![]() ![]() But this protection is only afforded to objects within a certain distance of the rod, given roughly by the rod’s height. These tall metal rods are good conductors that provide a path of least resistance from the clouds to the ground. “Currently, the only available protection against lightning is a classical Franklin lightning rod,” says Aurélien Houard, a member of the research team from the École Polytechnique in Paris. The damage caused by lightning-estimated to cause billions of dollars of damage per year in the US-can be reduced by controlling where the electric discharge goes. ![]() Such a laser system could one day provide lightning protection to sensitive facilities, such as airports, rocket launchpads, and wind farms. Stationed on a Swiss mountain, researchers have shown that the beam from a high-powered laser provides a preferential path for lightning bolts. A 21st century update on Franklin’s kite is a laser fired up into the atmosphere. When Benjamin Franklin launched his famous kite into a stormy sky in 1752, he provided a preferential path for the charge accumulated in the clouds to reach the ground. To make the laser light visible in the photo, the researchers converted it from infrared to green wavelengths using a frequency-doubling device. Stollberg A laser fired into the sky near a communications tower has been shown to guide lightning strikes. Strikes from trialing edges miles form the cloud are not unheard of.TRUMPF/M. If you are not home, just look over the down lines and make sure they are there after the storm is well over. You will know if they took a hit and you are home since the flash and the thunder will be at the same time (and louder than you can imagine until you hear a hit). Just make it a habit to look over the down wires after major storms. We then ran two 2,000 MCM down lines from our antenna 'bridge' (one each end) and never lost another piece of equipment.Ģ,000 MCM is about 1.6 inches in diameter from stranding. Those are rather small down wires, and are unlikely to actually survive a direct hit.ĭown wires to survive a hit are over an inch in diameter.Īfter losing all sorts of expensive electronic warfare test gear to hits on the roof of our 6 story poured concrete office building we determined that the rebar had not been properly bonded to provide a low impedance path to earth. "the copper wires are quite thick, about a thick pencil in thickness" While you are at it, maybe you would also want to add some whole house sure protectors / suppressors at the main breaker panel of the house. When the guy said 20 feet, I think that is ball park right. ![]() Move and add rods onto your house such that the ball never touches your house, just the lighting rods. Where ever it touches your house place a lighting rod. Now roll this all over your land and your house. Imagine a big ball with a radious of about 50 feet. The method I understand is the sphere method. How many rods you need and where they are placed can be determined using a number of methods. After we put in (a) the rods and (b) the protection on the well, we never had an issue again. I decided I needed the protection because lighting strikes took out our well pump three times. If I had to do it again I would have done it while I was building my house. I put lighting rods in after I built my house. ![]()
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