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We have two tall coconut trees at our residence. The trees are, unfortunately, very close to a neighbors house. There has been a recent case in our locality where a bolt of lightning struck a coconut tree and fried the electrical wiring and electrical appliances of the adjacent house. Since then, they are asking us to cut down the coconut trees because they are concerned that another lighting bolt will our coconut tree and damage their house. While I agree with the concern, I'd also like to save the trees.

So, my question is: Does installing a lightning arrester taller than the trees considerably reduce the chance of a lightning bolt striking the trees?

isherwood
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Outsider
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1 Answers1

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Having repaired 2 homes having direct and indirect hits of this kind will not be affected in the slightest by lightning arrestors.

Think about it the lightning is a massive arc that is jumping from the sky to the ground. In the case of the direct hit the circuit breakers we found scattered throughout the house. we never found some parts and there were trees over 100’ tall within 50-60’ from the home.

The second an indirect had a parking space between the home and the tree that was hit and the power/ bolt jumped to the house grounding system and fried the electronics and even the power meter.

Not trying to scare anyone but the lightning arrestors are there for the cases where the strike is on the power lines or pone/cable. Honestly nothing is going to stop a close strike from doing damage and I would not be cutting down trees for the rare in my area strike.

If you want to keep the tree and the arrestors make the neighbors feel better ok but know even 20’ is nothing to lightning and arrestors ok point made.

Ed Beal
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