An experience I Do not want to get any closer too...

**Blknight.aus** · 24th March 2013, 07:36 PM

If I've just felt 1/10th of what a lightning strike is like - cheers, I've been close enough.

I was battening down the hatches on the garage during the lightening storm that just been through, I was closing the inner door between the car port and the garage (its an all metal construction) I was standing on still dry concrete the shed is grounded properly, it was pouring rain so the earth connection is good (the shed is independantly staked for generator use and also ties to the main house earth through the 3 phase feed) and the whole garage is well bonded (close all the doors and if your not near the window theres no phone or radio reception) when I got an all over my body static zap.

you know the kind you get when you get out of a car and your leg brushes against the metal of a car body and you get the march fly bite on the calf, like that but everywhere at once and then I got this warm feeling on my skin and pins and needles everywhere, lingering in both legs and my right arm (the one holding onto the door, remember its a sheltered internal door) which lasted about 20 minutes and my wife asking me if I heard that,
(she ment the very close lightnening strike) when I came out of the garage complaining about the persistant pins and needles.

I also had this describe "tunneling" in my vision, very hard to describe but if you picture old school TV snow moving like the original DR Who logo background but with a pulse tunneling towards me overlaid on normal vision, very clear in the middle to barely visable on the perepherial (seems to fit the description of high G blackout) and even though I was soaking wet from being in the rain I felt like I was sweating.

Didge · 24th March 2013, 07:45 PM

Dave, I'd be buying a lottery ticket if I were you, sounds like you're very lucky not to be in a wooden box at this moment. From what I've heard over the years plenty of people have been killed and/ or seriously injured with static electricity shocks over the years. I've seen pictures (in a proper medical text) of people who'd had direct lightning strikes and the burns over their bodies look like images of deciduous trees that have shed all their leaves; not a pretty sight.

**rovercare** · 24th March 2013, 07:48 PM

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

(the shed is independantly staked for generator use and also ties to the main house earth through the 3 phase feed) .

You have an earth stake at both your house and your shed and you have an earth between both boards?

**Eevo** · 24th March 2013, 07:54 PM

this may sound odd, but if you do get struck by lightning, make sure your skin is soaking wet.

the current will pass though the water and not your inner organs.

also, stand with your feet together, it makes for a smaller voltage difference.
see all those dead cows after thunderstorms, its wasnt cause they got hit, it was cause their feet were far apart.

**Blknight.aus** · 24th March 2013, 08:08 PM

yep, thats as it was put in,

theres a 4 foot long copper peg into the ground at the house attached to the back of the power board in theres a green yellow going from it in the underground conduit to the shed and theres a nother 4 foot peg in the ground outside the shed behind the powerboard (inside the shed) that bolts directly to the shed frame and from memory the earths inside the shed.

From what I remember about it because I was originally planning on putting solar/generation on the shed (the roof angles are more favorable) and having the system capable of standing alone (I could run free from the grid for my critical power need, lights, fridges, fans) It was a requirement. At the end of the day the sparky who certified this place gave me a list of stuff to buy, directions on where to put what then he did all the joins and marked it as good to go onto the grid.

Is there questions I should be asking of the sparky? I can do simple 240v stuff, like put the meter on AC open voltage and see if its alive, and wave this light up probe near it and if it doesnt light up then pull this gauge wire through here, trim 5cm off the sheath then strip the ends for about 8mm and follow the wiring diagrams for the inside of things that plug into the wall but whats going on inside the wall, Thats officially "Not my department, I'm not going near it"

**Blknight.aus** · 24th March 2013, 08:15 PM

Originally Posted by Eevo

this may sound odd, but if you do get struck by lightning, make sure your skin is soaking wet.

the current will pass though the water and not your inner organs.

also, stand with your feet together, it makes for a smaller voltage difference.
see all those dead cows after thunderstorms, its wasnt cause they got hit, it was cause their feet were far apart.

not a problem here, I was drenched from the rain and if you've ever seen my shed, spaces to stand are typically strategic stepping points just wide enough for both feet incase you have to stand in that spot and work on something.

**Ranga** · 24th March 2013, 08:15 PM

Call me a sissy, but I'd be inclined to get checked over at the hospital. When I did a brief stint as a TA for sparkies, we were instructed that any electrical shock required a visit to tge quack/hospital.

Glad to see your still kickin, just the same

**Eevo** · 24th March 2013, 08:51 PM

Originally Posted by Ranga

Glad to see your still kickin, just the same

haha, well, if he was dead and hit by lightning... he might... still be kicking, haha

**Eevo** · 24th March 2013, 08:52 PM

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

not a problem here, I was drenched from the rain and if you've ever seen my shed, spaces to stand are typically strategic stepping points just wide enough for both feet incase you have to stand in that spot and work on something.

sounds like your in the best position to survive if you get hit.
i hope you get hit..... oh wait.... logic fail

**wrinklearthur** · 24th March 2013, 09:18 PM

This was a result of a direct lightning strike on a part of what is now our family's farm 'Kellie' at Elderslie, Tas.

Except from the Saturday 25 January 1941 issue of The Mercury newspaper.

ref; 25 Jan 1941 - The Mercury - p2

"THE draught horses were the property of Mr F Reynolds, of Elderslie, and were being worked in a steel cultivator by Ernest J Duthoit an employee in a field about a mile from the homestead. When rain began about 4.30 pm , Duthoit decided to take a short cut through the ploughed field to the nearest gate.

As the horses were moving slowly across the rough field, there was a blinding flash of lightning over their heads, and all four went down in a heap.
The ploughman was hurled from the seat of the cultivator only a few feet behind the horses, and when he regained his senses he was lying about four feet behind the team.

"The whole paddock seemed to split in front of me and the noise of the explosion was indescribable " said Duthoit relating the incident yesterday ' I believe I owe my life to the fact that I was sitting on a rubber cushion, and had my feet on a wooden platform ".
He said that the lightning seemed to strike one of the horses on the outside of the team first, and the last he remembered was seeing the team fall.
As soon as he realised that the horses were dead Duthoit ran to Mr W Blackwell's residence, He was exhausted and complained of severe pains above his hands, Yesterday his wrists were still sore.

Mrs G Davis, who lives about l 1/2 miles from where the team was at work, saw the lightning strike, She saw a sheet of flame low on the ground, and although she directed her husband's attention to the incident at the time, it was not until late at night that she discovered what had happened.
Mr F Reynolds jun. said yesterday that three of the horses had been bred on the property, and were valued at more than £150."

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An experience I Do not want to get any closer too...

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