Anybody here ever take a direct lightning strike ?

We had a nasty storm come through about 4 am this morning . Lightning & thunder was perty impresive but never seemed all that close . My wife was upstairs getting ready for work & I was downstairs watching the radar with the curtains opened .

Out of nowhere it sounded like a shotgun went off upstairs , No thunder just a bright flash of light outside all the windows . We both felt a funny static electricity charge & were damn near blinded by the light & shocked by the sound . First thing I did was kill the main breaker in the basement , It was raining cats & dogs & you couldn,t even see outside , but I through my raincoat on to see if I could see any flames or fire coming out of the roof & I couldn,t & it was pitch dark except for the lightning storm around us .

So I came back into gather my thoughts & try to settle my wife down . As soon as the rain let up , I walked her out to the garage a little ways from the house , Had My spotlight with me & manually opened the overhead door so she could leave for work .

Wasn,t much I could do other then wait untill the storm let up & it got light outside , So I turned the power back on after looking around inside for any wiring problems & turned my puter on , so I could watch the live radar . All was fine untill I got to checking things out in the last few hours .


So far My outside pump to our big metal building & yard sprinklers wont run & the garage opener on our front garage will open with a remote but will not shut , Even hitting the manual button inside the garage if you dont hold it down the door will start to close then go right back up . Now I noticed Our heat/ac pump fan will not shut off unless I kill the breaker to it .

I can understand one thing going haywire but in my experience it just fryes stuff & not just make certain things work . So I,m baffled . The Ac will work but not shutoff , the garage door will open but not shut unless holding the button manually . I did get on the roof & the chimney that comes out upstairs has a metal cap on top & its burnt through which also explains why the roof started leaking during the rain . But theres no electrical within several feet of that cap . So Anyone have any ideas ? Theres still things I probablly forgot to check , but so far all else in the house seems to be fine . Thanks for any input .

Yes have had it happen 3 times in my life. First time as a young kid it it a walnut tree just out side the house and split like it was nothing. Oh and the tree was a very large one too. Second time was in Homestead Florida and lightning hit the transformer on the power pole right by my office area and blew the electrical socket on the wall completely out of the wall, frying my just completed brand new computer. The last time was 2 days ago when it hit our electronic gate frying the main circuit board and a USB to Network cable that connected the computer to the controller on the wall. Pretty much in all cases flash, sparks followed by thunder a moment after the fact.

Interesting Joe , thanks . I,ve had it hit close several times over the years & I allways heard the thunder a few seconds afterwards , This time if it did thunder I dont recall it thats what I found odd .

But then again we were totally caught off guard & I may just not remeber hearing anything other then what sounded like a large shotgun blast inside the house.

At any rate my main concern right now is the heat/ac pump , its an older unit & the thermostat is much newer but not a fancy digital job or nuthing allthough it looks like its a solid state circuit board . Right now its plenty cool in the house so I just killed the breaker to the unit . I,m just wondering where I should start , Replace the thermostat or check the control box on the unit itself ?

I can wire about anything but not real sharp on testing thinks out especially printed circut type stuff . But I dont want to buy something I dont need & not big on hiring anyone if I can do it myself .

Any thoughts ?

There I can't help you as when it comes to anything above 12 volts I avoid it. I get nervous changing a light bulb. The stike that fried my computer was more like what you describe, as I said it blew the whole box out of the wall. Don't remember hearing anything for a while and just glad I wasn't touching the computer when it took it as much of the case melted.

lightning is high voltagh it is also static electricity just like you pick up walking on carpet so if those small zaps cn kill a circut board just imacine what a few million times that can do i would look ay any thing with pc boards i wouldn't worry too much about older stuff with relays and switches but i would worry anout transisters diodes and chips remeember part of our doctrine and russas too was detonate a nuke above ground to throw an EMP to kill all electronics that might beused against them or us.

3 times also . All in Panama . First was in 2001 and it blew every electric appliance in the house and both sides of my nieghbors ,where I rented .

Had another one 5 years ago at the new house in Panama that tripped the breakers .
Had one on this last trip that hit twice ,but I knew it was getting bad and shut down the solar system .
We have lighting rods and a hella a ground system that saved the house . I always unplug all appliances in case of lighting .

Cowboy, Is the compressor unit outside and the inside blower fan both continuing to run? If so I would try turn the thermostat to off position. If they continue to run it may have welded the contactors closed on the inside blower unit. With power off take a look at the electrical connections for the unit and where the motor leads come out of the control.

muleman said:

Cowboy, Is the compressor unit outside and the inside blower fan both continuing to run? If so I would try turn the thermostat to off position. If they continue to run it may have welded the contactors closed on the inside blower unit. With power off take a look at the electrical connections for the unit and where the motor leads come out of the control.

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Bill Thanks , the unit is a self contained heat/ac pump & its in the basement , Its run off of water . I really cant tell you how it works , But i,m fixing on finding out .

when I shut the fan control off Only the blower moter continues to run . If I put it on ac or heat they both work great & the water thats discharged from the unit continues to run out fine ( I run a sprinkler in the warm months with it ) .

I let it run all nite so we could keep the ac on & hadn,t messed with it yet . I was hoping someone would have an idea on where to start & yours makes perfect sense .

Its a closed unit , but there appears to be a removable panel that I suspect has the blower moter behind it , so I,ll check that out & report back . Thanks for all the input so far .

BTW the outside pump that runs the outside buildings water supply , Is pumping water its just not coming out the top . I can here the water running after removing the cap on the cased well .

So I,m pretty sure it took a hit as well & it burnt the plastic pipe at the top of the submergable pump . Ive had that happen a few times before . So I,ll be pulling that later too . Then I have to figure out what happened on the garage door opener

We just had this same thing happen about a month ago. Really bright lightning and thunder like I've never seen/heard before.


Ours happened at 3:55 AM on May 8th. Kicked all the GFIs in the house. Fried the computer, color laser printer, cordless phones, hard wired phones, all of them computer routers and switches, CO2 detector, brand new battery back-up sump pump, my 52" Samsung LCD TV (all others TVs in the house were fine), stereo connected to the Sammy, 2 Garage door openers (one completely dead, the other one went up, but wouldn't come back down), and the strangest thing of all - Our Suburban sitting in the garage. It fried the Body Control Module in it.

I think ours came in through the phone system as almost everything that was fried (other than the GDOs and Suburban) were either connected to the phone system or computer network (which is connected to the phone system via the Router and DSL line).

Ouch ! That really sucks JW , sounds like I came out perty lucky so far , Allthough My wife just found out it also fryed the charger to her laptop .

I haven,t even checked everything yet , but I did find out 2 rows of 8 foot fluorecents or out in my big shop as well , Not sure if it fryed the ballasts or what though . I better check my air compresors as well , I just thought about that .

That really is strange on the Suburban though . Lightning does some really strange things .

I spent the better part of 6 months fighting State Farm last year after we got hit. State Farm sneaked in a little disclaimer in their homeowner's policy that states that they won't pay any more than $1000 for any single item plugged in. That didn't apply to A/C units, furnaces etc., but did apply to appliances as well such as refrigerators, freezers. big screen TV's or high end home theater systems.

After 24 years with State Farm and never having a claim I despise them after ending up being over $14k out of pocket when I thought I was covered. The problem is now that they show that they paid a claim, all other companies raise their rates for a quote for the next 3 years. Besides leaving me spending thousands out of pocket, I had to fight the bastards for months to get what little I did get. Sounds like you don't have too many expensive things that were plugged into an outlet that got blasted. Hopefully you'll fare better than me.

On lightning, I actually got hit by a "finger" off of a main bolt when working outside. The main bolt hit, of all things, an A/C unit about 20' from me and the streamer or finger sprang from it and hit me. It blew the steel toe out of one boot I was wearing, burned my belt buckle into a glob and made my ears ring for almost a month. My freshman year of high school I was playing 2nd base in baseball as it looked like rain may be coming, but wasn't raining yet. Suddenly there was a loud boom with a bright flash and the first baseman next to me was laying on the ground smoking. He was killed instantly. The field is now named after him.

Was it close enough for you to get that smell? Both times I was involved with strikes there was this overpowering smell. Someone said it's ozone. I don't know. All I know is that I hope to never smell that odor again in my life. Good luck to you. Call your insurance company.

Cowboy, If you follow the incoming power to the air handler it should lead you to the control panel for the blower. Most likely a fried contactor in the unit. Be glad the heat exchanger pump still starts and stops. As for the shop lites checl the bulbs and make sure they did not vibrate out of position. I ran into that at my cousin's place after a lightning strike. Chased wires to the lights looking for a blown out wire nut or something and it ended up being the bulbs. This after wiring in a temp power service to the lights!

Note to self - never ever meet Dargo unless it is cloudless and sunny outside....

Cowboy, check the contacts and switches. Lightning will fuse a contact or switch closed.

Dargo said:

I spent the better part of 6 months fighting State Farm last year after we got hit. State Farm sneaked in a little disclaimer in their homeowner's policy that states that they won't pay any more than $1000 for any single item plugged in. That didn't apply to A/C units, furnaces etc., but did apply to appliances as well such as refrigerators, freezers. big screen TV's or high end home theater systems.

After 24 years with State Farm and never having a claim I despise them after ending up being over $14k out of pocket when I thought I was covered. The problem is now that they show that they paid a claim, all other companies raise their rates for a quote for the next 3 years. Besides leaving me spending thousands out of pocket, I had to fight the bastards for months to get what little I did get. Sounds like you don't have too many expensive things that were plugged into an outlet that got blasted. Hopefully you'll fare better than me.

On lightning, I actually got hit by a "finger" off of a main bolt when working outside. The main bolt hit, of all things, an A/C unit about 20' from me and the streamer or finger sprang from it and hit me. It blew the steel toe out of one boot I was wearing, burned my belt buckle into a glob and made my ears ring for almost a month. My freshman year of high school I was playing 2nd base in baseball as it looked like rain may be coming, but wasn't raining yet. Suddenly there was a loud boom with a bright flash and the first baseman next to me was laying on the ground smoking. He was killed instantly. The field is now named after him.

Was it close enough for you to get that smell? Both times I was involved with strikes there was this overpowering smell. Someone said it's ozone. I don't know. All I know is that I hope to never smell that odor again in my life. Good luck to you. Call your insurance company.

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Damn Dargo , I,ll consider myself awfull lucky after reading that . Sorry to here about the first basemen that would be hard to forget . Glad you came out of it ok though .

I do apreciate the input , as far as the smell I know what you mean as I,ve smelt it before when outside on close calls . But this time since we were both inside & wasn,t sure if we were hit or if it was over , the only smell we remember probablly smelt much worse then ozone as it scart the chit out of us ,

Bummer on the out of pocket money on your deal , we have statefarm as well . We also updated our policy with our agent & had him explain all the fine print so if it came to turning it in I wouldn,t be to concerned wether they,d pay or not . But then again Our big screen tv,s are 19 inch . I doubt we have 1 item thats worth more then 500 bucks in the house xcept for things that are suposed to go boom .

It looks like were going to be really lucky compared to most though , thanks .

muleman said:

Cowboy, If you follow the incoming power to the air handler it should lead you to the control panel for the blower. Most likely a fried contactor in the unit. Be glad the heat exchanger pump still starts and stops. As for the shop lites checl the bulbs and make sure they did not vibrate out of position. I ran into that at my cousin's place after a lightning strike. Chased wires to the lights looking for a blown out wire nut or something and it ended up being the bulbs. This after wiring in a temp power service to the lights!

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Thanks Bill , I opened it up & cant see anything obvious , but I took a few pics & found an online manual for it & I think I have it narrowed down to 1 or 2 things it might be , I,ll post that in the next reply . There are 2 different capacitors & one blower relay thats in the control box which I have not opened up yet . But My moneys on the blower relay . If you can look at it & see if I,m on the right track I,d apreciate it . Thanks to all again .

BTW I checked all other equipment & everythings fine . I,ll check the bulbs as you suggested though .

I got a couple of nasty tax bills that felt like I was hit by lightening, does that count?

Heres a few pics & the link to an online manual . I have the Bard heatpump model # WPV36C . It was made in july of 1986 . & Im guessing its the blower relay listed on page 7 of the manual . item #6 . unless a capacitor would be more likelly athe problem theres 2 of those on page 3 Item #,s , 6 & 17 . Thanks again , I,ll go look in the control panel & see if anything looks fried


http://www.bardhvac.com/digcat/volume_4_cd/cd_image/Parts_CD_PDF/2110-733(C).pdf

Go back to the Blower Relay, remove power, take wires off and ohm out the contacts to it. If you have continuity on the Normally Open Contacts the relay is bad. When lightning hits a relay or contactor while in the closed position they will burn/weld together.

murph


sorry i just saw this thread, missed it when posted originally.

One other thing, if you running this through any insurance don't be afraid to hold out as long as you can on closing the case. Modems, computers and other stuff some times will fail as much as a month later or even more.

thcri said:

Go back to the Blower Relay, remove power, take wires off and ohm out the contacts to it. If you have continuity on the Normally Open Contacts the relay is bad. When lightning hits a relay or contactor while in the closed position they will burn/weld together.

murph


sorry i just saw this thread, missed it when posted originally.

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Thanks Murph , will do as soon as I can find my damn multimeter . But I had to get the ac going again for my wife , so as soon as I get the house temp down to 30 degrees I,ll try to fix it again .

Good thoughts on waiting if I were to turn it in to insurance . I allways figure if I can fix & replace things for a grand or less its not worth turning in . Last time lightning or power surges fryed our garage door opener 6 months ago , 2 tv,s , ( cheapys ) & the modem to my computer I figured that was it .

Within 30 days both clothes dryers , 2 air compressors , an allmost new not cheap battery charger & a dozen other things including a chest freezer & 2 shop fridges quit within a few days of each other . . But no beer was lost . Thanks again .

thcri said:

Go back to the Blower Relay, remove power, take wires off and ohm out the contacts to it. If you have continuity on the Normally Open Contacts the relay is bad. When lightning hits a relay or contactor while in the closed position they will burn/weld together.

murph


sorry i just saw this thread, missed it when posted originally.

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Ok I got the control panel open , Found the blower relay but theres 5 different wires that connect to it & havent pulled them or hooked the ohm meter up yet cuz I,m not sure which connections to test .

Pic 1 is the open box lower left behind the yellow wire connect is the blower relay . Second pic I,m not sure what it is & its behind the control box . Looks like a timer of sorts . Any input would be apreciated as far as which contacts to check after removing the wires . Thanks

UPDATE !! I pulled the wires , there was actually only 4 instead of the five I thought . 1 was a jumper . as soon as I disconnected all the wires I heard a click , I aint no rocket scientist but thats usually a good sign as the relay might have reset itself .

I checked for continuity & nothing , so I figured the relays good thanks to Murphs post . Hooked it back up . Put the control box cover on it & tried it & alls well . Closed it back up & alls still well . Air when we want it & it shuts off just like its suposed too . Looks like I lucked out again , I know basics of how things work , but theres a lot I cant remember when checking things out . So I thank every one for the help , input & your own experiences .

Now for the kicker My wifes been saying call the guy since the deal happened , She not only knows that pisses me off & aint likelly to happen , but I tend to get things done quicker . Hearing her say , You are the Guy is priceless . Thanks again to all .

I would change the relay anyway. If it clicked from you handling it then the contacts released which tells me they were welded to some extent. If they were welded then there is a higher resistance there that will eventually burn out or take your motor with it. Just a suggestion that is all.


murph

thcri said:

I would change the relay anyway. If it clicked from you handling it then the contacts released which tells me they were welded to some extent. If they were welded then there is a higher resistance there that will eventually burn out or take your motor with it. Just a suggestion that is all.


murph

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I watched as my repair man once sanded the burned relay contacts with emery cloth . That was 15 years ago and they still work fine. JMO

Nail files work great for that. Hold them closed and pull the file a couple times to even them out. When I was young you just pulled the little lock pin and replaced the contacts.

thcri said:

I would change the relay anyway. If it clicked from you handling it then the contacts released which tells me they were welded to some extent. If they were welded then there is a higher resistance there that will eventually burn out or take your motor with it. Just a suggestion that is all.


murph

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One step ahead of Ya Murph , I kind of had the same thoughts & I allready ordered a new relay as well as the capaciter thats on the blower , just to be on the safe side . Thanks again

muleman said:

Nail files work great for that. Hold them closed and pull the file a couple times to even them out. When I was young you just pulled the little lock pin and replaced the contacts.

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I haven't seen those hair pin clips on contactors made in the last 30 years
they were a bullet proof design no more like it in the through a way world

tom