Clothes Line Lightning Strike???

[Milton]

We have used a small clothes line outside for about two years now to save some money.Now my wife wants a larger more permanent one in a better place.I want to mount a metal pole at one end of the yard and another metal pole on the side of a wooden shop building and use some good wire between poles.She was told that if I do that it will cause lightning to strike the shop.Will not the grounding effect of the two metal poles offset this and cause any strike to go to ground?

 

[RichFromIllinois]

It's unlikely to get hit, unless the clothes line and support poles are the highest metal objects in the area. The poles, if properly grounded by being buried in the ground, should allow the charge to go to ground. Be sure that the support pole is not in contact with the building, and at least a few feet away. If you use concrete to support the poles, you should have a separate ground rod with cable to the pole. This is because concrete could act like an insulator. If there are higher buildings, trees or other structures around the clothes line, it is unlikely that you will have a problem. (In my past life, I was an electrical engineer - now I'm a lawyer)

 

[Milton]

"In my past life, I was an electrical engineer - now I'm a lawyer"

WOW !! What a career change!!!!!

 

[TACC1]

Geez!! That's what I thought, too. Can you really make more as a lawyer? (WINK,WINK, NUDGE, NUDGE)

 

[sheriffoconee]

One of my deputies was answering an alarm call (false of course) during a thunderstorm. He had to open a cattle gate in a barbed wire fence to enter the alarm location. When he woke up and called for help a few minutes later, we determined that lighting had hit the fence and got him...he had burns on his hand and on his boot......I saw it myself when I got there....
Needless to say, he don't open gates in thunderstorms anymore....

 

[1911-BILL]

I had a line that went from a tree to the side of my house, when the tree took a hit it zapped my house and cooked a bunch of electronic stuff in my house....even stuff that was on surge protectors. washer/dryer, range hood, convection oven, computer monitor, cordless phone base and a few other things.

 

[Milton]

Well I guess that settles that,I will not connect the line to the shop!!! I do think I may become a lawyer !!!

 

[rcnixon]

Well, if you put a bit of rebar mesh in the plug of cement in the ground and electrically connect it to the pole, you will have a "Ufer" ground and a pretty good ground it is, too. Just don't forget to bond it to any other ground systems you have (the gound at the electical service entrance is what I mean here). Cement is a mesh of crystals, trapping a good bit of water and is pretty conductive, especially at the giga and teravolt levels. Connecting the grounds is required by (if I recall correctly) section 250 of the National Electric Code. I worked for the telephone company for fifteen years and grounding is a major religion there. Funny how Plain Old Telephone Service seldom suffers from electricity in the air. Neither does your local radio station and they get hit all the time.

I am a ham radio operator and I have a vertical antenna about 30 feet tall and a 136 foot long dipole up in the trees about 60 feet. The support for the vertical is a Ufer ground and the feedline termination near the vertical and the base of the tree is bonded to the electrical service ground witha #4 (real thick) bare copper wire about 175 feet long, buried two feet in the ground. Every 30 or so feet of the trench has an 8 foot ground rod driven into the bottom of the trench and it's all held together with nuts, bolt and clamps. Where the feedline enters the house is through a NEMA box with a copper grounding bar attached both to the station desk and the ground system with 3 inch copper strap. The NEMA box has a Polyphaser static arrestor and an "N" connector grounded to the bar. Oh yeah, there is another Polyphaser out at the other end of the coax feedline by the antennas. The feedline to the antennas is kept grounded to the connector unless I am operating. I don't operate when there is electicity in the air; I'm an amateur, I don't HAVE to be on the air. I imagine the whole thing is only a couple of ohms, if that, to ground. It's all designed and built to conform to sections 250 and 800 of the NEC. That way, if I do get hit, the insurance adjuster won't be able to ask any stupid questions about the antenna and grounding.

Sorry for the screed but grounding is a favorite topic of mine and is very important to my professional career and well as my avocation.

Engineering's loss is the law's gain, eh?

Russ

 

[Milton]

Russ,
My wife just read your post and said "fergitaboutit, I will just use the drier in the house!!!!! Thanks for the post!!

 

[n4zov]

Well, if you put a bit of rebar mesh in the plug of cement in the ground and electrically connect it to the pole, you will have a "Ufer" ground and a pretty good ground it is, too. Just don't forget to bond it to any other ground systems you have (the gound at the electical service entrance is what I mean here). Cement is a mesh of crystals, trapping a good bit of water and is pretty conductive, especially at the giga and teravolt levels. Connecting the grounds is required by (if I recall correctly) section 250 of the National Electric Code. I worked for the telephone company for fifteen years and grounding is a major religion there. Funny how Plain Old Telephone Service seldom suffers from electricity in the air. Neither does your local radio station and they get hit all the time.

I am a ham radio operator and I have a vertical antenna about 30 feet tall and a 136 foot long dipole up in the trees about 60 feet. The support for the vertical is a Ufer ground and the feedline termination near the vertical and the base of the tree is bonded to the electrical service ground witha #4 (real thick) bare copper wire about 175 feet long, buried two feet in the ground. Every 30 or so feet of the trench has an 8 foot ground rod driven into the bottom of the trench and it's all held together with nuts, bolt and clamps. Where the feedline enters the house is through a NEMA box with a copper grounding bar attached both to the station desk and the ground system with 3 inch copper strap. The NEMA box has a Polyphaser static arrestor and an "N" connector grounded to the bar. Oh yeah, there is another Polyphaser out at the other end of the coax feedline by the antennas. The feedline to the antennas is kept grounded to the connector unless I am operating. I don't operate when there is electicity in the air; I'm an amateur, I don't HAVE to be on the air. I imagine the whole thing is only a couple of ohms, if that, to ground. It's all designed and built to conform to sections 250 and 800 of the NEC. That way, if I do get hit, the insurance adjuster won't be able to ask any stupid questions about the antenna and grounding.

Sorry for the screed but grounding is a favorite topic of mine and is very important to my professional career and well as my avocation.

Engineering's loss is the law's gain, eh?

Russ

A big +1! Every Ham soon learns that lightning sometimes does strange things and there is no 100% protection in all circumstances except to store your disconnected radios in their boxes under the bed. I don't think your clothes line is going to cause any problem, but lightning is quirky stuff and I probably would not connect it to a building out of an over abundance of caution.

 

[nostraDONus]

I am a ham radio operator and I have a vertical antenna about 30 feet tall and a 136 foot long dipole up in the trees about 60 feet. The support for the vertical is a Ufer ground and the feedline termination near the vertical and the base of the tree is bonded to the electrical service ground witha #4 (real thick) bare copper wire about 175 feet long, buried two feet in the ground. Every 30 or so feet of the trench has an 8 foot ground rod driven into the bottom of the trench and it's all held together with nuts, bolt and clamps. Where the feedline enters the house is through a NEMA box with a copper grounding bar attached both to the station desk and the ground system with 3 inch copper strap. The NEMA box has a Polyphaser static arrestor and an "N" connector grounded to the bar. Oh yeah, there is another Polyphaser out at the other end of the coax feedline by the antennas. The feedline to the antennas is kept grounded to the connector unless I am operating. I don't operate when there is electicity in the air; I'm an amateur, I don't HAVE to be on the air. I imagine the whole thing is only a couple of ohms, if that, to ground. It's all designed and built to conform to sections 250 and 800 of the NEC. That way, if I do get hit, the insurance adjuster won't be able to ask any stupid questions about the antenna and grounding.

Sorry for the screed but grounding is a favorite topic of mine and is very important to my professional career and well as my avocation.

Engineering's loss is the law's gain, eh?

Russ

Did you attach a vertical foofle looper to the dipole to gain extra teppelwatts or were you concerned that the additional lappelhoovels would overload the alloskeeziks and minimize the gain in terrazoidals?

I have done some minor wiring and have even added a breaker for wiring a new room, but you have my admiration. I would like to be able to begin re-wiring the whole house as much of it is over 40 years old but lack of know how limits the size of thejob I can tackle. I'd end up causing a blackout in the entire midwest.

 

[RichFromIllinois]

It's good to see so many ideas about lightning! As was said - it's quirky and doesn't always seem to follow "the rules", but good grounding is important. It will prevent a lot of problems and not just from lightning. Incidentally, I'm a ham too - just haven't been on the air much after we moved to a new place without an antenna. As to law vs. engineering, I use engineering in lots of my cases. They typically involve fires, explosions, defective machines, construction accidents, etc., all ways that people find to get hurt and being an engineer allows me to get a better handle on what happened and how it could have been prevented. It's sad to see some of the bad designs, careless corporations and stingy insurance companies. They wreck people's lives without a care in the world. Just my rant of the day!

 

[Ogandydancer]

I'm with rcnixon on this one. I too am a Ham/Amateur Radio Op. and one of the first principals we were taught was a good ground and, it's only common sense. I remember when I was a kid a neighbor had just erected a clothesline structure made of steel t poles and sunk in five gallon buckets of concrete and then buried in the ground and to top it off aluminum clothes line wire. A summer afternoon thunder shower came up and the lady went to get her clothes off the line and nearly got killed when it got struck by lightning.

 

[srgvaz]

Depends were you live and the electrical code there, but I know for metal poles in the ground a ground should always be used. It's nether difficult nor expensive to do and it can save someone's life. From what I've observed the last few years everything takes a ground.

 

[rcnixon]

Depends were you live and the electrical code there, but I know for metal poles in the ground a ground should always be used. It's nether difficult nor expensive to do and it can save someone's life. From what I've observed the last few years everything takes a ground.

The National Fire Protection Association promulgates the National ELectrical Code and even politicians are smart enough not to screw with electricity. Basicially, connect all your grounds together and you're good to go.

Russ

 

[JcMack]

Put a hook in the house and a hook in the shed. String a clothes line between the two hooks. Use a couple wood support poles with v notches cut in the ends to support the line. When clothes are dry take line down. Am I missing something here?

 

[rewster]

Many years ago at the farm in Maine, my cousin had brought in all the cows and was standing at the back door of the barn looking out at the field during a thunderstorm. A bolt hit the electric fence half way down the field and it followed the fence all the way to the barn and knocked him on his donkey !

 

[rburg]

Many years ago at the farm in Maine, my cousin had brought in all the cows and was standing at the back door of the barn looking out at the field during a thunderstorm. A bolt hit the electric fence half way down the field and it followed the fence all the way to the barn and knocked him on his donkey !

Back in my illspent youth, everyone dried clothes on a line. Even the rich women who had dryers used the clothes lines in nice weather. We were poor, so we used clothes lines in the basement.

A lady up the road a piece dried her husbands work shirts on the clothes line. One day he was working outside and had a lightning strike the ground near him while wearing one of those "line dried" shirts. Probably caused the strike near him, too!