Lightning strikes happen in seconds, but the damage can haunt your home for years. The truth is, many homeowners think they’re protected until it’s too late. They discover that their home insurance covers the obvious damage but leaves them paying out of pocket for the hidden electrical problems that lightning creates throughout their house.
Staley Electric believes that you shouldn’t have to worry about your family’s safety or face surprise repair bills after every severe weather event. That’s exactly why we’re here to help you spot lightning dangers before they strike and take smart steps to protect what matters most to you. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out. We’re standing by with a full spectrum of residential electrical services, including whole-house surge protector installation.
How Lightning Travels Through Home Electrical Systems
Lightning doesn’t need a direct hit on your roof to cause chaos. A bolt of lightning that strikes a nearby tree or power line can send a massive, high-voltage wave of energy surging toward your home. This rogue electric charge travels along any available electrical conductor. That means it can enter through your home’s electrical wiring, telephone lines, and even your plumbing pipes. Once inside, this voltage spike races through your circuits, seeking a path to ground and putting everything connected to your electrical system at risk.
Damage Homeowners Often See After a Lightning Strike
Power Surges
The most common outcome of a lightning strike is a powerful surge that overloads your electrical outlets in an instant. This sudden voltage spike is far too much for your sensitive electronics to handle. The surge can instantly fry the delicate circuits inside your television, computer, stereo, and appliances, leading to costly replacements and the loss of important data.
Electrical Fires
When electrical wiring can’t handle the massive energy from a lightning strike, wires overheat and can ignite surrounding materials. These fires often start inside walls where you can’t see them, giving them time to spread before detection. The risk increases significantly in older homes where electrical wiring may already be stressed or outdated.
Blown Circuits
Your circuit breakers are built to trip during a simple overload, but they are no match for the extreme power of a lightning strike. The intense electric charge can overwhelm and destroy breakers, melt wiring at the panel, and cause a widespread power outage in your home.
The Invisible Threats Lightning Brings Into Your Home
Hidden Electrical Faults
Sometimes, a lightning surge isn’t strong enough to cause immediate failure but is powerful enough to damage your electrical wiring. The surge can create tiny, unseen cracks or weak points in the wire insulation. These hidden faults create a persistent fire risk that could cause a problem weeks or even months after the thunderstorm has passed.
Overloaded Breaker Panels
A powerful voltage spike can damage the internal components of your breaker panel without causing it to fail right away. This compromises the panel’s ability to protect your home from future overloads, leaving you vulnerable. The panel might not trip when it should, increasing the risk of a dangerous electrical event down the road.
Electrical Safety Tips to Follow During a Thunderstorm
When severe weather approaches Central Arkansas, taking the right precautions can protect both your family and your home’s electrical system. These safety steps should become second nature during thunderstorm season:
- Unplug Important Devices: The best way to protect your expensive electronics is to disconnect them from wall outlets. A power strip offers some defense, but unplugging your computers and televisions is the only certain method to keep them safe from a surge.
- Avoid Water and Plumbing Fixtures: Metal plumbing pipes can conduct electricity from lightning strikes, making showers, baths, and even washing dishes dangerous during storms.
- Don’t Touch Electrical Panels or Switches: Avoid flipping breakers, using light switches, or touching metal panels during a storm. Those surfaces may conduct electric energy if a strike is nearby.
- Turn Off the Main Electrical Switch: This step requires caution and should only be attempted if you know your electrical panel well and you feel comfortable doing it.
What to Do After a Lightning Strike
If lightning strikes your home or nearby property, your quick response can prevent additional damage and protect your family’s safety. Acting fast also helps when dealing with your home insurance claim later.
- Check for Fire or Smoke: Your first step is to walk through your home and check for any signs of fire, including burning smells or smoke. Pay close attention to the attic and basement areas near electrical wiring. If you suspect a fire, evacuate immediately and call 911.
- Inspect Your Electronics and Appliances: Check to see if your major electronics and appliances are working. Make a list of any damaged items, as this will be necessary for your home insurance claim.
- Look for Structural Damage: Walk around the outside of your home. Look for any damage to your roof, siding, or chimney. Also, check nearby trees for scorch marks or broken limbs.
- Call a Professional Electrician: This is the most important step. A qualified electrician needs to inspect your entire electrical system for hidden damage. We can identify weakened wiring, check your breaker panel, and find any other potential hazards the lightning left behind.
Lightning Protection Systems and Surge Safety
The best defense is a proactive one. A whole-house surge protector is your primary shield against external power surges. Installed at your electrical panel, a lightning surge protector constantly monitors the incoming voltage. When it detects a dangerous voltage spike from a nearby strike, it instantly diverts the excess energy harmlessly into your home’s grounding system before it can damage your electronics.
For direct strikes, a professionally installed lightning rod system offers another level of security. These residential lightning rods, often made of a copper conductor, intercept a strike and provide a safe, direct path for the immense electric charge to follow to the ground, guiding the energy away from your home’s structure.
Modern electrical systems are built to handle the constant flow of alternating current, but they need support. An updated breaker panel and proper bonding, which connects all of your home’s metal systems (like plumbing and gas lines) to the grounding system, help prevent circuit damage during a surge. Think of it as creating one unified system of defense.
To keep this protection working effectively, we recommend an annual inspection of your lightning rods, your panel’s ground wire, and your home lightning arrester. This quick checkup gives you confidence that your home is ready for the next Arkansas thunderstorm.
Call Staley Electric for Professional Lightning Protection!
You deserve to feel safe and sound in your home, no matter the weather. As your local Little Rock electrical experts, Staley Electric is here to help you build a powerful defense against lightning. We proudly install whole-house surge protectors and possess the know-how to protect what matters most to you. Give us a call today to schedule your installation!
