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Lightning Protection Systems

“Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky” 1816 Benjamin West

 

Benjamin Franklin conducted his famous experiment with lightning on June 10, 1752.

He used a kite and a key to demonstrate that lightning was a form of electricity.

This experiment marked an important milestone in understanding the nature of electricity

and laid the foundation for the development of lightning rods and other lightning protection systems.

 

Seasonal extreme weather patterns in the United States, resulting in damages to education facilities and delays in outdoor athletic events — track meets; lacrosse games, swimming pool closures and the like — inspire a revisit of the relevant standards for the systems that contribute to safety from injury and physical damage to buildings: NFPA 780 Standard for the Installation of Lightning Protection Systems

FREE ACCESS

To paraphrase the NFPA 780 prospectus:

  • This document shall cover traditional lightning protection system installation requirements for the following:
       (1) Ordinary structures
       (2) Miscellaneous structures and special occupancies
       (3) Heavy-duty stacks
       (4) Structures containing flammable vapors, flammable gases, or liquids with flammable vapors
       (5) Structures housing explosive materials
       (6) Wind turbines
       (7) Watercraft
       (8) Airfield lighting circuits
       (9) Solar arrays
  • This document shall address lightning protection of the structure but not the equipment or installation requirements for electric generating, transmission, and distribution systems except as given in Chapter 9 and Chapter 12.

(Electric generating facilities whose primary purpose is to generate electric power are excluded from this standard with regard to generation, transmission, and distribution of power.  Most electrical utilities have standards covering the protection of their facilities and equipment. Installations not directly related to those areas and structures housing such installations can be protected against lightning by the provisions of this standard.)

  • This document shall not cover lightning protection system installation requirements for early streamer emission systems or charge dissipation systems.

“Down conductors” must be at least #2 AWG copper (0 AWG aluminum) for Class I materials in structures less than 75-ft in height

“Down conductors: must be at least 00 AWG copper (0000 AWG aluminum) for Class II Materials in structures greater than 75-ft in height.

Related grounding and bonding  requirements appears in Chapters 2 and Chapter 3 of NFPA 70 National Electrical Code.  This standard does not establish evacuation criteria.  

The current edition is dated 2023 and, from the transcripts, you can observe concern about solar power and early emission streamer technologies tracking through the committee decision making.  Education communities have significant activity in wide-open spaces; hence our attention to technical specifics.

2023 Public Input Report

2023 Public Comment Report

Public input on the 2026 revision is receivable until 1 June 2023.

We always encourage our colleagues to key in their own ideas into the NFPA public input facility (CLICK HERE).   We maintain NFPA 780 on our Power colloquia which collaborates with IEEE four times monthly in European and American time zones.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

Lightning flash density – 12 hourly averages over the year (NASA OTD/LIS) This shows that lightning is much more frequent in summer than in winter, and from noon to midnight compared to midnight to noon.

Issue: [14-105]

Category: Electrical, Telecommunication, Public Safety, Risk Management

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jim Harvey, Kane Howard

More

Installing lightning protection system for your facility in 3 Steps (Surge Protection)

IEEE Education & Healthcare Facility Electrotechnology

Readings: The “30-30” Rule for Outdoor Athletic Events Lightning Hazard

Churches and chapels are more susceptible to lightning damage due to their height and design. Consider:

Height: Taller structures are more likely to be struck by lightning because they are closer to the cloud base where lightning originates.

Location: If a church or chapel is situated in an area with frequent thunderstorms, it will have a higher likelihood of being struck by lightning.

Construction Materials: The materials used in the construction of the building can affect its vulnerability. Metal structures, for instance, can conduct lightning strikes more readily than non-metallic materials.

Proximity to Other Structures: If the church or chapel is located near other taller structures like trees, utility poles, or buildings, it could increase the chances of lightning seeking a path through these objects before reaching the building.

Lightning Protection Systems: Installing lightning rods and other lightning protection systems can help to divert lightning strikes away from the structure, reducing the risk of damage.

Maintenance: Regular maintenance of lightning protection systems is essential to ensure their effectiveness. Neglecting maintenance could result in increased susceptibility to lightning damage.

Historical Significance: Older buildings might lack modern lightning protection systems, making them more vulnerable to lightning strikes.

The risk can be mitigated by proper design, installation of lightning protection systems, and regular maintenance. 

Readings: The “30-30” Rule for Outdoor Athletic Events Lightning Hazard

Thunderstorm | Shelter (Building: 30/30 Rule)

The standards for delaying outdoor sports due to lightning are typically set by governing bodies such as sports leagues, associations, or organizations, as well as local weather authorities. These standards may vary depending on the specific sport, location, and level of play. However, some common guidelines for delaying outdoor sports due to lightning include:

  1. Lightning Detection Systems: Many sports facilities are equipped with lightning detection systems that can track lightning activity in the area. These systems use sensors to detect lightning strikes and provide real-time information on the proximity and severity of the lightning threat. When lightning is detected within a certain radius of the sports facility, it can trigger a delay or suspension of outdoor sports activities.
  2. Lightning Distance and Time Rules: A common rule of thumb used in outdoor sports is the “30-30” rule, which states that if the time between seeing lightning and hearing thunder is less than 30 seconds, outdoor activities should be suspended, and participants should seek shelter. The idea is that lightning can strike even when it is not raining, and thunder can indicate the proximity of lightning. Once the thunder is heard within 30 seconds of seeing lightning, the delay or suspension should be implemented.
  3. Local Weather Authority Guidelines: Local weather authorities, such as the National Weather Service in the United States, may issue severe weather warnings that include lightning information. Sports organizations may follow these guidelines and suspend outdoor sports activities when severe weather warnings, including lightning, are issued for the area.
  4. Sports-Specific Guidelines: Some sports may have specific guidelines for lightning delays or suspensions. For example, golf often follows a “Play Suspended” policy, where play is halted immediately when a siren or horn is sounded, and players are required to leave the course and seek shelter. Other sports may have specific rules regarding how long a delay should last, how players should be informed, and when play can resume.

It’s important to note that safety should always be the top priority when it comes to lightning and outdoor sports. Following established guidelines and seeking shelter when lightning is detected or severe weather warnings are issued can help protect participants from the dangers of lightning strikes.

National Weather Service
NCAA Guideline: Lightning Safety
Noteworthy: NFPA titles such as NFPA 780 and NFPA 70 Article 242 deal largely with wiring safety, informed by assuring a low-resistance path to earth (ground)

There are various lightning detection and monitoring devices available on the market that can help you stay safe during thunderstorms. Some of these devices can track the distance of lightning strikes and alert you when lightning is detected within a certain radius of your location. Some devices can also provide real-time updates on lightning strikes in your area, allowing you to make informed decisions about when to seek shelter.

Examples of such devices include personal lightning detectors, lightning alert systems, and weather stations that have lightning detection capabilities. It is important to note that these devices should not be solely relied upon for lightning safety and should be used in conjunction with other safety measures, such as seeking shelter indoors and avoiding open areas during thunderstorms.

Track & Field

Aphrodite and Hermes, god of sport

Recreational sports, athletic competition, and the facilities that support it, are one of the most visible activities in any school, college or university in any nation.  Arguably, these activities resemble religious belief and practice.   Enterprises of this kind have the same ambition for safety and sustainability at the same scale as the academic and healthcare enterprises.  

According to IBISWorld Market Research, Sports Stadium Construction was a $6.1 billion market in 2014, Athletic & Sporting Goods Manufacturing was a $9.2 billion market in 2015, with participation in sports increasing 19.3 percent by 2019 — much of that originating in school, college and university sports and recreation programs.  We refer you to more up to date information in the link below:

Sports & Athletic Field Construction Industry in the US – Market Research Report

Today at the usual time we will update our understanding of the physical support systems for the track and field activity listed below:

  1. Sprinting: Races over short distances, typically 100m, 200m, and 400m.
  2. Middle-distance running: Races covering distances between sprinting and long-distance running, such as 800m and 1500m.
  3. Long-distance running: Races over longer distances, including 3000m, 5000m, 10,000m, and marathons.
  4. Hurdling: Races where athletes jump over hurdles at set distances, such as 110m hurdles (for men) and 100m hurdles (for women).
  5. Steeplechase: A long-distance race that includes hurdles and a water jump.
  6. Racewalking: A form of walking competition where athletes race over various distances while maintaining contact with the ground.
  7. Relays: Team races where athletes take turns running a specified distance before passing a baton to the next runner. Common relay distances include 4x100m and 4x400m.
  8. High jump: Athletes attempt to jump over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without knocking it down.
  9. Pole vault: Athletes use a pole to vault themselves over a high bar.
  10. Long jump: Athletes sprint down a runway and jump as far as possible into a sandpit.
  11. Triple jump: Athletes perform a hop, step, and jump sequence into a sandpit, with distances measured from the takeoff board to the nearest mark made in the sand by any part of the body.
  12. Shot put: Athletes throw a heavy metal ball for distance.
  13. Discus throw: Athletes throw a discus, a heavy circular object, for distance.
  14. Javelin throw: Athletes throw a javelin, a spear-like object, for distance.
  15. Hammer throw: Athletes throw a heavy metal ball attached to a wire and handle for distance.
  16. Decathlon (men) / Heptathlon (women): Multi-event competitions where athletes compete in ten (decathlon) or seven (heptathlon) different track and field events, with points awarded for performance in each event.

Open to everyone.  Log in with the credentials at the upper right of our home page.

Issue: [19-46]

Category: Athletics and Recreation, International,

Contact: Mike Anthony, Jack Janveja, Christine Fischer

More

Storm Shelters

Committee Action Hearings on the Group A tranche of titles, some of which interact structural elements at risk in natural disasters will be heard in Orlando, April 7-16.

“Landscape between Storms” 1841 Auguste Renoir

 

When is it ever NOT storm season somewhere in the United States; with several hundred schools, colleges and universities in the path of them? Hurricanes also spawn tornadoes. This title sets the standard of care for safety, resilience and recovery when education community structures are used for shelter and recovery.  The most recently published edition of the joint work results of the International Code Council and the ASCE Structural Engineering Institute SEI-7 is linked below:

2020 ICC/NSSA 500 Standard for the Design and Construction of Storm Shelters.

Given the historic tornados in the American Midwest this weekend, its relevance is plain.  From the project prospectus:

The objective of this Standard is to provide technical design and performance criteria that will facilitate and promote the design, construction, and installation of safe, reliable, and economical storm shelters to protect the public. It is intended that this Standard be used by design professionals; storm shelter designers, manufacturers, and constructors; building officials; and emergency management personnel and government officials to ensure that storm shelters provide a consistently high level of protection to the sheltered public.

This project runs roughly in tandem with the ASCE Structural Engineering Institute SEI-17 which has recently updated its content management system and presented challenges to anyone who attempts to find the content where it used to be before the website overhaul.    In the intervening time, we direct stakeholders to the link to actual text (above) and remind education facility managers and their architectural/engineering consultants that the ICC Code Development process is open to everyone.

The ICC receives public response to proposed changes to titles in its catalog at the link below:

Standards Public Forms

2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE

You are encouraged to communicate with Kimberly Paarlberg (kpaarlberg@iccsafe.org) for detailed, up to the moment information.  When the content is curated by ICC staff it is made available at the link below:

ICC cdpACCESS

We maintain this title on the agenda of our periodic Disaster colloquia which approach this title from the point of view of education community facility managers who collaborate with structual engineers, architects and emergency management functionaries..   See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting, open to everyone.

Readings:

FEMA: Highlights of ICC 500-2020

ICC 500-2020 Standard and Commentary: ICC/NSSA Design and Construction of Storm Shelters

IEEE: City Geospatial Dashboard: IoT and Big Data Analytics for Geospatial Solutions Provider in Disaster Management

 

Asparagus Officinalis

Standards Indiana

Indiana

 

Gallery: Dance

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On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring

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Spring Equinox

The Earth’s precession is a slow, cyclical motion of the rotational axis that causes the position of the celestial poles to change over time. This motion is caused by the gravitational influence of the Moon and Sun on the Earth’s equatorial bulge, and it has a period of about 26,000 years.

Over astronomical time, the Earth’s precession has caused a number of changes in the position of the stars and constellations in the sky. For example, due to precession, the position of the North Star, or Polaris, has shifted over time, and in ancient times, other stars, such as Thuban, were used as celestial markers for navigation. Additionally, precession can cause changes in the length and timing of the seasons over long timescales.

The Earth’s precession is affected by a number of factors, including the gravitational pull of other planets, the shape of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, and the distribution of mass within the Earth itself. These factors can cause slight variations in the rate and direction of precession over time.

Overall, while the effects of precession on the Earth’s rotation and position in the sky are not easily observable on human timescales, they are an important component of the Earth’s long-term astronomical behavior.

Gallery: Other Ways of Knowing Climate Change

Agriculture

“Harvest Rest” | George Cole

One characteristic of the “customer experience” of school children, dormitory residents, patients in university-affiliated hospitals and attendees of large athletic events is the quality of food.  School districts and large research universities are responsible for hundreds of food service enterprises for communities that are sensitive to various points along the food supply chain.

The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) is one of the first names in standards setting for the technology and management of the major components of the global food supply chain.   It has organized its ANSI-accredited standards setting enterprise into about 200 technical committees developing 260-odd consensus documents*.   It throws off a fairly steady stream of public commenting opportunities; many of them relevant to agricultural equipment manufacturers (i.e, the Producer interest where the most money is) but enough of them relevant to consumers (i.e. the User interest where the least money is) and agricultural economics academic programs that we follow the growth of its best practice bibliography.

A few of the ASABE consensus documents that may be of interest to faculty and students in agricultural and environmental science studies are listed below:

  • Safety for Farmstead Equipment
  • Safety Color Code for Educational and Training Laboratories
  • Recommended Methods for Measurement and Testing of LED Products for Plant Growth and Development
  • Distributed Ledger Technology applications to the global food supply chain

The ASABE bibliography is dominated by product-related standards; a tendency we see in many business models of standards setting organizations because of the influence of global industrial conglomerates who can bury the cost of their participation into a sold product.  Our primary interest lies in the movement of interoperability standards — much more difficult — as discussed in our ABOUT.

The home page for the ASABEs standards setting enterprise is linked below:

ASABE Standards Development

As of this posting we find no live consultation notices for interoperability standards relevant to educational settlements.  Sometimes you can find them ‘more or less concurrently’ posted at the linked below:

ANSI Standards Action

We always encourage our colleagues to participate directly in the ASABE standards development process.  Students are especially welcomed into the ASABE Community.  Jean Walsh (walsh@asabe.org) and Scott Cederquist (cedarq@asabe.org) are listed as contacts.

 

Category: Food

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jack Janveja, Richard Robben

More

 

DRINKING, WASTEWATER & STORMWATER SYSTEMS

“Fille romaine à la fontaine” 1875 Léon Bonnat

Civilization has historically flourished around rivers and major waterways.  Mesopotamia, the so-called cradle of civilization, was situated between the major rivers Tigris and Euphrates; the ancient society of the Egyptians depended entirely upon the Nile. Rome was also founded on the banks of the Italian river Tiber. Large metropolises like Rotterdam, London, Montreal, Paris, New York City, Buenos Aires, Shanghai, Tokyo, Chicago, and Hong Kong owe their success in part to their easy accessibility via water and the resultant expansion of trade. Islands with safe water ports, like Singapore, have flourished for the same reason. In places such as North Africa and the Middle East, where water is more scarce, access to clean drinking water was and is a major factor in human development.*

With this perspective, and our own “home waters” situated in the Great Lakes, we are attentive to water management standardization activity administered by International Organization Standardization Technical Committee 224 (ISO TC/224).  The scope of the committee is multidimensional; as described in the business plan linked below:

BUSINESS PLAN ISO/TC 224

 

Water-related management standards define a very active space; arguably, as fast-moving a space as electrotechnology.   The ISO TC/224 is a fairly well accomplished committee with at least 16 consensus products emerging from a 34 nations led by Association Française de Normalisation (@AFNOR) as the global Secretariat and 34 participating nations.   The American Water Works Association is ANSI’s US Technical Advisory Group administrator to the ISO.

We do not advocate the user interest in this standard at the moment but encourage educational institutions with resident expertise — either on the business side or academic side of US educational institutions — to participate in it.   You are encouraged to communicate directly with Paul Olson at AWWA, 6666 W. Quincy Avenue, Denver, CO 80235, Phone: (303) 347-6178, Email: polson@awwa.org.

The work products of TC 224 (and ISO 147 and  ISO TC 282) are also on the standing agendas of our Water, Global and Bucolia colloquia.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting, open to everyone.

Issue: [13-163]

Category: Global, Water

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Christine Fischer, Jack Janveja. Richard Robben, Larry Spielvogel

Standing Agenda / Water

Qualität der Wasserversorgung

 

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