Your Tampa Electrician Wants to Protect You From Lightning
According to Underwriters Laboratories (UL), lightning accounts for more than one billion dollars annually in structural damage to buildings in the United States. Summer is the peak season for one of the nation's deadliest weather phenomena-lightning. But don't be fooled, lightning strikes happen year round. In the United States an average of 58 people are killed each year by lightning. This is especially frightening in Tampa.
Lightning protection systems are used to prevent or lessen damage to building and structures hit by lightning strikes. Lightning protection systems diminish the fire hazard which lightning strikes pose to buildings. A lightning protection system provides a low-impedance path for the lightning current to lessen the heating effect of current flowing through flammable structural materials. Parts of a building may literally explode if their water content is flashed to steam by heat produced from lightning current when lightning travels through porous and water-saturated materials
In Benjamin Franklin's day, lightning rods were used to conduct current away from buildings to the 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 used according to different protection requirements. For example, the utility industry prefers overhead shielding wires for electrical substations.
Lightning protection equipment may avert 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 of the transient are recommended. Surge suppressors should be installed with minimum lead lengths to their respective panels. Under fast rise time conditions, cable inductance becomes important and high transient voltages can be developed across long leads.
There are five elements that need to be in place to provide an effective lightning protection system. Strike termination devices must be suitable to accept direct lightning connection and designed to accept strikes before they reach insulated building materials. Cable conductors route lightning current over and through the construction, without damage, between strike terminations at the top and the grounding electrode system at the bottom. The below grade grounding electrode system must efficiently move the lightning to its final destination away from the structure and its contents. The interconnection of the lightning protection system to other internal grounded metallic systems must be accommodated to eliminate the opportunity for lightning to side flash internally. Finally surge protection devices must be installed at every service entrance to stop the intrusion of lightning from utility lines, and further equalize potential between grounded systems during lightning events. When these elements are identified properly in the design stage, incorporated into an orderly installation, and no changes to the building occur, the system will protect against lightning
Providing electrical protection equipment for your equipment warrants the costs. Properly placed and selected electrical protection equipment requires a one-time known expense, whereas lightning can be reoccurring, is totally unpredictable, and often results in repair and replacement costs which are three times the one-time cost for the electrical protection of a typical cell site. Such damage can play chaos with communication budgets in economically difficult times.
CJS is your trusted Tampa electrician