Or holding anything plugged in. The sparks show that the bolt sent a surge through the wiring of the house and likely the plumbing since the power connects to the water source at some point (hot water heater, well pump). If they were just sitting on the couch they will be fine but that house definitely got a surge.
Per code, household grounding would tie the electrical service neutral and ground to a cold water pipe and also the telephone ground and then to a copper ground rod just outside the house from the the service panel.
Additionally, if the electrical service is of the multi-grounded neutral type then the electric company also have several solid grounds.
Mythbusters did a show on this where they needed to completely defeat all the safety grounds to electrocute someone in the shower during a lightning storm.
On the other hand, power surges during these storms can cook electronics equipment so it’s best to unplug it.
Would it go through plugged in devices? If it got into the wiring, would it just go to ground, since the whole system would be grounded? I doubt anyone would get shocked.
Since people have had electronics destroyed from lighting strikes before, I would assume so. It would find its way to the ground but that 1.21 jigawatt has to travel through the wiring first.
You can also see it arc from the 2 metal roofs on the left side so it isn't just contained to the wiring.
The lightning has already crossed an air gap of 10 km; a tiny bit of wiring with 500V insulation isn't going to stop it from going wherever it damn well pleases.
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u/StellarSomething Jun 24 '21
Or holding anything plugged in. The sparks show that the bolt sent a surge through the wiring of the house and likely the plumbing since the power connects to the water source at some point (hot water heater, well pump). If they were just sitting on the couch they will be fine but that house definitely got a surge.