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Lightning Protection
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Introduction
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Lightning is a capricious, random and unpredictable event. Its' physical characteristics include current levels sometimes in excess of 400 kA, temperatures to 50,000 degrees F., and speeds approaching one third the speed of light. Globally, some 2000 on-going thunderstorms cause about 100 lightning strikes to earth each second. USA insurance company information shows one homeowner's damage claim for every 57 lightning strikes. Data about commercial, government, and industrial lightning-caused losses is not available. Annually in the USA lightning causes more than 26,000 fires with damage to property (NLSI estimates) in excess of $5-6 billion.
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Lightning effects can be direct and/or indirect. Direct effects are from resistive (ohmic) heating, arcing and burning. Indirect effects are more probable. They include capacitive, inductive and magnetic behavior. Lightning "prevention" or "protection" (in an absolute sense) is impossible. A diminution of its consequences, together with incremental safety improvements, can be obtained by the use of a holistic or systematic hazard mitigation approach, described below in generic terms.
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Lightning Rods
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Lightning rods conducted current away from buildings to earth. Lightning rods, now known as air terminals, are believed to send Streamers upward at varying distances and times according to shape, height and other factors. Different designs of air terminals may be employed according to different protection requirements. For example, the utility industry prefers overhead shielding wires for electrical substations. In some cases, no use whatsoever of air terminals is appropriate (example: munitions bunkers). Air terminals do not provide for safety to modern electronics within structures.
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Down Conductors, Bonding and Shielding
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Downconductors should be installed in a safe manner through a known route, outside of the structure. They should not be painted, since this will increase impedance. Gradual bends (min. eight inch radius) should be adopted to avoid flashover problems. Building steel may be used in place of downconductors where practical as a beneficial part of the earth electrode subsystem.
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Transients and Surges
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Ordinary fuses and circuit breakers are not capable of dealing with lightning-induced transients. Lightning protection equipment may shunt current, block energy from traveling down the wire, filter certain frequencies, clamp voltage levels, or perform a combination of these tasks. Voltage clamping devices capable of handling extremely high amperages of the surge, as well as reducing the extremely fast rising edge (dv/dt and di/dt) of the transient are recommended. Adopting a fortress defense against surges is prudent: protect the main panel (AC power) entry; protect all relevant secondary distribution panels; protect all valuable plug-in devices such as process control instrumentation, computers, printers, fire alarms, data recording & SCADA equipment, etc. Further, protect incoming and outgoing data and signal lines. Protect electric devices which serve the primary asset such as well heads, remote security alarms, CCTV cameras, high mast lighting, etc. HVAC vents which penetrate one structure from another should not be ignored as possible troublesome electrical pathways.
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Rains Electric has many systems that can be designed to take care of any potential lightning problem you may have. We can install grounding systems for buildings, towers, aircraft hangers and industrial applications. Please give us a call for a free survey.
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