The top end of the lightning conductor is pointed like sharp spikes and it is fixed at the highest point of the building A thick strip runs along the outer walls of the building from the top to the ground level The lower end of the strip is joined with a metal plate and buried deep in the ground near the base of the building.
Therefore having lightning conductors on your building is a safer way of protecting the building as the strike will hit the conductor rather than another point. That a lightning rod protects a building by one of two methods. First, the rod serves to prevent a charged cloud from releasing a bolt oflightning.
While I was writing we ran into the query “How does a lightning rod protect a building?”.
Lightning rod, metallic rod (usually copper) that protects a structure from lightning damage by intercepting flashes and guiding their currents into the ground. In the case of a building, the soil is used as the ground; on a ship, the water is used.
While I was reading we ran into the query “How does a lightning rod protect a house from damage?”.
A lightning rod (US, AUS) or lightning conductor is a metal rod mounted on a structure and intended to protect the structure from a lightning strike. 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.
Today, lightning protection systems are in use on thousands of buildings, homes, factories, towers, and even the Space Shuttle’s launch pad. This article will examine why lightning protection is necessary and what the systems can and cannot do. Lightning rods or ‘air terminals’ are only a small part of a complete lightning protection system.
Another popular query is “Are lightning rods adequate protection?”.
They probably do work, but maybe not as well as was once believed. Critics of 780 point out that lightning remains a largely unpredictable phenomenon and that rods merely improve your chances rather than offering guaranteed protection, as the old code assumes.
What happens when lightning strikes a house?
Without a designated path to reach ground, a lightning strike may choose to instead utilize any conductor available inside a house or building. This may include the phone, cable, or electrical lines, the water or gas pipes, or (in the case of a steel-framed building) the structure itself.
How do you wire a lightning rod to the ground?
So by placing a good conductor on top of a building, such as a lightning rod, and running a good and thick wire from that rod to the ground, lighting will naturally and safely run through the rod and wire to the ground, instead of the building structure. Same way an outlet in your home.