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How do I stop losing stuff to lightning storms?

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reader2580

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I’m being overly dramatic about things, but I seriously don’t want coax cable just running all over the place draping down and looking like heck.

I put all of my ground wires inside of conduit to keep things looking as nice as possible. The concrete block around the conduit has been patched since this picture.
 
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reader2580

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Fav Onefour said:
I see the bonding bridge. Is the ground buried inside the conduit? I don't see any ground connection.

The cable guys often attach their ground to the nearest point with some sort of clamp connector. I'm assuming the bonding bridge wasn't an option when they did the install. What did they connect to at the time? The wire is there and it was connected.
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The ground runs through conduit. The grounding wire for Comcast was originally attached to some sort of clamp the Comcast tech attached to an edge of the original meter socket. I tried to put the grounding wire in the bonding bridge, but it wouldn't fit. I don't know if I didn't have another piece of wire, or what, but I promptly forgot about going back and grounding the coax. Comcast used 8 AWG wire.
 
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u2slow

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Fwiw, you can throw lots of money at lightning protection and stuff still gets wrecked. You may be able to mitigate damage from small events.

Lightning is a beast.

I use the attic and crawlspace extensively for concealing cable runs. When I can't, I use EMT conduit and paint it to match the house.
 
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reader2580

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u2slow said:
I use the attic and crawlspace extensively for concealing cable runs. When I can't, I use EMT conduit and paint it to match the house.
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Things would look worse if I ran coax up the wall to the attic. I would also have to fish it back down to the basement through an interior wall. The five or six feet of coax won't be that bad.

When I bought the house there was a run of PVC conduit mounted to the exterior of the house going from the basement up the attic level. The conduit then went across the attic to a subpanel in a 400 square foot addition. I removed the conduit and extended the three circuits going to the subpanel back to the main load center. Yes, I used a proper accessible junction box.
 
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reader2580

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Is there any reason I can't run coax cable inside of PVC conduit on the side of the house? Comcast already runs newer cables through PVC conduit. I got my cable replaced around 2018, and they ran it through conduit.
 
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Fav Onefour

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Are you asking about running PVC outside the home to another entry point?
Coax in conduit helps prevent damage from critters, lawn equipment, and whatever goofy thing might come along. I'm not sure where the PVC would create a choke with the standard installation. Cable comes from a street box which is grounded. Standard installation includes a ground at the home entry point.

Not sure when you had all the lightning damage but I'd be curious to see if it all happened when you did not have an attached ground.

One oddball question. Is that line direct to the street or is it a relay from an old initial entry point. Three times with lightning damage is insane. I'd be in a world of hurt if I had that kind of luck with cable connections. I have at least twenty building connections around the metro. It seems like something else is being missed.
 
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reader2580

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I already installed a Siemens Boltshield whole House surge protector after the first time I had equipment killed by lightning.
 
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reader2580

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Fav Onefour said:
One oddball question. Is that line direct to the street or is it a relay from an old initial entry point. Three times with lightning damage is insane. I'd be in a world of hurt if I had that kind of luck with cable connections. I have at least twenty building connections around the metro. It seems like something else is being missed.
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The line comes direct from the street to the house. There is a direct line from the outside to a powered splitter inside the house that Comcast supplied. All of the coax in the house was replaced in 2014 or 2015. The previous owner had run everything on the ground around the outside of the house. I threw all of that away that I could get access to. There is still some across the front of the house I couldn't get out, and is abandoned in place. I can assure you it is hooked to nothing. I know where the ends are.

The PVC conduit I hope to install tomorrow is only going to be a couple of feet to get the coax away from the gas line.
 
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pcmeiners

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As to coax surge protector they work. Had approximately 15 specialty modems costing $600 (in 1995), every time there was an electric storm in an area up to 25 miles away I would lose at least one. Once I install coax protectors on all of them there were losses. The type I used just had a neon tube inside which allowed anything over roughly 90 volts to shunt to ground.
 
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Higgins

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lmg said:
Current (no pun) Siemens Boltshield units have warranty up to 10 years and $10,000 depending on the model.
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Back in march we lost both sub pumps. Basement flooded as both pumps failed. We had subpump insurance that pays $25K. But with losses the total loses was well north of 50K. TVs, radios, and other electrical devices and several breakers were off. Soooooo, looks like a lightning strike or some type of disruption..

We are currently investigating a biltshield unit. However electricians don’t want to look at installing the new???
 
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wyliesdiesels

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pcmeiners said:
As to coax surge protector they work. Had approximately 15 specialty modems costing $600 (in 1995), every time there was an electric storm in an area up to 25 miles away I would lose at least one. Once I install coax protectors on all of them there were losses. The type I used just had a neon tube inside which allowed anything over roughly 90 volts to shunt to ground.
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coax modems in 1995?
 
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