Why don't rich people use solar panels to power their homes?

[HavocXphere]

If you do this properly then it ends up being a full mesh around the building.

So its an underground mesh?

This only helps for indirect strikes, right?

Thanks for explaining.

[evovil]

Two of the key aspects of lightning protection are: minimising potentials between different parts of the building through equipotential bonding and providing as many low impedance paths for the surge to discharge to earth.

If you do this properly then it ends up being a full mesh around the building. Obviously that can get very expensive and can also be quite ugly if its installed as an after thought. Most people use a mesh that is far less dense than what is recommended - some as few as one or two conductors.

So its an underground mesh?

This only helps for indirect strikes, right?

Thanks for explaining.

The way I understood it, its like one or two of those small, maybe half a meter long, aluminium or copper rods on the corners of your house... Saw them installing them in dirty jobs once...

[ambo]

So its an underground mesh?

No. A mesh enclosing the entire building. Not a tight mesh - typically about 1 meter or more spacing between the conductors. You don't want to completely block RF inside the building

You also sometimes need a mesh in the ground in order to get a sufficiently low impedance to earth. This depends on the type of soil/ground below the building.