Hi Terry,
have to give you a comment here: We, my family, moved in to a 200 years old
house 1997. In 1998 it was hit by lightning and bunt down to ground. We
rebuilt the house and, for obvious reasons, installed lightning rods. I
decided, on
my own to use 3/4 in plumbing copper pipes for this installation. My
reasoning was that as the surface on the plumbing pipe is flat compared to the
commonly used braid the inductance would be lower and damages from a lightning
strike less. I have six 8' rod around the house and a ring around the top of
the house. It is, kind of, a Faraday case.
It has now been "tested" three times (So much for a lightning never hit
twice). The pitting in the plumbing rod at the places of the hits are obvious.
The discoloring was also a good sign. Nothing was damaged in the house the
first time. The second time all surge protectors were blow out. The third time
I
had some limited damages on a telephone (that was lacking surge protection).
I am pretty sure two of the three hits were direct hits on the house.
My answer is: Copper plumbing pipes are very useful as conductors for
lightning protection. Needless to say you have to be sure that all connections
are
tight.
Regards,
Hans N2JFS
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