STEEL Driveways... lighting magnets?

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sdbob

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We are working on a facility that owns, rents, and operates very heavy earth equipment.

Thier bigger pieces of track driven equipment can easily chew up concrete executing even a near static turn, and as such this customer has placed over 10,000 square feet of large 3/4" steel plates connecting service areas, maintenance areas, and storage areas. These steel plates are laid directly on top of a thick concrete pad and welded together.

Today our customer expressed concerns regarding lighting attraction and asked for my opinion on how to mitigate any potential (pardon the pun) hazards brought on by these massive steel plates.

I was honest with him; I'm not an expert in the field, I have no experience with steel parking lots (lol), but I have an online resource with a bunch of electricians a lot smarter than myself.

What would you suggest to this owner? ...
 
Re: STEEL Driveways... lighting magnets?

I was at a job the other day where there was quite the lightning event. An 18,000 sq ft house that has lightning protection, and the property has many trees that are 'landscape' features. So to protect the trees, they installed downwires and ground rods at many of the trees. They missed one tree and guess what. That tree took a direct hit. Not only that, but the concrete driveway took a direct hit as well.

My point being that lightning does not 'look' for metallic surfaces, but surfaces of different polarity.

In all of my years, I have seen only one service struck by lightning, yet I have seen many trees and roofs and other nonconductive surfaces struck by lightning.


In my opinion - remember just my opinion -
if the metal plates are not connected to any part of the structure, I would not be too concerned, of course unless this is an area such as Florida. If it is an area where there are many lightning events, then consult a lightning expert.

Pierre
 
Re: STEEL Driveways... lighting magnets?

I can't claim to be as smart as the electricians you describe, but here's one angle.
NFPA 780 has a relatively good method to analyze whether lightning protection would be beneficial to the owner. Check it out.
Some helpful questions to ask are:
Does the building or overhangs have lightning protection?
Have they been hit by lightning before?
 
Re: STEEL Driveways... lighting magnets?

The steel doesn't "attract" lightning, that's an old wives tail. As Pierre suggests, I wouldn't be concerned.

-Hal
 
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