Bill McKee's own numbers for 50,000 watts was not even 5
joules of energy. Could not light a 7 watt Christmas tree
bulb for even one second. Attack the messenger rather than
correct his own numbers? How one can hype half truths and
myths. Watts is not energy; as any engineer would have known.

Why does the nail get driven into wood with so little
energy? High power applied for a very short time period. An
example provided to demonstrate how something so destructive
(or constructive) does not require high energy - as Bill McKee
assumes. Worse still, Bill's own numbers for lightning
defined a low energy event. Somehow one must 'feel' it was
high energy only because something was damaged. He could not
even bother to first do the math.

Somehow Bill has confused "(typically hundreds to
thousands of kV and 10-100 kA)" - a high power event - as if
it were a high energy event. But then even that professional
defined it as not a high energy event. Bill forgot to quote
that part. An engineer would understand the difference
between power and energy which means Bill's claim of an
engineering education is also suspect.

Meanwhile the OP demonstrates how a low energy event such as
a lightning strike - so low in energy as to not cause damage -
can still make a direct connection to and damage household
appliances. His damage associated with a lightning strike
that left no indication is the topic of this discussion - and
not Bill McKee's hyped confusion about power and energy.

A modification of a figure from the NIST demonstrated one
way this high power, low energy lightning strike could damage
numerous household appliances. A lightning strike was such
low energy as to not even leave indications - as is so typical
of a majority of CG lightning strikes. And yet household
appliances were unnecessarily damaged.

Learning and correcting how the house was earthed would
avoid future damage. The energy content of a lightning strike
being totally irrelevant to Joshuall's post and long term
solution.

Bill McKee wrote:
You better learn to read. From your own source "(typically hundreds
to thousands of kV and 10-100 kA) " energy that does not get bled
off allows lots of energy to attack your tree or house. Not every
lighting strike causes damage, but enough do. You use joules, same
as BTU, watt-hours, horsepower, foot-pounds. All an energy source.
As sto nails, even a common 16p construction nil can be forced
partially in to a wood stud by hand. Enough to hold it in place for
a hand held hammer to strike it and drive it into the wood. In
otherwords the hammer as an extension of the hand / arm does a good
job of driving in the nail.