Lightning Alley is not just a catchy name for a street or the local bowling lanes. It's the name dubbed to a notorious region in central Florida that is in the heart of the most lightning-prone area in the entire country. And that lightning strike may come at the most inopportune time.
Not only can this force of nature cause bodily injury and severe damage to property, it also has the power to disrupt or destroy a police department's 9-1-1 communications system, which is intended to assist residents during an emergency. That's exactly what happened in the middle of one Florida storm.
When a Walmart in the city of Bushnell was relocated, the facility was donated to the county for their use. The Sumter County Sheriff's Department decided to open its new offices in this building, including housing its emergency communications there.
One serious problem was that the electrical system was built for a 1970's vintage department store, not a critical communications and public safety facility. During one lightning storm in particular, the 9-1-1 system failed, leaving county residents without police, fire or ambulance response.
Inspection of the existing electrical system showed that it was badly flawed, mainly due to improper connectors and poor bonding and grounding. The communications tower, for example, had its own independent and inadequate grounding. The emergency generators and building structure were all independently grounded, each with its own ground rod, exposing its poor design. The main grounding electrode consisted of a single galvanized steel rod from the 1970s, with very high resistance to earth.
A new system was designed and installed for under $40,000, a minimal cost considering the value of the equipment protected, and improved public safety it brought to the residents of Sumter County.
"To be effective, the entire grounding system needs to be properly designed, using listed connectors and corrosion resistant materials," said Dave Brender, National Program Manager for the Copper Development Association, CDA. "Lightning protection systems in particular must be well-grounded to work properly, and could make matters worse if they are not. Copper and its alloys are the most common materials in use for this application because they provide superior corrosion resistance and avoid oxidation problems at connections.
Copper is also easy to install and durable," Brender added.
Central Florida is not the only region in the U.S. affected by severe weather. Similar 9-1-1 and broadcast facilities are employed in areas all over the country where communications is critical and the chances for lightning strikes are quite high. Having proper copper-based grounding and bonding should be a top priority where an entire system can get crippled by lightning.
Related Stories
| Oct 15, 2014
Drones may soon assist code inspectors for construction in the UAE
The United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Labour announced that they will start using drones to help inspectors record when construction sites are breaking laws.
| Oct 15, 2014
Harvard launches ‘design-centric’ center for green buildings and cities
The impetus behind Harvard's Center for Green Buildings and Cities is what the design school’s dean, Mohsen Mostafavi, describes as a “rapidly urbanizing global economy,” in which cities are building new structures “on a massive scale.”
| Oct 15, 2014
Final touches make 432 Park Avenue tower second tallest in New York City
Concrete has been poured for the final floors of the residential high-rise at 432 Park Avenue in New York City, making it the city’s second-tallest building and the tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere.
| Oct 14, 2014
Slash energy consumption in data centers with liquid-based ‘immersive-cooling’ technology
A new technology promises to push the limits of data center energy efficiency by using liquid instead of air to cool the servers.
Sponsored | | Oct 14, 2014
3 color trends drive new commercial exterior color collections
Collectively as a society, we help create color trends, which shape our businesses, recreational facilities, healthcare centers, and civic buildings. These iconic colors are now appearing in Valspar's new color collections. SPONSORED CONTENT
| Oct 14, 2014
Get inspired with the top 10 TED talks about cities
The TED talks, none of which are longer than 20 minutes, feature speakers such as architect Moshe Safdie, Rio de Janeiro Major Eduardo Paes, and animal behaviorist Amanda Burden.
| Oct 14, 2014
Proven 6-step approach to treating historic windows
This course provides step-by-step prescriptive advice to architects, engineers, and contractors on when it makes sense to repair or rehabilitate existing windows, and when they should advise their building owner clients to consider replacement.
| Oct 14, 2014
Richard Meier unveils design for his first tower in Taiwan
Taiwan will soon have its first Richard Meier building, a 535-foot apartment tower in Taichung City, the country’s third-largest city.
| Oct 13, 2014
The mindful workplace: How employees can manage stress at the office
I have spent the last several months writing about healthy workplaces. My research lately has focused on stress—how we get stressed and ways to manage it through meditation and other mindful practices, writes HOK's Leigh Stringer.
| Oct 13, 2014
Debunking the 5 myths of health data and sustainable design
The path to more extensive use of health data in green building is blocked by certain myths that have to be debunked before such data can be successfully incorporated into the project delivery process.