question: Why is the large discharge not useful? answer: Small appliances paragraph: Have you ever felt a shock? Maybe you had just walked across the carpet and touched something metal? How is this similar to lightning? Believe it or not, they are very similar. They are both discharges of static electricity. Lightning is static electricity on a grand scale. Lightning discharges a lot of electric charge. It happens all at once. Unfortunately, this large discharge is not useful. It is so large and so fast, it cannot be controlled. You cant plug a toaster into a lightning bolt! For most devices, a much smaller amount of electric charge is needed. It must also be steady. It cant come all in one big jolt. Thats why we cant run our homes off of lightning. Our homes need to have a steady and continuous supply of electric current. 