least two other homes in the region were damaged by lightning fires last month. Home-owners can guard against lightning-caused fires, but the price of protection may not be worth it.

Summer is the busiest time for lightning activity, experts said. Two weeks ago, the same week that the Bernard s’ home was hit, Virginia Beach had twice as many lightning strikes as recorded for the entire year, according to Jacob Klee, a meteorologist with Dominion Virginia Power.

In 2006, 14 residential fires caused by lightning were reported in South Hampton Roads. That accounts for less than one percent of the 1,632 house fires reported in the region, according to the Virginia Fire Incident Reporting System database.

Property damage from lightning fires was more than $1.8 million in 2006, compared with $35 million in total damage from all fires, according to the Virginia Department of Fire Programs.

"Most house fires start in the kitchen from unattended cooking," said Capt. Steve Johnson, a spokesman for the Chesapeake Fire Department. "You stand a much greater chance of starting a fire in your own home than having the fire started by lightning."

For a two-story home, a lightning protection system can cost between $2,000 and $2,500, said Kim Loehr, a spokeswoman for the Lightning Protection Institute. The key is to transfer the lightning's electrical energy to the ground without causing fires or power surges.

Lightning rods placed on the roof are connected by wires to a piece of metal that is buried 10 feet underground. When lightning hits a rod, the electricity is transferred along the wires to the ground, where it is dissipated harmlessly.

Surge arresters also are important, experts said. Lightning can strike power and phone lines, and the energy can pass through the cables into homes as a power surge.

The surge arrester, installed on a home's electrical box, prevents the surge from entering a home's internal wiring, causing fires and destroying appliances.

Any electrician installing the systems should be certified by Underwriters Laboratories, a nonprofit product compliance group, or by the Lightning Protection Institute. The systems should be regularly inspected every few years, experts said.

"If it's done professionally and inspected periodically, failures are infrequent," said Vladimir Rakov, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Florida who studies lightning. "But lightning is so unpredictable that sometimes it does not strike where it's intended."

Rakov said homeowners must decide whether they want the system installed, but there are a few ways that people can determine whether their property is high-risk.

Location is important, he said. Virginia records a moderate amount of lightning activity. It's less than Florida, where lightning protection is required on some government buildings, but more than California or Nevada.

Exposure is another factor, Rakov said. If a house is surrounded by buildings of the same height, the chance of getting hit is low. But if a house is taller, or has any protruding objects such as a weather vane, the chances are higher.

Usually, a home's building material does not affect the chances of being hit. But having a metallic roof can increase the danger, experts said.

"It's a cheap insurance policy for your house," said David Gwyer, the co-owner of Richmond-based Lightning Systems of Virginia, which installs the protections. "If you have a house that's going to cost you $500,000 to build, what's $3,000 to keep it from catching fire?"

A cheaper way to protect a home is to use surge protectors, Rakov said. The devices absorb excess electricity and can cost between $15 and $150. They will not protect against a direct hit, but they can save expensive appliances and prevent fires caused by power surges.

"Structural lightning protection is for direct lightning strikes, and those are rare," Rakov said. "But on the other hand, surges are very frequent."

The damage from lightning, especially power surges, has been increasing, according to a study by the Insurance Information Institute.

The number of lightning claims on home insurance policies decreased 8 percent between 2004 and 2006, to 256,000 from 278,000, according to the report. But the amount of money paid out by insurance companies has risen during the same period, to $882.2 million in 2006 from $735.5 million in 2004, a rise of 20 percent.

People are filling their homes with more expensive electronics, such as computers and flat-screen TVs, faster than they are buying surge protectors to guard against lightning strikes, the report said.

Keith Dorband, who sells Allstate insurance from his Norfolk office, said in many cases people are not aware of the potential hazards of lightning until it's too late.

"There's not much buzz about lightning coverage," he said. "I don't even mention it."

That makes sense, said Klee, the meteorologist with the power company. In general, hurricanes and nor’easters, which cause wind and flood damage, pose a greater threat to homes than lightning.

The Bernards already have begun the rebuilding process. They said they are arranging to have the remains of their home torn down so they can start building a new one. Lightning protection is a high priority.

"I never thought about it before," Bernard said. "By all means, I’m thinking about it now."

Mike Cherney, (757) 446-2405, [email protected]

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