How Do Lightning Rods Work

Lightning rods and the accompanying protection system are designed to protect a house or building from a direct lightning strike and in particular a lightning initiated fire. A lighting rod is an external terminal installed in a building or structure that aims to attract the lightning to have a controlled point of impact and prevent it from striking an unwanted area or people. First the rod serves to prevent a charged cloud from releasing a bolt of lightning.

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Lightning Rod Wiktionary

The lightning rod is connected with a cable to the earth below where it can channel the charge to a safe place.

How do lightning rods work. In a lightning protection system a lightning rod is a single comp. A lightning rod is a metal strips or rods usually made of copper used to protect buildings or structures from a violent lightning strike. The rod might be an inch 2 cm in diameter. A lightning rod or lightning conductor is a metal rod mounted on a structure and intended to protect the structure from a lightning strike.

Lightning rods are placed prominently on the roof edges peaks corners such that they are most easily struck by any lightning in the vicinity. Franklin suggested that a lightning rod protects a building by one of two methods. In a lightning protection system a lightning rod is a single component of the system. And second the lightning rod serves to safely divert the lightning to the ground in event that the cloud does discharge its lightning via a bolt.

A lightning rod is very simple it s a pointed metal rod attached to the roof of a building. Note that lightning protection systems do not prevent lightning from striking the structure but rather intercept a lightning strike provide a conductive path for the harmful electrical discharge to follow the appropriate ul listed copper or aluminum cable and disperse the energy safely into the ground. There are several types of ligtning rods with different characteristics. A lightning rod and its associated grounding conductors provide protection because they divert the current from nonconducting parts of the structure allowing it to follow the path of least resistance and pass harmlessly through the rod and its cables.

First issued in 1904 and updated periodically since nfpa 780 codifies the traditional lightning rod installation in which sharpened metal air terminals known as franklin rods are connected to an earth ground by means of heavy conductors. It connects to a huge piece of copper or aluminum wire that s also an inch or so in diameter. Lightning rods are also called finials air terminals or strike termination devices. That lightning is conducted down to ground rods driven in the ground by large copper cables.

The wire is connected to a conductive grid buried in the ground nearby. If lightning hits the structure it will preferentially strike the rod and be conducted to ground through a wire instead of passing through the structure where it could start a fire or cause electrocution.