Protecting a private house from lightning - an overview of a good lightning rod
The principle of the system
To begin with, we will understand how lightning protection of a private house works and what is needed to create it. You can visually see all the constituent elements of the system in this diagram:
As you already understood, the metal rods on the roof are lightning rods that discharge a dangerous discharge to the ground through a down conductor and a special grounding.
There is an opinion that if a telephone tower is installed near the house, you can not make a lightning rod in a private house. This is wrong because it is better to spend a little time and provide yourself with complete protection against lightning strikes. So that you know what a lightning conductor should be and how to do it yourself with your own hands, below we will separately consider the features of the choice of each of the elements of the system.
Component elements of protection
Air terminal
The main task is to choose the right air terminal, which should provide complete protection for the country house in the area of its operation. Today, a pin, mesh, cable or the roof itself can act as a lightning receiver. We will consider in detail the features of the application of each of the options in a private house.
As for the pin, there are already finished products from manufacturers that have a suitable shape and convenient fastening. As a rule, the metal of manufacture of the air terminal is copper, aluminum or steel. The most suitable and effective is the first option. In order for the receiver to cope well with its task, its cross section must be at least 35 mm2 (if copper) or 70 mm2 (steel rod). As for the length of the rod, in domestic conditions it is recommended to use receivers with a length of 0.5 to 2 meters. The pins are convenient to use in order to make a lightning rod on a garden house, a bathhouse or another, small building.
Metal mesh can also be sold ready-made. As a rule, the mesh air terminal is a cellular frame of reinforcement with a thickness of 6 mm. The cell size can be from 3 to 12 meters. Most often, this type of lightning protection is used in apartment buildings and large buildings, for example, shopping centers.
The cable is more practical at home and copes with the task better than the grid. To make a lightning rod in a private house with a cable, you need to stretch it along the roof (along the ridge) on wooden blocks, as shown in the photo below. The minimum cable diameter for lightning protection of a building should be 5 mm.As a rule, this option is used if you want to make a lightning conductor on your house with a slate roof with your own hands.
Well, the last option - the roof as a receiver, can be used if the roof of the apartment building is covered with corrugated board, metal tile or other metal roofing material. With this version of the lightning rod, two important requirements are imposed on the roof. Firstly, the thickness of the metal should be at least 0.4 mm. Secondly, there should not be flammable materials under the roof. You can make a lightning rod in a private house with a metal roof much faster and at the same time save on the purchase of special lightning rods.
We draw your attention to the fact that if you will use the grid, its installation should be carried out at a height of at least 15 cm above the roof!
Down conductor
As a down conductor for a private house, a 6-mm wire of copper, steel or aluminum is used. The wire should be connected to the air terminal and the grounding system using bolts or welding.
The only, but very important requirement for down conductor is that it must be isolated from the environment and pass to the ground along the shortest path. As for insulation, the use of ordinary cable channels, which are also used if necessary, is popular in summer houses and country houses.make open wiring in the house do it yourself
Earthing switch
Well, the last element of the lightning rod is the ground loop. In order not to make the material too voluminous, we highlighted a separate article for this issue - how to make grounding in a private house. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the information so that you know all the intricacies of this stage.
In short, we can say that the ground loop should be next to the house, but not in the promenade of the site, but, on the contrary, closer to the fence. The charge is removed to the ground by metal rods buried in the soil to a depth of 0.8 meters. All rods are best placed according to the scheme triangle, which is just shown in the photo:
So, we familiarized with the components of lightning protection on the roof, now we will consider how to make a lightning rod with your own hands.
Manufacturing instruction
To make it easier for you to assemble the lightning rod system of a private house as a whole, we provide step-by-step instructions with photo examples:
- We calculate the material. The most important point is the choice of the length of the air terminal. For effective protection, you need to calculate in this way: 1.5 the radius of protection of the territory is the height of the mast. For example, if the height of the rod is 10 meters, the protection zone will have a diameter of 30 meters. The diagram below makes it clear the essence of the calculation. We draw your attention to the fact that for the effective operation of the lightning rod, the height should not exceed 12 meters. If it is not possible to cover the entire area of the house with one lightning rod, it is better to make the masts in 2 or 3 different places.
- We install the receivers in suitable places, according to the recommendations provided above.
- We independently extend the down conductor from the rods to the ground along the roof and walls. It is recommended to fix the wire with special plastic fasteners. To make the extension of the wire length, use universal copper connectors. You can facilitate the work, and conduct a down conductor along the gutter, securing the wire with clamps.
- Connect the down conductor to the ground loop. To do this, it is recommended to use welding or a bolted connection. In order for the contact to be good, and, accordingly, the lightning rod is effective, before connecting, clean all areas from rust and dirt to metallic color.
- Check the made lightning protection with a multimeter, measuring its resistance. The display should show a value of not more than 10 ohms.
That's the whole technology of creating a system of protection against lightning.As you can see, making a lightning rod in a private house with your own hands is not at all difficult; We recommend that you watch the video instructions in which all the stages of installing a lightning rod are discussed in more detail.
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metal tiles with a thickness of at least 4 mm is cool!
Typo allowed. 0.4 mm
And the receiver and the cable are mounted directly on the tree (point 2) - is this normal? After all, if lightning strikes, they will not heat up childishly ...
My teacher on electricity said: "Electricians do not have lightning rods, because thunder does not professionally interest and excite them. Another thing is how to protect objects from electronic damage. lightning discharge, design and mount lightning rods (protection).
Is it possible to combine grounding of a home network with grounding of lightning protection?
No, there should be separate contours.
PUE 1.7.55. "Grounding devices for protective grounding of electrical installations of buildings and structures and lightning protection of the 2nd and 3rd categories of these buildings and structures, as a rule, should be common."
And in any case, all these systems should be combined into a common potential equalization system (1.7.82.)