| As you can see from the photo, they were very lucky that the curtain didn't go up in flames. Keep curtains and furnishings away from sockets and wiring. You can reduce the risk of damage by looping external cables down to the ground, then up to enter the house. Lightning goes for the easiest path to ground, so much of the charge will go to earth at the loop, thus minimising the power that enters the house. There will still be damage but it will be less than would occur if the full power of the strike entered the house. | 
| You might further reduce the damage by running your aerial or satellite cable through an earthing bar at the bottom of the loop (or before it enters the house if you can't provide a ground loop). | | 
| The earthing bar is connected by a stout cable* to an earthing rod, which is buried in the ground. This provides an easier path to ground, making it less likely that a large amount of energy will enter the house. |
*What sort of wire should I use to connect the earthing bar to the rod?
Whatever you use is likely to vaporize very quickly in a strike! However, that doesn't matter if the distance is short (and it must be) because the ionised air will continue to carry the current for the microseconds duration of the lightning strike. Obviously, it doesn't have to be insulated (but insulation will protect it from the effects of bad weather). You could use multistrand copper cable but anything thick enough will be very expensive and available only in long lengths. Here are some suggestions: - The thickest cable you can find in a scrap car. Take a look around the nearest car scrap yard.
- Steel fencing wire from an agricultural supplier. You may need to double-up if its diameter is small.
- Coat hanger wire.
- The braided copper screening from coaxial cable, doubled over several times and twisted to form a thick "pigtail".
Protect it from corrosion by applying a thick coat or two of outdoor paint.
Poor Earth? I have a friend, a geophysicist, who used to work in the oil industry and carried out seismic measurements and test drillings, mostly in remote desert regions of America and New Zealand. Lightning strikes were commonplace and the standard protection was to lay a circle or oblong of metal grid ("plegma") around the building, buried (horizontally) a few inches beneath the sand. Then plant metal rods vertically around the circle, connected together with stout wire or more "plegma". Because the desert ground was non-conductive (as in most of Crete) the metal grid was essential, since it formed a large capacitance coupled to ground over a wide area. The vertical rods - effectively earthed - attracted lightning away from the building and were easily replaced if they got zapped. Now, I can only report this as he told me. I can't guarantee success but it might be worth a try. In some properties it might be relatively cheap and easy to implement and doesn't require the buildings to be touched at all. ( Lightening is what baking powder does to cakes. Lightning is the spelling you need. ) | 
