Are Your Mainlines Grounded?

[Bruce L]

We had a real bad thunder and lightning storm here last night,went down to wash the last section of tubing today,attached are pictures of what greeted us.Lightning hit the mainline or at tree near it,and blew the mainline wire into shards about 3" long on average,burnt whole chunks out of the mainline,ruined probably around 300' we will have to replace in order to finish washing the tubing,Mother Nature's idea of a sick joke at the end of the season?Arggh

[jasonl6]

Looks like your lucky the woods didn't go up in flames. Nice burn line. Feel for yah but count your praises.

Jason

[PerryW]

Wow! Good think you weren't touching anything connected to it when the strike occured

I was boiling this morning when that thunderstorm went over the Littleton/Lyman NH area. Lightning strikes all around. Was wondering about a 20' stainless stack being the highest thing around.:o

I was opening the doors with a stick of wood rather than using my gloves.

[vtmapleman]

I have never given this much thought - who would have thought about lightning hitting the mainlines. Now as far as the stacks are concern maybe I will ground mine - this subject has never come up any of the maple schools that I have attended. Sounds like a subject that should be added.

[red maples]

Hmmm I thought of grounding my evap being the stack it high. but never thought of the tubing guess I'll have to ground that too!

[3rdgen.maple]

Did it boil the sap in the mainline and make any syrup? LOL Never would have thought about lightning in the sugarbush.

[ctjim]

lucky you weren't in the vicinty when it hit. i noticed in 1 of the pics it looks like you have a metal t-post holding the mainline up to help it cross a long section? if so thats most likely where the damage started probably hit a tree or near by and traveled to the metal t-post and then took the path of least resistance which probably was your mainline. when it t storms at work we're not allowed to even be working if you can hear thunder as it can travel the lines and hit you from a distance. lightning can do some pretty crazy stuff.

[DrTimPerkins]

The tubing system is like a big antenna for lightning. I got zapped one summer when leaning against the mainline. It was on a nice day, no thunder to be heard....all of a sudden zap....like touching an electric fence. About 20 sec later we heard the "boom".

I don't lean on mainlines any more.

A neighbor close to UVM PMRC had his mains hit overnight. Blew aparts some laterals, took out a mainline and wire. They just shut that section of woods off for the rest of the season (only a few more days probably).

[Homestead Maple]

I was wondering about the lightening getting into my mainlines during the thunder storm this morning. I'm right next to a ski area and lightening has gotten into a couple of the chair lift cables and entered the lift buildings and burnt two of them down over the last twenty years. I checked my lines after work but I didn't have any damage. When I think about it, why wouldn't lightening travel on main line wire? I'm surprised to see that there is no snow there. Sorry about your loss Dr.

[Homestead Maple]

Did it boil the sap in the mainline and make any syrup? LOL Never would have thought about lightning in the sugarbush.

He should have at least gotten some benefit from it! :)

[DrTimPerkins]

Sorry about your loss Dr.

Wasn't our system....was a neighbor about 5 miles away.

We ground all our mainline wires now before they enter any buildings.

[ennismaple]

Wasn't our system....was a neighbor about 5 miles away.

We ground all our mainline wires now before they enter any buildings.

Sorry for your bad luck Bruce. I never would have thought about that happening!

That's a good idea Dr Tim. We spent a lot of time and money to build our tank houses and I'd hate to see it and the pump, releaser and tank get destroyed. A ground rod is cheap insurance!

One more thing on the To Do list for next year!

[Bruce L]

Got all fixed up today,made me really get to thinking about the sugarhouse,as we stretched a mainline wire to it this spring,running a black polypipe to pump the sap up to the holding tank.There will be a ground rod going in on that line tomorrow,could easily have hit that and burnt up the sugarhouse,evaporator etc.My Father has been talking of insuring the sugarhouse lately,might not be a bad idea if we put a new evaporator in there.

[maple flats]

I never thought of it either. My new lines have no wire, just the tubing, but if full of sap it could conduct a strike. My old lines have wire.
Does it look like a tree got hit that went to the line or a direct hit on the line? Can you tell?
This is surly a new thought to consider.
Dave

[Bruce L]

Dave,looks like a hickory got hit,but funny there are no markings down the side of the tree,just a blow out at the roots near the mainline.I will check a little closeer tomorrow for tree damage somewhere else along the way.Picture of the ground at the base of the hickory attached.
Bruce

[Southtowns27]

Yikes. We have a lightning rod on our sugarshack (and house, barn, etc). Got it from Heary Brothers - www.hearybros.com . I do NOT like lightning at all...so it's a good investment IMO! Glad to hear that no one got hurt and nothing really serious got damaged

[PerryW]

Probably a good idea to ground any mainline wire connected to the sugarhouse, but based on anecdotal evidence, the probability of your mainline being damaged by lightning is about as likely as your lines being struck by a meteor.

I'm more worried that my 1-1/2 feed pipe & 9 Gauge wire to the sugarhouse is slowly tipping my sugarhouse over. The walls are about 10 degrees out of plumb now.

[Maple Hobo]

If you want to see what lightning will do to a lateral line... search "Rock Haven Farm" on Facebook. I posted a bunch of the pictures from last fall when we had a lightning strike.

It ran over 200 feet down the support wire to a metal fence post. It didn't hurt the tree next to the strike but it did cut the support wire clean in two and welded the ends...lol

We ended up replacing the entire lateral line just to make sure we didn't get any BURN flavor in the syrup.

Most of the supports are suspended by trees on our system and the tubes are the only think the connect between the lateral and the wet/dry lines. The wood and the PVC for the vacuum separate the sap/water from the system here.

Not sure I like that metal fence post grounding the wire... in made it more prone to strike and chase the wire... Thinking about using electrical fence insulators to actualy remove MORE of the ground.

Not make sence? Think about a bird landing on a high voltage line. It doesn't ZAP because there is no ground to chase.

Most of the tubing here is Insolated with plastic tibes over the wires at trees and none of the support wires connnect to the other support wires.

[DrTimPerkins]

... the probability of your mainline being damaged by lightning is about as likely as your lines being struck by a meteor.

Then we must have had several meteors in Vermont over the past 5 yrs. I know of several instances of lightning strikes on mainline systems. I think you just don't hear about it that often, but we do get calls from folks saying "something melted my tubing....what do you think it could be?"

[red maples]

Aliens!!! :lol:

just kidding!!!

I have 2 solid copper6 ft lightning grounding rods that someone left under the screen porch before I bought my house. so they will get put to use this year!!!

[PerryW]

I think you just don't hear about it that often, but we do get calls from folks saying "something melted my tubing....what do you think it could be?"

yeah, I don't get out much.

I'm still not sure that a ground rod is the best thing to put on a woods tubing run. Grounding the wire would essentially attract the lightning wouldn't it? If anything, you might consider non-metallic side pulls (instead of wire) and keep the mainline isolated from the trees (and the ground). The trees are the tallest things around so it's plausible that the lightning may hit the tree, go from the tree though the side-pull wire, and down the mainline wire to the ground rod.

Speaking of meteors,

Meteors have even struck the same place twice. In 1971, a meteor crashed into a home in Wethersfield, Connecticut, population 26,271. In 1982, a meteor again crashed into a home in Wethersfield a mile from the '71 impact.

http://www.suite101.com/content/death-from-above---meteors-a7697