|
Here are 6 different roof styles. Pick out your style and use the diagram to help determine the path of your conductor cable and placement of lightning rods. On the next page it shows
houses with dormers, so you can use that as a helpful tool if your house is a little different than the simple 2 sided gabled roof. Measure how many feet of lightning conductor cable you will nee along this path and
remember to consider the slope distance on the roof will be greater than the actual width or half-width of the structure. Allow an extra 5 or more feet to reach to your buried ground rod or plate connection. Grounding
can take place within a foot of your structure or you can dig a trench and take the conductor cable out as far as you want or need in order to avoid a rocky area or location more accessable to you. The farther away from
the house and more conductor cable buried and distanced from the structure the better. Ground rods must be at least 8 feet long by 1/2 inch diamter, copper clad steel or solid copper. You have to dig a 2 foot deep hole
and pound the ground rod down so that the top of it is buried 2 feet below the grade level and essentially the ground rod is 10 feet deep. This is why you may want to spend the extra money on ground plates, you've
already got the hole and you won't have to pound down any further and risk running into rock and not being able to get the ground rod out. Some areas are rocky and you may need to use a ground plate any way. They are 12
inches by 24 inches and .032 inch thick copper sheeting and get buried 2 feet below the ground. Once you have determined how many feet of cable you need, divide that by 3 to figure out how many cable clips you will need
to secure the cable on its entire path. One cable clip for every 3 feet of cable. These are secured by either stainless steel screws, stainless steel nails or copper nails (if using copper materials). If using aluminum
materials then you use either stainless steel or galvanized . If you are using aluminum materials you need to switch from aluminum cable to copper cable about 5 feet before the ground plate or rod by using a bi-metal
connector. You cannot use aluminum cable to ground with. Tie into your outside water service if it is copper pipe by running a length of copper conductor cable from the ground rod/plate to the water supply using a sill
cock water service connection. (part #SCWS). Also, if you have metal conduit bringing in your electrical service you need to do that in the same manner and connect to the incoming electricity conduit with a pipe clamp.
Depending on size of the conduit you may need either the #C3 or #C4 pipe clamps. You also need to tie in your gas service if you have a natural gas service meter. To complete the system properly, you also need a #HULK
breaker panel lightning surge arrestor installed in your breaker panel. They protect every outlet and system in the house from non direct strikes that may follow into your house from a different location or even from a
strike to your lightning rods. These are made for lightning surges/strikes
and regular electrical surges. Typical breaker panel surge protectors are just that, surge protectors made to take jumps in electrical current in the event power goes out and then suddenly comes back on so as not to shock your appliances with a burst of electricity. Don't let any salesman tell you different, it's not his house or family that is at risk. The placement of lightning rods is determined by length of ridgeline. One lightning rod at each end of the ridge and then the rest spaced evenly in between not to be spaced any further than 20 feet apart. No point shall go unprotected, so all dormers must have at least one lightning rod and every ridgeline also, not just the one that is highest on the house. Height has nothing to do with this. Here is a guideline as to how many lightning rods each ridgeline will need. If it is up to 22 feet long, you need 2 lightningrods. 23 feet to 41 feet long you need 3 lightning rods, 42 feet to 62 feet you need 4 rods, 63 feet to 82 feet you need 5 rods, 83 feet to 102 feet you need 6 rods and so on. |
