Cantenary Lightning protection design

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Huntxtrm

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Cleburne
I have been approached to do some lightning protection on some small laydown tanks. There is no engineering, no drawing, no nothing. I will have to design it, if I do it. The only lighting protection that I have ever done (once), was a cantenary system. We basically ran bare 2/0 underground loop, then up the poles to airterminals, then pole to pole in a loop. We did it by an engineered drawing. Any ideas on design? We basically went 5' min off of the tanks with the overheads, and 3' deep on the ring, and 1/3 in the ground on the poles. Is this too much liability for a small industrial [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]electrical [COLOR=blue !important]contractor[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR], without engineering? Or, caveat the proposal to eliminate liability, and install it?
 
ron said:
There are loads of manufacturers that will do the design for you if you buy the stuff from them.

This is somewhat of a specialized project, where it is sometimes required to provide a Master Label certificate of the system, which would require a certified person / company to do it.
http://ul.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/LightningProtection_Client_4S_us_3.pdf
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The company that wants it, is not requiring any certification. But I want to CMA. Lightning is something you can prepare for, but not prevent. It seems to sometimes have a mind of its own. I know of a company that installs this stuff all the time, no certs for it. Just an industrial oilfield electrical contractor. But, I am a little leary of it. But, on the other hand, if you want to learn it. You have to start somewhere. I just want to make sure it is done right, and everything is covered on my end.
 
Huntxtrm said:
The company that wants it, is not requiring any certification. But I want to CMA. Lightning is something you can prepare for, but not prevent. It seems to sometimes have a mind of its own. I know of a company that installs this stuff all the time, no certs for it. Just an industrial oilfield electrical contractor. But, I am a little leary of it. But, on the other hand, if you want to learn it. You have to start somewhere. I just want to make sure it is done right, and everything is covered on my end.
Click to expand...

If the company is not supplying any design information but is just asking you to do whatever is right, I do not see any practical way that you can disclaim liability if anything goes wrong. I would either not take the job or bid to include your expenses to hire professional design.
 
GoldDigger said:
If the company is not supplying any design information but is just asking you to do whatever is right, I do not see any practical way that you can disclaim liability if anything goes wrong. I would either not take the job or bid to include your expenses to hire professional design.
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I agree.
 
That's what I'm leaning towards. Professional design. Liability is their job, I'm just an electrician. LOL That's what I always tell an EE friend of mine. He went to college, so he can take the wrap!
 
You could do a design/ build and hire the EE. As long as the EE does the EE you should be fine.
 
We have always had to have ours UL listed. A UL inspector had to fly in and inspect it, and there were only two inspectors in our region. Granted they were Government jobs and they were designed by their EE contractors.
 
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