pete_c
Guru
I've only been close (lightning) once in the last 30 years. That was in the old house. It took out one network switch and one serial port on my HA server.
Here in the newer home I ran the sprinkler wires alongside the home. I do have at least 6 (think maybe 8) cat5e wires running from the house out to various area from about 75 feet to about 100 feet. I did install an industrial strength surge protector (last year). The outside cat5e's are utilized for security cams and motion detectors so they plug into the Zoneminder security cam server (directly) and into the HAI OPII panel (directly).
Typically lightning takes the shortest path to ground. I have a friend I helped last year after he his home was struck by lightning. It took out TV's, computers, switches, etc. He did have multiple cables run outside the side of his home without any lightning arrestors. For whatever reason he has multiple 2 wire extenstion cords haphazarding connected in the ceiling of his basement providing electric to various parts of his family room, living room, etc (not sure why he did this other than cost?).
You could put lightning protection on the cat5e if you wanted to. I can say you are "probably" OK with it; but on the side of caution it would be better to protect it a bit more. I left my Rainbird rain sensor in place after replacing the Rainbird controller with the Rain8's. I did connect the rain sensor to a wireless sensor instead of a direct connection. But its mounted off the corner of the roof. I don't know if I really did anything by making it wireless considering its leads are adjacent to ground both in the manifold box and in the controller box. I think I've just been lucky.
Many many years ago in the 1970's (communications was with CB radios) a friend and I set up a comm link between two homes about 3-4 miles apart. We used short 5-8 foot masts on flat roofs. As we were setting his antenna up a storm was brewing. We were able to connect the outside stuff and we were doing the inside stuff. We ran his antenna cable to a location inside of the home (living room). We were taking a break; just chilling for a bit sitting in his living room and all of sudden we heard (very loud) some wierd noises. We looked over at the CB Radio coaxial cable which was just hanging out from the wall and saw repetitive sparking between the end of the coaxial cable and the power outlet which was probably about a foot away. I'd never seen anything like this before. It didn't cause any damage but it was a sight to see.
Here in the newer home I ran the sprinkler wires alongside the home. I do have at least 6 (think maybe 8) cat5e wires running from the house out to various area from about 75 feet to about 100 feet. I did install an industrial strength surge protector (last year). The outside cat5e's are utilized for security cams and motion detectors so they plug into the Zoneminder security cam server (directly) and into the HAI OPII panel (directly).
Typically lightning takes the shortest path to ground. I have a friend I helped last year after he his home was struck by lightning. It took out TV's, computers, switches, etc. He did have multiple cables run outside the side of his home without any lightning arrestors. For whatever reason he has multiple 2 wire extenstion cords haphazarding connected in the ceiling of his basement providing electric to various parts of his family room, living room, etc (not sure why he did this other than cost?).
You could put lightning protection on the cat5e if you wanted to. I can say you are "probably" OK with it; but on the side of caution it would be better to protect it a bit more. I left my Rainbird rain sensor in place after replacing the Rainbird controller with the Rain8's. I did connect the rain sensor to a wireless sensor instead of a direct connection. But its mounted off the corner of the roof. I don't know if I really did anything by making it wireless considering its leads are adjacent to ground both in the manifold box and in the controller box. I think I've just been lucky.
Many many years ago in the 1970's (communications was with CB radios) a friend and I set up a comm link between two homes about 3-4 miles apart. We used short 5-8 foot masts on flat roofs. As we were setting his antenna up a storm was brewing. We were able to connect the outside stuff and we were doing the inside stuff. We ran his antenna cable to a location inside of the home (living room). We were taking a break; just chilling for a bit sitting in his living room and all of sudden we heard (very loud) some wierd noises. We looked over at the CB Radio coaxial cable which was just hanging out from the wall and saw repetitive sparking between the end of the coaxial cable and the power outlet which was probably about a foot away. I'd never seen anything like this before. It didn't cause any damage but it was a sight to see.