Sheet metal roof planned! Lightning protection required?

Hello everyone.

We have now fully planned our house and it is going to have a metal roof.
Now the question: Does a metal roof attract lightning more than a normal tile roof?
We are building at one of the highest points in the village, but there are also trees right next to our future house that are about the same height.
I would also consider lightning protection for a tile roof, because the feeling of safety is simply higher with it.

After talking with our house building company, however, lightning protection would not help...
-it is not proven!
-Insurances do not promote it
-and it would cost around €5,000
-and maybe a lightning rod even attracts lightning and provokes damage to the house... maybe without a lightning rod it would strike somewhere in the tree and with it, into the lightning conductor...

And if you look at the new housing developments... almost no new buildings actually have lightning protection on them!

What do you basically think about lightning protection, i.e. lightning rods and internal lightning protection with surge protection?

And can you give me the info if a metal roof attracts lightning more than a tile roof?

No one has had any experience or given any thought to lightning protection yet??

We have already thought about it, but quickly discarded the idea again. The type of roof probably doesn't make a difference; it's more the height of the house. Lightning protection probably makes sense in an exposed location, but it is also really expensive (internal and external protection). However, I don't know anyone (we live more in an urban area, but there are also many tall trees around) who has actually comprehensively secured themselves against lightning; if at all, then internal lightning protection (also considering that a lightning strike on the neighbor's property can kill your own electrical devices). I think you will therefore receive only few reports of experiences.

I cannot say anything about lightning protection.

What I do wonder, however, is whether the metal roof might be noisier than a conventional covering during heavier rain or hail.

Being louder, that is, "drumming," should not be according to the experts.... Really a difficult decision with the lightning protection. As I said, we already live at the highest point in the village ... hardly any trees ... rather thin smaller ones at the same level. But if you look at how often it strikes in the area ... almost never! But on the other hand, the storms are getting stronger and retrofitting costs almost twice as much!

Hi,

since we live in a country of rules and regulations, I would see it this way:

If it is not mandatory despite a metal roof, it is probably not necessary...

if at all, then internal lightning protection (also against the background that a lightning strike at the neighbor’s can also kill your own electrical devices).

In my childhood, a lightning bolt struck the fir tree next to the house in the neighbor row (residential area consisting of semi-detached houses and "triple row houses"), which was about 3 m higher than the house. The result was that for them, every plugged-in device except the toaster was really destroyed. The direct neighbor lost about half of the devices, and with us (good 30 m further) a TV and a radio were damaged. Apparently, the purely inductively generated currents from the field strength of the lightning were already enough.

Note, when lightning strikes, it is very impressive!

However, we also build without lightning rods; according to our general contractor, he has not equipped even 10 houses with them in the last 10 years. That out of about 800-1000 houses built in that time.

Best regards,

Andreas