Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire For The Electricians???

My last house had the normal driven rod at the meter outside. Lightning struck right at the meter thru the roof/sophit and into the meter and down the rod (as evidenced when it blew off the clamp) and still managed to go out the other side of the house and blew out the concrete where the copper pipe water line for the washer came out of the slab and blew a pretty good hole in the copper pipe as well.

All kinds of fun stuff, but it still was better than the strike I had about 20 years ago that got the electrical, the phone, and the cable all the way down the road.

I second (or third) the idea of getting a bigger panel than you think you will end up using. Much better to get it done now while your building and burying than 5-10 years down the road. I'm glad I did in one instance because I was able to add a 30amp outlet outside the building where the subpanel was for a trailer plug where I kept my trailer parked.

That is not correct, GFI's (yeah, I'm of that generation, too. I learned that instead of GFCI) measure current differential on the two current carrying conductors - hot and neutral - to detect current that has found another return path (someone) to ground.
I'd hate to see someone in an older two wire wired structure forego GFI protection because they thought they were SOL w/o a ground.

Another common misconception is that they keep you from getting shocked. Not true, they only limit the duration. See the NFPA shock hazard video at the 17:43 mark, if my memory serves.