Lightning Protection of 0-10v dimming Smart House

[Electrikhan]

What is the proper procedure for pathing conductors around building steel used as lightning conductors? I will be the electrician for the job not the lighting
protection.

The house was framed with excessive structural steel with many diagonal bracing steel beams in the walls then wood framed around that to form the actual building. Exterior walls have less than an inch clearance around the steel for pathing branch circuit conductors.

Every lighting circuit is using a 0-10v dimming system with many having remote hidden drivers and then proprietary wiring between the fixture and the driver. I plan on using NM-B-PCS from the lighting control panels to the lights and/or drivers. Roughly 180 load wires from 4 Lutron Homeworks panels.

I bought and read the NFPA 780 Lightning Protection but because they do not have an actual electrical engineer it seems I am left to sort this myself or at least attempt to better my understanding of these types of systems cross interacting.

My main questions are:
What clearance do I need around the steel if any for my NM-B-PCS
Does a surge protection device constitute the bonding of the electrical wire for lightning potential bond calculations
How do I achieve proper surge protection or equipotential for electrically isolated 0-10v dimming conductors within the NM-B-PCS
If the building steel is the lighting conductor and the LPS is only supposed to bond to connect to the common bonding point once NFPA 780 4.14.5. Do I need to bond the steel additionally to my electrical service to meet 250.104(C) creating parallel lightning paths or is the lightning bond sufficient alone.


Thanks in advance
-A guy trying to not burn a house down.

 

[curt swartz]

I know nothing about lightning protection about wiring inside of building. Not a thing in my area.

I'm more curious about the controls. Are you the designer? Is it really 0-10? Are you sure these are not Lutron drivers connected to the digital buss? It's the only way I would install a large system like this. Wiring is completely different.

 

[Electrikhan]

I know nothing about lightening protection about wiring inside of building. Not a thing in my area.

I'm more curious about the controls. Are you the designer? Is it really 0-10? Are you sure these are not Lutron drivers connected to the digital buss? It's the only way I would install a large system like this. Wiring is completely different.

No I am not the designer just the wiring electrician the job hasn't quite started yet but they lighting fixtures have already been specified and approved. The fixtures themselves are not Lutron though there was an option for the Lutron driver and the digital buss dali system, that was no chosen instead they opted for the 0-10v. There is no electrical engineer for this house as usual in the residential sector in the area. So the designer just picked something they like and left the figuring out for someone else.
I have yet to use the digital drivers but I saw them in use at a seminar some years ago. Seems easy but maybe price or lack of knowledge of the system scares people away.

 

[hbiss]

From the little I do know about lightning protection, it's not usual to use building steel, especially in a residence, as a lightning conductor. Building steel would be bonded to the down conductors but not used to actually connect the electrodes to ground.

As to your question, I don't think there is any problem running your control cables next to the steel. No matter how the steel is used, a close or direct strike is going to get your equipment.

-Hal

 

[zbang]

What Hal says.
Add to that- with a direct hit, the lightning is going to go where it pleases, you can only hope it follows the downcomers (which should be as straight as possible) from the air terminals to the dirt.

"proprietary wiring"? Any chance of pulling that through smurf tube to make replacement easier?