August 2005
Professional Installation Key to Effective Lightning Protection
A single bolt of lightning can
carry over 30 million volts of electricity. A lightning strike to an
unprotected home can be disastrous. According to State Farm Insurance, the
company each year has about 307,000 lightning related claims nationwide
amounting to $332 million. For homeowners who don't want to play the odds and
take their chances, a lightning protection system makes good sense.
Unfortunately, homeowners and un-trained contractors, who attempt to install
their own systems, could be doing more harm than good.
"It's important to have an experienced professional install the lightning
protection system," says Bud VanSickle, executive director of the Lightning
Protection Institute (LPI). "Improper installation can lead to serious
consequences and in severe cases may be worse than not having protection at
all."
The LPI is a not-for-profit nationwide group founded in 1955 to promote
lightning safety, awareness and protection education. Scientists, engineers,
architects, installers and manufacturers are included in the organization's
membership.
Recent reports of two devastating lightning fires to south Florida homes
equipped with improperly-installed lightning protection systems reiterate the
importance of experience, industry affiliation and certification when hiring a
lightning protection contractor.
"I recently examined digital photos of a home fire in Altamonte Springs
where a do-it-yourself lightning protection system caused the homeowner a big
headache," says Guy Maxwell, president of the Lightning Safety Alliance (LSA),
a non-profit, national league of lightning protection professionals and
consumers dedicated to the promotion of lightning protection and safety. "The
lightning protection system on the Altamonte Springs home revealed a variety
of problems, like the absence of air terminals for the chimneys, improper
downleads and incorrect grounding -- in a nutshell the system did not comply
with installation safety standards," explains Maxwell.
"A situation such as the Altamonte Springs fire does not happen to a
structure equipped with a lightning protection system that meets national
safety standards for installation," says VanSickle. "Lightning protection is
a specialty discipline. We can't stress enough, how important expertise and
certification are in terms of proper system design."
A professionally installed lightning protection system which meets U.S.
Safety Standards (LPI, NFPA and UL) will prevent lightning damage by providing
a safe electrical path into the earth for lightning's destructive energy.
Only experienced and reputable UL-listed and LPI-certified lightning
protection contractors should install lightning protection systems.
"Specifying compliance with UL or NFPA standards is key to safe and
effective lightning system performance," says Karl Keip, lightning protection
service manager for Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. (UL). "Lightning
protection systems that have received the UL Master Label Certificate indicate
that a system has been inspected for conformance with these national standards
for system installation."
The LSA is currently sponsoring lightning protection tests at the
University of Florida's International Center for Lightning Research and
Testing. The two-year test involves triggering natural lightning to strike a
full scale test home equipped with a lightning protection system that has been
installed in accordance with NFPA and UL standards.
"To date the test house has been struck four times," reports Mark Morgan,
Research Coordinator for the LSA. "In each instance the lightning protection
system performed as expected. The lightning has safely traveled through the
lightning protection system with no damage whatsoever to the structure or its
contents."
The Lightning Protection Institute offers a list of certified contractors
across the U.S. Visit the LPI website at www.lightning.org for more
information about lightning protection and the LPI certification program.
Contact:
Kim Loehr
Lightning Protection Institute
804-314-8955
June 2005
National Lightning Safety Awareness Week in the US
A lightning strike to an unprotected structure can be disastrous. Packing up to 100 million volts of electricity and a force comparable to that of a small nuclear reactor, lightning has the power to rip through roofs, explode walls of brick and concrete and ignite fires. Statistics from the Insurance Information Institute show that commercial losses due to lightning strikes reach $5-6 billion each year.
Between 22nd and 28th of June the Lightning Safety Alliance is attempting to raise awareness of the importance of protecting businesses against lightning through the National Lightning Safety Awareness Week.
"Lightning protection systems are critical in protecting our national infrastructure and various governmental agencies rely heavily on nationally recognised specifications for lightning protection," said John Kennelly, spokesman for the Lightning Safety Alliance. This sentiment is echoed by Mitchell Guthrie, chair of the NFPA Committee on Lightning Protection and Technical Advisor for the US National Committee Advisory Group to IEC TC 81 (Lightning Protection). "There is no doubt that implementing a properly designed lightning protection system significantly reduces the probability of damage from lightning."
In Florida, the so-called Lightning Capital of the US, state building codes already mandate the installation of lightning protection systems for both hospitals and educational facilities. Lightning protection is also routinely installed on correctional facilities, EMS buildings, hotels and telecommunication structures in Florida. Newly enacted Florida Building Codes contain expanded requirements for lightning protection, which cover not only hospitals but also outpatient, ambulatory and extended-care facilities.
The decision to provide lightning protection should be based on a thorough risk assessment. Examples of factors that need to be taken into account are physical and geographic location, cultural and historic value, building contents and occupancy.
April 2005
IEEE Drops Exotic Lightning Rod Project
The Standards Association of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) recently voted to terminate work on a standard to govern the so-called "Charge Transfer System" (CTS) type of lightning protection, at a March 20, 2005 hearing.
The CTS, which is sometimes called the "Dissipation Array System" (DAS) uses expensive, exotic multi-point lightning rods, which supposedly can prevent lightning from striking a particular location. The IEEE project, which began in December of 2000, remained inactive during most of its initial four-year term. The decision to terminate the project was made due to the absence of vendor-sponsored tests, which were supposed to establish the validity of the CTS theory. The tests were never circulated to IEEE working group members for their review.
A Colorado firm, Lightning Eliminators and Consultants, which manufactures and sells CTS/DAS products played a central role in the IEEE project. Earlier this year, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) similarly turned down Lightning Eliminators and Consultant's request to develop a standard for CTS/DAS products. In a decision dated January 14, 2005 the NFPA Standards Council concluded that the manufacturer's request failed to demonstrate "ample basis in the scientific and technical literature to support meaningful standards development for CTS/DAS lightning protection systems." The decision marks the fifth occasion, since 1989 that the NFPA has denied such a request concerning the CTS/DAS concept.
The scientific community of independent lightning experts has also expressed skepticism regarding the CTS concept. A December 2002 paper published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society points out that there is no basis in science for claims that an object on the ground can significantly affect the formation and location of lightning strikes. CTS/DAS products were first introduced more than 30 years ago.
In the 1970's the US Navy conducted field tests of the so-called lightning eliminating systems and determined that the CTS/DAS devices fail to prevent lightning strikes, reporting instead several instances in which the devices were directly struck by lightning. The FAA similarly tested lightning dissipating devices on several air traffic control towers in Florida in the 1980's. These tests also found that the devices did not prevent lightning from striking.
"A CTS typically costs much more than a conventional lightning protection system because the customer pays an additional cost for the so-called lightning dissipating rods," said Mark Morgan, vice president of the
Lightning Safety Alliance (LSA), a non-profit, national league of lightning protection professionals and consumers dedicated to the promotion of lightning protection and safety. "Unfortunately for consumers, the evidence to-date shows the claims attached to these fancy lightning rods to be false."
In its mission to reduce the risk of fire hazards worldwide, the LSA also supports efforts of the Lightning Protection Institute (LPI), the NFPA and the National Electric Code (NEC), which are responsible for codes and standards that provide fire, electric and life safety to the public.
May 2004
University of Florida Lightning Protection Research Underway at Florida Test House
Researchers from the University of Florida have scheduled the installation of the lightning protection system for a "test house" at the International Center for Lightning Research and Testing (ICLRT) on Thursday, May 27, 2004. Located at Camp Blanding, Florida, the test house will be constructed and equipped with a real-world lightning protection system as part of a two-year study designed to measure and study lightning currents. Modeled after a typical Florida home, the test structure will help develop lightning protection standards that could potentially be incorporated in Florida building codes.
The research, titled "Triggered Lightning Testing of the Performance of Grounding Systems in Florida Sandy Soil," will be conducted by Dr. Vladimir Rakov, with assistance from Dr. Martin Uman and Keith Rampo, all of the University of Florida's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The study intends to measure the currents occurring in the wiring and grounding of the structure, when rocket-triggered lightning strikes the structure's lightning protection system, which will be equipped with a UL, NFPA compliant lightning protection system for the first year of testing. The project comes with an estimated price tag of $40,000 per year; $20,000 has been donated by The Lightning Protection Institute (LPI), an industry association, and the Lightning Safety Alliance (LSA), the organization which originated the proposal has raised another $20,000 from a variety of sources.
East Coast Lightning Equipment of CT has donated the equipment for the lightning protection system and Maxwell Lightning Protection Co. of Orlando, Florida will donate the installation. Both East Coast and Maxwell are members of the LPI and the LSA.
Other studies on lightning protection from scientists, engineers and safety experts have helped increase support for the promotion of technically valid safety standards for lightning protection systems. Data from the ICLRT study will be published and a technical report will be prepared for the LSA at the end of the second year. The University of Florida's ICLRT is presently the only facility in the world where lightning is artificially initiated from natural thunderstorms on a regular basis for the purpose of studying its physics and effects.
In its mission to reduce the risk of fire hazards worldwide, the LSA also supports efforts of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the National Electric Code (NEC), both which are responsible for numerous safety codes and standards that provide fire, electrical and life safety to the public.
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