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[Excerpted from JMAX Tips]

It is the season for LIGHTNING in The Villages. Is your computer protected?

Lightning Protection

The letter from Mark Lamendola, 2002 IEEE Outstanding Member, Region 5, was an interesting and timely message for Villagers. With my experiences regarding the requirements for recognized lightning protection systems, I have seen way too many homes with less than acceptable systems installed.

However, with due respect to Mr. Lamendola, my experience and research into the topic tells me that his message was a bit misleading, contained some misguided emphasis, and omissions that need to be clarified.

To begin with, there are three (3) organizations that have established recognized Standards for installations of lightning protection systems that provide detailed requirements for effective protection:

· UL (Underwriters Laboratory) Standard 96A

· NFPA (National Fire Protection Agency) Standard 780

· LPI (Lightning Protection Institute) Standard 175

These Standards define all aspects of a proper lighting protection system, including such things as electrical measurements necessary to demonstrate effective dissipation of energy from a lighting strike; how to determine size of wire to use in the system; material composition of wire, air terminals, air terminal mounts, ground rods; and every aspect of an effective system installation.

Of interest is the fact that LPI is the only agency that actually tests and certifies contractors specifically for proper installation of lightning protection systems. Their web site lists companies/contractors who have Certified “Journeyman” (as a result of passing 2 tests), “Master Installer” (as a result of passing 4 tests), and “Installer Designer” (as a result of passing 5 tests).

The UL web site has listing for recognized contractors. However, UL does not test nor assume responsibility for certifying these contractors. The UL listings only provide a list of contractors who have agreed to use UL Certified parts and components exclusively. Although this is an essential element for compliance with the noted Standards, it in no way provides any confidence that the listed contractors can perform the job of installing an effective and Standards-compliant system.

And I might point out that IEEE does not have any Standards or contractor testing programs in place associated with proper installations of lightning protection systems.

Mr. Lamendola makes reference in his “Note” at the end of his discussion to “hire a licensed Master Electrician to come to your home to check your grounding system.” In Item 1 at the beginning of his discussion, he suggests that “it’s economical to hire someone who knows the right way to do this rather than to guess at it and burn things up.” It is unfortunate that Mr. Lamendola makes no distinction regarding appropriate qualifications of contractors for installation of lightning protection systems.

1. The very first thing that should be considered is hiring a contractor that, if not certified by LPI, is at least listed under UL for installation of lightning protection systems, but most importantly, will accept responsibility for having UL inspect and provide a “Master Label Certificate,” or at least sign an agreement that they will repair and make correct any defects in the installation that a UL inspector finds while conducting their inspections regarding compliance for a “Master Label Certificate.” Any contractor who does not know what a “Master Label Certificate” is, or refuses to be held accountable for any deficiencies identified by the UL inspector should be summarily dismissed. He obviously does not know what he is doing and can not be trusted.

2. Generalizations are inappropriate regarding what needs to be done associated with a proper installation of a lightning protection system, such as installing 10 foot ground rods. Actually, the depth of any rod into the ground is dependant on the soil composition and level of the water table at the home site. We had to bury the ground rods 30 feet deep at each corner of our house to get acceptable conductivity readings (which are required for a UL Master Label Certificate). In addition, the wire gauge to be used depends upon the class of the installation (Class I or Class II) as well as the length of the wire runs from air terminals to ground rods.

3. I personally would not only recommend using the assessment exercise that Mr. Lamendola suggests (www.harger.com/lightningprotection.htm), but also assess any instances of lightning strikes anywhere near your home site. Since our area in the Marion County section of The Villages has had two (2) homes totally destroyed by lightning strikes. In addition, we also had a home two (2) doors down from us suffer a glancing lightning strike that caused minor physical damage and loss of several electrical appliances. This was enough to convince us that we needed to take action. The Harger assessment would lead us to believe that it is not a necessary expense. In addition, I would caution readers to not lose sight of the fact that the Harger web site is a commercial for Harger parts and contractors who install systems using their parts.

4. Whole house surge suppressors and point-of-use surge suppressors will have absolutely no affect in protecting the home in the case of a lighting strike. These items only protect appliances, TV’s, computers, etc. from surges within the electrical distribution system alone. The only possible protection from lighting strikes is a properly installed lightning protection system.

5. One area of concern in my observations of lightning protection systems in The Villages relate to the following points:

o Height of air terminals (the actual lightning rods mounted on the exposed high points of a building) shall be absolutely no less than ten (10) inches tall. I have witnessed houses that appear to have six and/or eight inch high air terminals.

o An air terminal located at the leading edge of any house structure (dormer corner as an example) must have a down-lead (copper wire) going directly to an earth ground. The error I have witnessed is that the grounding wire from the house top-most air terminal dead-ends at a dormer air terminal. Lightning surges can not go back onto itself; therefore it needs a clear and easy path to earth ground.

o Although aluminum wire is acceptable (if it is of the correct gauge), however it does not seem to be a very good choice here in Florida. Aluminum will corrode too easily, and anyone familiar with use of aluminum wiring in house interior wiring knows that it suffered with rapid deterioration when used for heavy current drain appliances such as refrigerators, resulting in houses burning to the ground due to wiring failures.

6. If an individual is truly interested in safety and protection, the use of whole house surge suppressors and spark gap arrestors should be avoided. The utility most likely will be using lowest-cost/poor quality parts and systems, and will not, as mentioned in Mr. Lamendola’s article, be honored by the utility company. Again, use of a licensed Lightning Protection System installer is the only sure way of getting your moneys worth.


I hope that this provides a little better guidance regarding what needs to be evaluated regarding an effective and efficient lightning protection system. I might that our having used a “Certified Master Installer: and “Certified Installer Designer” actually resulted in a lower cost from what I heard other people taking about regarding the cost of such as system for our home. Most contractors I had initially contacted indicated that a system would cost around $2000. Our system, which has been certified by UL, only cost us just over $1000. Not a bad savings and we have some comfort that UL had actually certified the installation, so we know that it is conformance to the above mentioned Standards.

John L. Wright, Sr.
Resident of The Village of Chatham
The Villages, Florida