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[TowerTalk] Lightning Protection/Tower Safety

To: <TowerTalk@contesting.com>
Subject: [TowerTalk] Lightning Protection/Tower Safety
From: "Larry & Karen" <k0is@iowatelecom.net>
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 15:44:18 -0500
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
  --------- Original Message --------
  I think everyone might be interested in this discussion as it mentions not 
only basic lightning protection but also the importance of low ground 
resistance and tower safety issues as well.


          
         

        Topic - Lightning and Surge Protection 
        Subject - High Copper Prices Affect Lightning Protection June 8, 2006   
       

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                                High Copper Prices Affect Lightning Protection



                                Comment posted on the Lightning Protection 
Technical Forum: If you're on the purchasing end of the business, be prepared 
to pay considerably more for your buss bars, ground wire and any other product 
using copper. Yesterday alone the price of copper went up 6%. Analogous to 
fuel, it's not likely to come down. During the past month, the price of copper 
has increased more than 30%.  This year it has climbed a staggering 62% See: 
http://www.wirelessestimator.com/breaking_news.cfm



                                Response by Moderator: Commodity prices are 
usually of no interest to our technical forum. This case, however, is important 
as it effects the relative cost of conventional versus non-conventional 
lightning protection systems.  As most readers are aware, the conventional 
Franklin rod systems use large quantities of copper and hence their cost is 
sensitive to the price of this commodity.



                                Of course, the total cost of a system includes 
both the materials and the labour for the installation.  The latter component 
is not rising as fast, thus limiting the overall increase in cost of the 
system.  However, with such sharp increase in cost of materials, the overall 
increase in cost of the system will still be substantial.



                                The position of the scientific community at 
large is established regarding the invalidity of the claims behind 
non-conventional lightning protection systems.  The said rejection covers the 
following:



                                a) Lightning elimination devices/Charge 
Transfer Systems (CTS),



                                b) Early Streamer Emission (ESE) lightning rods 
regardless of whatever deceptive name is used to describe them, and,



                                c) The Collection Volume Method (CVM) which 
some vendors use to justify the reduction in number of air terminals compared 
to what is required by the electrogeometric model/Rolling Sphere Method.



                                Despite rejection by the scientific community, 
the vendors of ESE and CTS systems have succeeded in selling their gadgets to 
thousand of people. The victims are not limited to laymen, architects and 
non-electrical engineers, but also include some generalist electrical engineers 
who lack knowledge in this specialized field, thus making junk science appear 
plausible to them.



                                Unfortunately, the power of deception of ESE 
and CTS vendors will be aided by the rising cost of copper.  Persons who know 
the fact are advised to consider the following:



                                1) Lightning protection is a form of insurance: 
you incur the cost of a protection system to avoid the much higher cost of 
replacing or repairing the building when it gets damaged or burned as a 
consequence of a lightning strike.  Since the cost of repair and replacement is 
also increasing with rise in cost of material and labour, the increase in cost 
of the lightning protection system can still be justified.



                                2) The provision of lightning protection is not 
mandatory.  If the justification for providing lightning protection for a given 
building is marginal because of the low keraunic level and/or the other risk 
assessment factors as given in NFPA Standard 780, then perhaps you should opt 
for not providing lightning protection at time of construction.  When copper 
prices drop in the future, a lightning protection system can then be added.  Of 
course, it would facilitate matters in this case if the original design made 
provision for future retrofitting.



                                3) It would be a folly of a person to let the 
increase in cost of a conventional system persuade him to use a non-effective 
system instead. For it is no economy to pay, say, 70% of the price to get 10% 
of the protection. It would be better for the user in such a case to use 
available budget to provide full conventional protection for the more important 
part of his building, and leave the rest of the work for a future date.  If the 
project includes several buildings, then the budget could be used to provide 
full protection to one or more of these buildings and leave the rest to be 
retrofitted later.



                                By the way, the wirelessestimator.com web site 
includes lots of eye-opening news regarding safety of tower workers.  Also, 
many of our readers will find the October 28, 2005 article by Mr. Curtis R. 
Stidham to be of interest. This is entitled: "Grounding for lightning 
protection systems more than just low grounding resistance".  Reference 2 of 
that article was published in the Proceedings of the 1992 International 
Aerospace and Ground Conference on Lightning and Static Electricity, Atlantic 
City, New Jersey, USA, paper no.67, 12 pages.  Copies are available upon 
request from:



                                Abdul M. Mousa, Ph.D., P. Eng., Fellow IEEE 
Co-moderator



                                Correspondence obtained from the Lightning 
Protection forum which discusses Lightning and Power Quality issues 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LightningProtection.


                               
                         
                   
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