My house took a lightning hit last Friday afternoon. I was home, and a thunderstorm came up with very intense lightning. I was standing in the den, looking outside the window, and I saw a stroke that look like it hit just down the hill from the house. I was still dazzled by that when another stroke hit, and I knew right away that the house had been hit: it made that loud "pop" noise that you get when lightning hits very close by, instead of a rumble.
Immediately both the AC-wired smokes and the interior sounders attached to my OPII went off, and there was audio chaos. The lights went out for a moment and then came back on. I looked in the master bedroom and saw that both the smoke and the glass break in there had been triggered. I decided to tackle the system first, and I went to the 5.7e touchscreen, but it was in the process of rebooting due to the power hit.
I was headed downstairs to the console when I caught a whiff of burning electronics. I looked and a switch box nearby had a bit of smoke coming out of it. That box contains an HAI dimmer, a scene switch, and an auxiliary switch which is tied to another dimmer down the hall. I ran and got a screwdriver and removed the wall plate. The smoke was coming from the auxiliary switch. I hastily removed the wire nuts connecting that aux switch to the circuit and yanked out, with the circuit still live. Then I ran back to the garage to pull the breaker on that circuit. I noted while I was in there that another breaker, which feeds some outlets in the den, had tripped.
Next, I went to the OPII console to try to silence the system. However, the console was off-line with a comm error. At this point, I noted that the interior sounders were going on and off randomly. I went to the utility room and was immediately greeted by more burning-electronics smell. I quickly checked the area for smoke and fire but I found none. I opened the door on the OPII, found nothing visibly wrong, and decided to cycle it. I unplugged the power adaptor and it immediately powered down, despite the battery being still connected.
I plugged it back in and then decided I need to run an inspection of the whole house. At some point, the smoke detectors had silenced themselves, and as I went back up the stairs, I noticed that the console had quit beeping, so I knew the OPII had rebooted. Running around the house, I thought I caught a whiff of smoke in a bedroom next to the HVAC closet on the upper floor floor. However, checking in the closet and the attic above, I didn't smell anything. I did note that the RC1000 on that floor didn't light up when I walked past it. I pressed the knob and it didn't respond. Back to the HVAC closet, cycle the breaker, and the RC1000 is working again.
At this point the interior sounders went off again. I'd left the door open on the OPII enclosure, and since I've rigged a tamper switch to it, it tripped the burglary alarm when it rebooted. Back downstairs to the console, cancel the alarm. I went to bypass the zone and noted that I saw the generic zone name rather than the name I had assigned. A quick check showed that the OPII had lost all of its zone and unit names and all of its programming. Get the laptop, fire up PC Access... it can't connect. I noted that the wireless network wasn't connected.
Back to the utility room. On closer inspection, I see that the lights on the wireless router are flashing randomly, the Ethernet hub is dark, and I can smell smoke around the cable amplifier. Turns out I'd lost all of my network gear except the power injection brick for the 5.7e. Tried but failed to communicate with the OPII via a serial port; I've never done it that way and I couldn't find the instructions.
I wound up going to Lowe's and buying a cheap D-Link wireless router/hub in order to get the internal network going again. I did eventually manage to connect to the OPII and restore its configuration. However, after inspecting everything, I found that it is no longer communicating with any of the thermostats. Summing up the other damage:
* Web Mountain SW-7 dimmer
* HAI auxiliary switch
* HAI lamp module (opened it up, took a look, I might be able to repair it)
* Cisco wireless router
* Ethernet hub
* Cable amplifier
* Cable modem
Three breakers were tripped, including an arc fault feeding the master bedroom. They all reset and held. I maintained a fire watch for the next two hours, but nothing else happened.
The next morning, my wife and I went outside and saw where the lightning hit a tree close to the house. It split the tree in half and blasted one large limb into pieces. I found one piece in back, about 75 feet away and in a position where it had to have flown over the house in order to get where it was. As near as I can figure from looking at the stripped bark on the tree, lightning hit it and then either jumped to the aluminum fascia of the house, or went to ground and then entered the house through the crawl space. I haven't found any marks on the house to indicate where it might have been hit directly.
Immediately both the AC-wired smokes and the interior sounders attached to my OPII went off, and there was audio chaos. The lights went out for a moment and then came back on. I looked in the master bedroom and saw that both the smoke and the glass break in there had been triggered. I decided to tackle the system first, and I went to the 5.7e touchscreen, but it was in the process of rebooting due to the power hit.
I was headed downstairs to the console when I caught a whiff of burning electronics. I looked and a switch box nearby had a bit of smoke coming out of it. That box contains an HAI dimmer, a scene switch, and an auxiliary switch which is tied to another dimmer down the hall. I ran and got a screwdriver and removed the wall plate. The smoke was coming from the auxiliary switch. I hastily removed the wire nuts connecting that aux switch to the circuit and yanked out, with the circuit still live. Then I ran back to the garage to pull the breaker on that circuit. I noted while I was in there that another breaker, which feeds some outlets in the den, had tripped.
Next, I went to the OPII console to try to silence the system. However, the console was off-line with a comm error. At this point, I noted that the interior sounders were going on and off randomly. I went to the utility room and was immediately greeted by more burning-electronics smell. I quickly checked the area for smoke and fire but I found none. I opened the door on the OPII, found nothing visibly wrong, and decided to cycle it. I unplugged the power adaptor and it immediately powered down, despite the battery being still connected.
I plugged it back in and then decided I need to run an inspection of the whole house. At some point, the smoke detectors had silenced themselves, and as I went back up the stairs, I noticed that the console had quit beeping, so I knew the OPII had rebooted. Running around the house, I thought I caught a whiff of smoke in a bedroom next to the HVAC closet on the upper floor floor. However, checking in the closet and the attic above, I didn't smell anything. I did note that the RC1000 on that floor didn't light up when I walked past it. I pressed the knob and it didn't respond. Back to the HVAC closet, cycle the breaker, and the RC1000 is working again.
At this point the interior sounders went off again. I'd left the door open on the OPII enclosure, and since I've rigged a tamper switch to it, it tripped the burglary alarm when it rebooted. Back downstairs to the console, cancel the alarm. I went to bypass the zone and noted that I saw the generic zone name rather than the name I had assigned. A quick check showed that the OPII had lost all of its zone and unit names and all of its programming. Get the laptop, fire up PC Access... it can't connect. I noted that the wireless network wasn't connected.
Back to the utility room. On closer inspection, I see that the lights on the wireless router are flashing randomly, the Ethernet hub is dark, and I can smell smoke around the cable amplifier. Turns out I'd lost all of my network gear except the power injection brick for the 5.7e. Tried but failed to communicate with the OPII via a serial port; I've never done it that way and I couldn't find the instructions.
I wound up going to Lowe's and buying a cheap D-Link wireless router/hub in order to get the internal network going again. I did eventually manage to connect to the OPII and restore its configuration. However, after inspecting everything, I found that it is no longer communicating with any of the thermostats. Summing up the other damage:
* Web Mountain SW-7 dimmer
* HAI auxiliary switch
* HAI lamp module (opened it up, took a look, I might be able to repair it)
* Cisco wireless router
* Ethernet hub
* Cable amplifier
* Cable modem
Three breakers were tripped, including an arc fault feeding the master bedroom. They all reset and held. I maintained a fire watch for the next two hours, but nothing else happened.
The next morning, my wife and I went outside and saw where the lightning hit a tree close to the house. It split the tree in half and blasted one large limb into pieces. I found one piece in back, about 75 feet away and in a position where it had to have flown over the house in order to get where it was. As near as I can figure from looking at the stripped bark on the tree, lightning hit it and then either jumped to the aluminum fascia of the house, or went to ground and then entered the house through the crawl space. I haven't found any marks on the house to indicate where it might have been hit directly.
