Do-it-yourself lightning rod at the dacha. Do-it-yourself lightning rod for a country house: will there be an effect? How to properly install a lightning rod in a dacha

How to protect against lightning a private house

Types of lightning protection for a summer residence

The lightning rod can be:

  • Rod - a metal pin fixed to a frame (on the roof, near the house, on a tall tree growing near the house). The pin is connected to the grounding system using a metal wire. This lightning rod looks aesthetically pleasing, but its coverage area is not large. It is easy for them to calculate the protection area: from the highest point of the pin, you need to mentally draw a line to the ground at an angle of 45º. Everything that ends up in the perimeter triangle area is protected from lightning strikes.
  • Cable - its feature consists of several masts (two or four), connected to each other by steel or aluminum wire. This lightning rod is more effective and covers a larger area with protection.

These two types of lightning rods are the most common and are used in private homes and dachas, since their design is simple and installation is not difficult to do with your own hands.

Lightning protection elements

Any type of lightning rod system consists of three mandatory elements:

  • Lightning rod. In a rod lightning rod, this is a pin fixed above the chimney at least 1 m; in a cable lightning rod, it is a wire connecting the masts on the roof. Metal roof can also act as a lightning rod if the coating thickness is 4-7 mm.
  • Down conductor is one of the main elements of lightning protection. It consists of copper (d 16 mm²), aluminum (d 25 mm²) or steel (d 50 mm²) wire.
  • Grounding is a system of metal rods connected to each other by conductive material. It is located underground at a depth of at least 80 cm.

Materials and tools

For the construction of lightning protection with my own hands you will need:

  • The lightning rod is a pointed pin. A television mast or radio antenna can be used, you can also buy an air termination rod from one of the leading manufacturers: SCHIRTEC, OBO Bettermann, J Propste, GALMAR;
  • Copper, aluminum or steel wire of the recommended cross-section;
  • Pins, pipes or metal strips for grounding;
  • Mast (frame);
  • Plastic fastenings;
  • Tools (hammer, drill, shovel).

Installation of cable lightning rod

At the first stage of lightning protection installation, it is necessary to stretch a wire along the roof ridges, which will serve as a lightning rod.

If the roof is covered with flammable materials (wood, plastic tiles), the wire should be located at a distance of 10-15 cm from the surface on special plastic fasteners. The ends of the wire are attached to metal masts (horizontal lightning rods), or bent vertically.

The down conductor is attached to the lightning rod by welding, bolts or rivets. The connection points are isolated. On the roof the down conductor is fixed with brackets, on the walls of the house - plastic fasteners. The wire can be placed in the cable channel to avoid negative influence atmospheric phenomena on it.

The grounding system is installed at a distance of at least 5 m from the house, paths, benches. There should be no areas for children to play or for animals to walk nearby. Grounding only works in moist soil, which must also be taken into account when choosing a location.

The procedure for installing lightning protection grounding is:

  • Dig a trench to a depth where the soil is always damp (at least 80 cm)
  • Drive metal pins into the bottom of the trench.
  • Connect the pins together with a steel strip or pipe by welding.
  • Extend the grounding with a steel tape to the point where it connects to the down conductor.
  • Connect the down conductor to ground.

Installation of rod lightning rod

A rod lightning rod requires installation of a high frame. Its role can be played by a television antenna mast. The lightning rod is attached to the mast by welding or bolts.

The installation of the down conductor and grounding of such lightning protection does not differ from that described above. After completing the work, it is necessary to check the resistance of the entire system. It should not exceed 10 ohms.

Service

Preventative maintenance of a lightning rod includes periodic cleaning of the rod pin from dirt, dust and oxide, as well as checking the integrity of all connections.

It is not difficult to install a lightning rod at your dacha yourself. If you follow all the recommendations and standards of the instructions for the installation of lightning protection RD 34.21.122-87, then at the right time it will work flawlessly.

Despite the fact that it is easy to make a lightning rod with your own hands, it is recommended to contact specialists to perform such work. Only professionals will be able to suggest which materials are best to use specifically in your situation and provide qualified assistance in choosing right place for installation, and take into account negative factors from the influence of which the protection may not work.

A lightning protection device allows you to protect your home and people living in it from lightning strikes.

Absolutely every home needs personal protection from lightning, which will depend on its type, building material and other indicators.

In order for lightning protection to be more reliable during a thunderstorm, before installing it, you should thoroughly study the mechanism of lightning occurrence and the principle of its operation.

Lightning is an impulse electric current, affecting trees, houses, animals and people. When lightning passes through objects, it forms thermal energy, which results in fires.

That is why, to protect a house from lightning strikes, it is necessary to provide a lightning protection system.

According to its principle of operation, lightning protection of a private house is of the following types:

  1. passive;
  2. active.

In the first version it is more traditional and popular. It includes a lightning rod, a special down conductor and a grounding system. The purpose of such lightning protection is to catch lightning discharges using an air terminal, direct it to grounding and extinguish the discharge in the ground. When installing this lightning protection, consider the material from which the roof is made.

In the second type, lightning protection at home works on the principle of ionizing the air around the lightning rod and intercepting electrical discharges. This lightning protection has an increased operating radius, it is approximately 95 m.

And as a result, not only your home, but also nearby buildings can be protected from lightning strikes. The price of this lightning protection is much higher than passive, which is why its popularity is very low.

Main indicators of protection of a country house


 The first indicator of lightning protection is a lightning rod; it consists of the following elements:

  1. lightning rod;
  2. down conductor;
  3. ground loop.

Lightning rod- a lightning protection component that performs the function of catching electrical discharges.

Such an element is made of metal, and its installation takes place directly. When installing lightning protection for a large private house, you need to take care of installing several receivers at once.

According to their design features, lightning rods can be divided into:

1) Receivers in the form of a metal pin with a length of 20 cm to 160 cm. As a rule, they are mounted in a vertical position and rise above the entire area of ​​the house. The chimney is used as a place for a lightning rod. The diameter of such an air terminal is at least 5 cm. An air terminal of this type provides lightning protection for a house with a metal tile roof.

2) Receiver in the form of a cable, made of metal- installed in a tensioned position between two wooden supports. Used when carrying out work on lightning protection devices for wooden roofs.

3) Receivers in the form of a lightning protection mesh create the most high-quality protection, because they cover almost the entire surface of the roof. A good option for. Any of the lightning rods must be connected to any steel object located on the roof.


 No less important indicator A lightning rod system is a current drain. This part of the protection is responsible for the timely transfer of electrical charge to the ground loop. This element is made from metal wire with a thickness of 0.6 cm.

For a high-quality connection of the lightning rod with the current drain, welding is used. The seams after welding must be of high quality so as not to tear under the influence of atmospheric factors.

The conductor element is located on the roof and passes along the walls to the ground.

To fix it to the wall surface, it is recommended to use staples. If there are several down conductors, the distance between them should be at least 20 m.

Such elements should not be bent, so that when an electric charge is transferred, a fire does not occur. The down conductor should be as short as possible.


 Lightning protection in a private house contains a grounding loop. This is a mechanism for ensuring high-quality contact between an electric charge and the surface of the earth. This circuit contains components consisting of three electrodes connected to each other, located in the ground.

Grounding lightning protection of a private house and electrical appliances goes through one circuit. In order to make grounding you need to use a copper or steel object. First dig a hole about 300 cm long and about a meter deep.

The interval between the grounding and the walls of the house must be at least 100 cm. In addition, the grounding loop must be located near the passage areas, and the distance between them must be at least 500 cm.

Methods for installing lightning protection at home


 Two types of installation of wires for discharging electrical discharge and receiving lightning can be distinguished:

  1. tension parts;
  2. design like a clamping mechanism.

In the first option, rigid anchor mechanisms are used, which are installed on the main parts and houses, and cables are pulled between them.

For their rigid fixation, special clamps are installed. When equipping lightning rods, a plastic bracket is used that is capable of holding them at a given distance in relation to the roof.

On flat roof and it is better to install parts in the form of self-driving clamps. If the roof of the house is covered ceramic tiles, then certain difficulties may arise in fixing the clamps. Therefore, it is recommended to use special mechanisms that ensure reliable fastening And easy installation designs.

Screw clamps connect the elements of the lightning rod and down conductor. For their production, brass, copper or galvanized steel is used.

How to protect yourself from lightning at home

It is quite possible to do lightning protection with your own hands.


To make a lightning protection mesh you will need steel wire with a diameter of 0.5 mm. To attach the wires to each other, welding is needed. At the same time, all joints must be strong and reliable.

After manufacturing, the mesh must be laid on the roof and connected to the down conductor and the ground loop. This mesh is used only if the roof of your house is not made of metal.

The use of lightning protection wire is relevant if the roof of the building is not metal.

The operation of the lightning rod consists of the following: you need to install two insulators and put a metal cable on them. Place this structure on the ridge area, 30 cm above the ridge itself. The diameter of the wire should be six millimeters.


 Roof mount

After firmly fixing the wire around one of the pipes, make a loop that will connect to the lightning rod. To connect them, use welding.

To make a down conductor you will need the same wire. Ultimately, you should end up with a design like protective zone, which will protect any non-metal roof from lightning.

Another option for a lightning rod- This is a receiver in the form of a pin.

The shape of this lightning rod can be different: rectangular, round, oval, square, etc. You need to choose very strong pins that can take on a powerful load from a lightning strike.


The material from which the pin is made must not be susceptible to oxidation. Under no circumstances should the lightning rod be painted. Its cross-section should be at least 1.2 cm. When using a pipe that is empty from the inside, one end must be welded.

The main function of a down conductor is considered to be transmitting an impulse to the ground. To connect to the lightning rod, welding is used. This option works well on metal roofs.

Home protection and grounding


 Lightning protection at home

Good grounding can protect your home from lightning. To ensure proper operation of the entire lightning protection system, it is necessary to adhere to the technological aspects of constructing a grounding loop.

Improper grounding of the house will damage not only nearby objects, but also the house itself.

To ensure high-quality lightning protection of residential buildings, you must adhere to the following recommendations:

1) When purchasing materials, pay attention to their quality. It is good if the grounding comes from brass, copper or aluminum objects. You can replace these items with regular steel, but over time it can rust and lose its properties.

2) When using steel, the grounding must be checked periodically or changed if there are large areas of corrosion.

3) Install more than one metal rod in the ground. This will improve the quality of lightning protection. To install lightning protection in a house, the grounding loop will consist of three rods.

4) The length of the rod depends on the depth of soil freezing in a particular region. It should exceed this figure by about 25 cm.

5) Use conductive materials to connect the rods together.

From school course physicists know that lightning is a huge electrical discharge that carries a lot of thermal energy. The consequences of a lightning strike can be catastrophic, so at all times humanity has tried to create devices and instruments that would protect them from this natural scourge. IN modern world lightning protection of a private home is a combination of design features buildings and special devices designed to discharge electricity into the ground. The latter is called a lightning rod, how does it work, what are the requirements for it?

Types of lightning protection

Lightning protection of a home is divided into two categories: internal and external. The purpose of the first is to protect against lightning, lightning discharge which did not hit the house itself. For example, it can get into a power line that connects to an internal electrical wiring Houses. In this case, high overvoltages occur in the internal electrical wiring. Consequence: failure of most of the household appliances. In any case, the one that was plugged into the sockets at that time. The wires may burn out, a short circuit may occur, the worst case scenario is a fire if the wiring was carried out according to wooden floors or the house was made of wood.

Decide this problem possible by installing in electrical network special devices that will protect it from surge voltages. For example, surge suppressors, all kinds of arresters, SPD (surge protection device). All devices are installed in the distribution board of the house.

External protection

External lightning protection is a lightning rod, which consists of three main elements:

  • lightning rod;
  • down conductor;
  • ground loop.

The main requirement for all three elements is reliable connection them among themselves. Depending on the roofing material, it is necessary to use and different types lightning protection. There are three of them: pin, cable and mesh.

Pin

It is usually used if the roof of the house is covered with metal roofing material. For example, metal tiles, corrugated sheets or tin. To do this, you need to install a metal pin on the roof, which will rise above the ridge of the roof of the house, approximately 1-2 m higher. This will be the lightning rod. It can be made from a metal rod with a diameter of 8-12 mm, or a steel strip 4-5 mm thick and 25-35 mm wide can be used for this.

Such a lightning rod can divert electrical strikes from the elements around a house with an area equal area, where the radius is the height of the lightning rod. And the higher the pin is installed, the larger area, which it protects from lightning strikes.

The removal capacity of an air terminal is not based on the size of the area it covers. If we take into account that the vertical line for installing the pin is the height of the isosceles triangle, then the base of this figure will be two height sizes. It turns out that a circle with a radius can form on the surface of the soil, equal to height pin installation.

Rosovaya

This lightning rod requires a cable that is stretched along the roof ridge, and it is suspended at a height of half a meter above the installation level of the ridge. To do this, it is best to use a cable made of galvanized wires with a total minimum cross-section of 5-7 mm. This protection against lightning is used if the roof of the house is covered with slate.

The cable is pulled along the ridge and attached to wooden posts installed along the edges ridge beam. If the roof is long, then there may be more racks, the main thing is to maintain a slight slack in the cable. Strong sagging is unacceptable, because this reduces the distance from the roof ridge to the lightning rod. And it should not be less than 1 m. The mounting method is varied, the strength of the installation is important here. You can fasten it with clamps (metal or plastic); if the cable is thin, 5-8 mm, then you can simply tie it and additionally tie it with wire.

Mesh

It's more complex design, which is installed on roofs covered with tiles. Making such a lightning rod with your own hands is not easy. For this, steel wire rod with a cross section of 6-8 mm is used, which is laid over the entire surface of the roof slopes in the form of a grid with cell sizes of 6x6 m or more, it all depends on the area of ​​the roof. All connections are welded, fastened to the roof using brackets.

As for the down conductor, this is a line connecting the lightning rod to the ground loop. Typically, steel wire rod with a diameter of 6-8 mm is used for this. It is important here that the current-carrying element can withstand high current strength, which often reaches up to 200,000 amperes. If ready-made protection is selected, then its current conductor is copper or aluminum wire with a diameter of 6 mm.

Requirements for down conductors.

  1. This should be the shortest path from the lightning rod to the ground loop.
  2. When laying, bends and creases should not be used, which, during the removal of electricity, will become the site of the appearance of a spark charge, which, as practice shows, leads to ignition.
  3. The laying route is chosen so that the wire does not pass near windows and doors.
  4. If a lightning protection device is being manufactured wooden house, then the down conductor is installed at a distance of 15-20 cm from the surfaces of the wooden structure. For this, special staples are used. They are a metal clamp, the base of which is made of hard and durable plastic. It is the plastic that protects the conductive element from contact with wooden structures Houses. The bracket is attached with self-tapping screws. By the way, these brackets are also used in the construction of a mesh lightning rod, where the distance between them is 1.5-2.0 m.
  5. If the protection of buildings and structures from lightning is a large mesh structure, or a long laid cable, or several pins are used on the roof, then there must also be several down conductors, the distance between which is 25 m (according to SO 153-34.21.122-2003).
  6. The wire rod is carried along the walls of the building, along the gables and sharp protrusions of the roof. That is, in those areas that can be struck by lightning.

Ground loop

The lightning protection circuit in a private house is carried out according to the same scheme and design as the grounding of electrical networks.

  • One meter from the foundation of the house and at least five meters from front door, paths, platforms, trenches are dug in the shape of an equilateral triangle. The depth of the trenches is 80 cm, width is 60 cm, length is 1.5-2 m.
  • Angle steel pins measuring 50x50x5 mm are driven into the corners of the triangle. The depth of burial is 2-3 m. The corners should not be driven completely into the ground, the height of the free protruding section is 20-30 cm.
  • The pins are connected to each other by a steel strip 4 mm thick and 40 mm wide. You can use the same corners for these elements as for the pins.
  • This lightning protection grounding circuit is connected to the down conductor.

Attention! All connecting joints must be secured by electric welding. Bolted connections are not recommended, because during operation of the lightning rod country house they can weaken, rust and weaken the conductivity of the entire structure.

DIY assembly

Before making a lightning rod in a private house, you need to decide what type of lightning rod to choose. If this is a pin version, then the pin itself must be installed not on roofing material, but on the sheathing.

After that, a current-carrying wire is laid with your own hands. If the length of the purchased piece of wire or rod is not enough, then you can connect two pieces using an aluminum or copper contact, which is used in air lines power transmission The distance between brackets is 1.5-2.0 m.

A grounding loop is constructed to which the down conductor is attached. Before welding, all joints of elements must be cleaned to a metallic shine. If ready-made lightning protection for a private building is used, then special devices with bolted connections made of non-ferrous metal are used as connections.

Attention! The best option, if the grounding and lightning protection loops are located close to each other and connected to each other by wire rod or strip. This does not violate the standards of lightning protection devices, and the circuit becomes twice as large.

When installing lightning protection in your own private home with your own hands, you need to understand that this is an element of safety not only for the building, but also for the people living in it. Therefore, you should not put off its installation for a long time. Perfect time for installation - building a private house with your own hands.

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Throughout life, every person repeatedly encounters such a phenomenon as a thunderstorm. It’s true that many people are more frightened by thunderclaps than by lightning. In fact, it is lightning that is the damaging factor; it can cause fires and death.

Electric shock is a dangerous injury that not everyone can survive safely. And if we take everyday life seriously, then not everyone is afraid of a lightning strike, believing that this happens rarely. According to statistics, about 3,000 people die from lightning strikes around the world every year.

Great damage can be caused by a lightning strike that hits a residential or commercial building, especially if it is built with flammable materials. Most of fires occur in rural areas, where there are many wooden houses, and other buildings.

Therefore, you need to take care to ensure that your home or home is not damaged during a thunderstorm. To do this, it is necessary to equip the building with lightning protection.

How does lightning protection work at home?

Lightning is a short circuit that occurs between the earth and the cloud, which are oppositely polarized conductors.

The task of a lightning rod is to “catch” lightning and divert the electrical discharge into the ground, protecting a house or other object.

Most often, lightning strikes those objects that rise above the surface - tall trees, building spiers, single pillars. Therefore, lightning rods are usually located at a height exceeding the height of the building being protected.

The lightning rod design consists of three main structural parts:

  • lightning rod that catches the discharge;
  • down conductor – the task of which is to transfer the discharge to grounding;
  • ground electrode located in the soil.

As you know, soil conducts current well. Different breeds They have different abilities to conduct current, but it is best absorbed by moist soil. Therefore, the ground electrode is often immersed in until it reaches groundwater, lying on the site. This guarantees high efficiency of the lightning rod.

The lightning rod is usually installed at the highest point of the roof. If the house is small, then installing one receiver is enough. If the house is large, then several of them are installed so as to protect the entire surface of the roof.

  • Rod - a metal pin with a length of 30 to 150 cm, which is mounted vertically. The installation location may be the roof ridge, chimney, TV antenna. It is desirable that the pin be made of a material that is not prone to oxidation - copper or galvanized steel. The diameter of the pin is approximately 12 mm. If a metal tube is used, its upper end must be welded. Most often, such devices are used on metal roofs.
  • Cable - a metal cable stretched along wooden supports at a height of 1 - 2 meters from the roof ridge. Such structures are usually mounted on slate and wooden roofs.
  • Mesh lightning rod is a mesh consisting of round galvanized steel rods. It is located along the ridge of the roof. This a good option for the protection of tiled roofs.

The down conductor is a steel wire with a diameter of at least 6 mm, connected by welding to an air terminal. It must be able to withstand a current of 200,000 amperes.

It is very important that the fastening of the lightning rod and down conductor is strong; it must not be loosened or broken.

The down conductor is lowered from the roof to the ground electrode or ground loop so that its length is as short as possible. Down conductors must be secured to the walls of the building with brackets. They need to be laid at the greatest possible distance from window and doorways. If the house is large and there are several down conductors, then the distance between them should not be less than 25 m.

The grounding of the lightning rod consists of three vertical electrodes connected to each other by a strip of steel with a cross section of 40*4 mm. Typically, the same ground loop is used to protect electrical appliances and equipment.

The figure shows the lightning rod (1), down conductor (2) and grounding (3).

In fact, to protect private houses, various metal objects are used as grounding: it can be a sheet of thick metal buried deep in the ground, a thick pipe, several corners connected in parallel.

Types of lightning protection systems:

  • active;
  • passive.

Active systems appeared not so long ago - in the 80s of the last century. Russian scientists are skeptical about such systems, since they cost an order of magnitude more, and their effectiveness is not considered unconditionally proven.

The structural parts of the active and passive systems are the same, the only difference is in the lightning rod. The design of the active receiver provides additional ionization of the air, which presumably improves the interception of the electrical discharge. It is believed that the protection zone of the active system can be up to 100 m, which allows protecting not only the house, but surrounding buildings.

High cost limits use active protection. Experts believe that a passive system, if implemented correctly and carefully, provides the building with sufficient protection.

Independent lightning protection device

The main thing in this matter is high-quality grounding.

To do this, you need to adhere to the following principles:

  • Vertical metal pins must be installed on the roof. Usually they are attached to pre-prepared beams.
  • Stretch a steel wire with a diameter of at least 6mm and attach it to the pins.
  • The chimney must be wrapped with two or three turns of wire and connected to a horizontal element stretched between the pins - an lightning rod.
  • Connect the current conductor at one end to the wire - the lightning rod, and at the other - to the grounding conductor.

  • Long lightning rods must be installed on the roof.
  • All safety elements must be inspected and connected to each other, paying attention to their connection points - they should not be contaminated with anything.
  • If the roof of the house is flammable, then you need to separate the lightning rod structure from the roof using special non-flammable fasteners.
  • After installing the protection, it is necessary to measure its resistance. Its value should not exceed 10 ohms.

Home safety is not limited to installing lightning protection.

In order for it to work as intended, you need to constantly monitor its serviceability:

  • The metal pin of the lightning rod must be cleaned, removing the oxide layer.
  • The reliability of all connections must be constantly monitored.
  • If you find rust or metal deterioration anywhere, that item must be replaced immediately.

During a thunderstorm, you must follow some rules:

  • At this time, you should not approach the ground closer than 4 m;
  • lightning rods do not protect against ball lightning, so during a thunderstorm it is better to close all windows and doors, as well as chimneys;
  • if a thunderstorm finds you near water or in water, urgently move away from the body of water as far as possible;
  • don't hide from the storm under tall trees– the probability of lightning hitting them is quite high, especially if you are not in a forest, but on a plain.

Following basic safety rules can save your life and the lives of your loved ones. Most often people die precisely because they do not know simple rules behavior and get lost in a moment of danger.

Today we will talk about how to protect a private home from lightning strikes.

What is lightning?

Many owners of private houses try to make their home as comfortable and safe as possible, but at the same time they forget about the possibility of their home being struck by lightning.

Lightning is one of the most unpleasant phenomena that can cause enormous damage to a home.

As you know, it is a high-power electrical discharge, so even if it enters the house indirectly, it can damage electrical equipment in the premises.

It’s good if there is one near the house high building, equipped with lightning protection.

In this case, you don’t have to worry about the possibility of lightning striking your house, since such houses often have lightning rods with a large protection zone, which will cover the area with adjacent buildings.

A special feature of lightning is the discharge to the highest point. Therefore, if a house is located on the outskirts, it is the highest point, unless, of course, a tree grows next to it that is taller than the house.

But wood is also not a guarantee of protection. The risk of a home being struck by lightning increases many times over if there are ponds, strong streams, or swampy areas near the house.

So, if a private house is not surrounded by high-rise buildings, it is better to protect yourself by providing your home with lightning protection.

Damaging factors of lightning

But before you figure out how to protect your home from possible lightning damage, you should consider the damaging factors of this phenomenon.

There are two of these factors.

Primary.

This is a direct lightning strike on a house, as a result of which it may suffer structural damage and there is the possibility of a fire. This factor is the most dangerous.

Secondary.

Less dangerous for the home and residents. This factor comes down to the appearance of electromagnetic induction in the wiring of the house during a lightning discharge near the house.

Due to induction, a significant voltage surge occurs in the wiring, which can damage all electrical appliances in the house connected to the network.

And if you can protect yourself from the secondary factor without additional equipment by disconnecting all devices from the network during a thunderstorm, then it is impossible to protect yourself from the primary factor in this way; you need to equip your house with lightning protection.

Ohio, a house struck by lightning.

Since lightning is just an electrical discharge, although great strength, but it acts like any other discharge, that is, it moves along the path of least resistance.

Providing this path is the task of lightning protection.

If lightning strikes a house equipped with this type of protection, the electrical discharge will go into the ground without causing damage to the building.

Popularly, such protection is called lightning rods or lightning rods.

As for the latter, the definition is not entirely correct, because thunder is just the sound that occurs during a lightning discharge.

Criteria and types of lightning protection

Now let's look at the types of lightning protection.

Here, this equipment has several criteria that divide it into types.

The first criterion is the method of protection.

According to it, lightning rods are divided into:

  1. Active;
  2. Passive.

The active ones appeared relatively recently. They contain a lightning rod, discussed below, equipped with a special ionizer, which “provokes” lightning with its impulses.

In fact, this device specifically attracts lightning towards itself, which completely eliminates the possibility of a secondary factor of lightning damage.

Passive ones are not equipped with anything like that; lightning may or may not discharge onto it. This type protection is used everywhere.

The second criterion is the types of protection.

According to it, lightning rods are also divided into two types - external and internal.

Everything is simple here - the external one protects the house from the primary factor of lightning, and the internal one – from the secondary one.

And the third criterion is design features.

But here the division into types relates more to lightning rods. According to them, the lightning rod is divided into pin, cable and mesh.

Lightning protection design

Now regarding the design of lightning protection, let’s talk only about the external one for now.

It consists of only three elements - an lightning rod, down conductors and a grounding conductor.

Lightning rod.

It receives a lightning strike, so it is fixed on the roof of the house so that the receiver itself is the highest point.

The simplest is the rod type of receiver.

A metal rod with a diameter of 10-18 mm and a length of 250 mm is considered standard.

You can also use a pipe, but only its ends must be welded.

The number of receivers is calculated based on the size of the building. On small houses One is enough if the area of ​​the house exceeds 200 square meters. two rods are installed with a distance between them of 10 m.

To prevent the discharge from the receiver from reaching the house, it is secured to the roof using wooden blocks or special fasteners.

Some, so as not to spoil appearance at home, the lightning rod is installed on a separate support near the house.

Some, if possible, attach an additional lightning rod directly to the tree.

There is not much difference, since even with a lightning rod installed nearby, the protection zone will cover the house.

The main condition for installing the receiver is that it must be located above the house, as well as other buildings near it.

Another type of lightning rod is a cable one.

A cable is used that is stretched along the entire length of the roof ridge and secured to wooden supports. An important condition is the tension of the cable - it should not touch the roof.

The third type of receiver is the mesh.

It is made from any wire (steel, aluminum, etc.) with a cross-section of at least 6 mm.

It is stretched over the entire roof area; the cells of this mesh should form a square of approximately 6x6 m.

In this case, the mesh should also not touch the roof; it is fixed on wooden or special non-conducting supports at a height of 6-8 cm from the roof.

There are no strict regulations for the use of this or that type of lightning rod; you can use any, they are all quite effective, so they are chosen at will.

Their main task is to transfer the discharge from the receiver to the ground electrode.

Most often, steel wire with a diameter of 6 mm or more is used as down conductors.

If the walls of the house are made of brick or foam block, in general, from any non-flammable material, then you can attach the down conductor along the wall in any inconspicuous place, most importantly, not near windows and entrance doors.

You can also use metal tape as a down conductor, but it must be at least 2 mm thick and 30 mm wide.

The down conductor is attached to the receiver using a welded, bolted or soldered connection.

The number of down conductors depends on the number of ends of lightning rods.

If only one rod receiver is used, then one bend is attached to it. When using a cable receiver, two taps are already needed.

Also, two down conductors are used for a grid receiver.

On soils with high level groundwater, it is better to use a horizontal position of the grounding electrode at a depth of 0.8 m. In this case, the grounding electrode should be metal corner or a strip with a width of 50 mm and a thickness of 4 mm.

The ground electrode is connected to the down conductor only by welding.

Features of lightning protection installation

Based on what has been described, you can understand that it is quite possible to make lightning protection yourself, having only the necessary materials.

To protect your home from lightning, you must first take measurements.

It is necessary to find out the height at which the receiver should be located, and also determine the method of its mounting.

Then you need to calculate the length of the down conductor. It is important to consider here that the lightning charge path to the ground electrode should be as short as possible. Therefore, you should not make any contours, bends, etc. And even more so, it is impossible to form rings from the tap.

As for the ground electrode, it must be located at least 1 m from the nearest wall of the house. After all the calculations, you can begin installation.

You need to start with the ground electrode.

If it is made of rods, it is enough to dig a trench 0.5 m deep and 3 m long.

Drive rods at least 2 m long into the ground along the edges of this trench.

Then using welding machine Weld a jumper to these rods.

If the ground electrode is horizontal, then you will have to dig a trench much deeper.

Here you need to comply important condition– it should not be in contact with the roof of the house, so use only wooden supports to secure it.

Or you need to attach it directly to non-conductive structures of the house.

Then a down conductor is attached to the receiver and grounding conductor, which can then be attached to the roof special devices, and then to the wall of the house.