Lightning rod for a yurt in an open field?

[Bob Rowlands]

Grounding your yurts is a good plan.

Homes here in the U.S. are grounded, by code. I have a 10' copper rod pounded 7' into the ground and our house is fully grounded to that. In addition, it is a code here to ground the iron natural gas pipe to the copper plumbing system. All electricity is shunted to the earth. This is all code checked and there is no kinda/maybe about it. Lawsuit happy we are.

However, that said, we had a lightning strike on the roof of our house a few years ago. It literally blew a hole in the roof directly above my wife as she was taking a bath. Freaky. A couple breakers tripped off. The terminals at the upper and lower stair lights got fried.

We also have surge protectors for the computer, TVs etc. Good luck.

[UKadventurer]

Hi Bob. That sounds terrifying. I assume (and hope) your wife was physically unhurt.

There aren’t any codes in Mongolia in the countryside. There might be in the cities for apartments but there’s a lot of corruption so I’m not sure about enforcement. There are standard building practices or traditions. Gers (yurts) are everywhere but I’ve never seen any lightning systems on them. They tend to erect them in valleys away from trees. Whereas we built ours up a high valley close to forests and mountain peaks. It is very prone to storms and lightning.

The whole system wasn’t expensive. I’ve spent about US$150 on parts. So I consider it a low cost for reasonable protection against a catastrophe.

The electrician who connected us to the grid said we didn’t need lightning protection because our nearest pole has a lightning system built in. However, my research indicates it’s too far away to give us a “cone of protection”. It’s about 15-20 metres from the closest ger and lower downhill.

I’m not sure if you can see my photo from a nearby hill but if you can, you should see our location on the far right of the frame. Also, the electric line leading to us.

[Bob Rowlands]

Kath was rattled but otherwise fine. CRAACK BOOOOOM I jumped out of bed pissed wanting to kick some lightning azz. ha "WTFH!!!" lol

Beautiful country for sure. Thanks for photo.

[TSRalex]

Originally Posted by TSRalex

Systems as shown in the diagram I´ve seen in army camps & the staff areas of refugees camps.

Searched a little bit in my knowledge collection and found that - just for completing information:




Army_DeployableLightningProtection_Flyer:
https://workupload.com/file/6wbpnE9GXfH

[skihuckster]

What I've heard about lightning is that you should expect it to strike pretty much anywhere and the goal is to deflect the energy away from sensitive stuff. Lightning has to go to ground (actually, I think it actually goes ground to cloud, how crazy is that!). You can keep potentials from forming by bonding what you can, which means connecting with copper to your easiest path to ground (the ground rod, in above examples). I bond anything conductive and I cross my fingers for all the non-conductive stuff because it can't be bonded.

If you're worried about it, consult an expert in lightning protection. This forum is no substitute.

[UKadventurer]

Our LPS (lightning protection system) is operational but not quite finished. The hardest part and still not 100% satisfactory was driving the 1 metre long grounding rods into the ground. I was able to get one of them 80-90cm into the earth. We live on clay and rock soil. Loads of rocks. You're guaranteed to hit a rock within a short depth. I may need to get a long concrete drill bit and a hammer drill to drive a deeper hole. Then add 2 more ground rods. I wanted to spread the earth to 3 ground rods but I can't get the others in deep enough until I get better tools.

I also grounded my 2 containers with vise grips for now. I sanded the "corten" steel smooth down to bare metal before I clamped the grounding wires.

On my next trip to the city, I'll get some better copper clamps so I can have my vise grips back.



Some wider views of the LPS. Ideally the "air terminals" would be on extension rods to raise them another metre or so. I'll see if they are available.

[TSRalex]

Originally Posted by UKadventurer

Our LPS (lightning protection system) is operational.....

Yes - it looks like - - but I´m crossing the fingers for you, that you´ll never need it, because a lightning, so close to an tent construction, will make terrible noise and you can expect an great shock for all people & animals in the Yurt....

[Jafo]

I had the same problem at camp. I ended up running multiple rods at various lengths and then bonding them together with copper. It was the best I could do.

[Bob Rowlands]

Nice place UK. Thanks for the info about grounding, gents.

[UKadventurer]

Originally Posted by TSRalex

Yes - it looks like - - but I´m crossing the fingers for you, that you´ll never need it, because a lightning, so close to an tent construction, will make terrible noise and you can expect an great shock for all people & animals in the Yurt....

I've been close to lightning strikes already. It's very, very scary. There's no warning. Just a very loud explosion. Once was on the motorway in the UK. The other was recently. My cat was terrified (so was I) and her heart was beating like crazy. I could feel it next to my leg.

@Jafo yes, the soil is frustrating. Just digging small holes with manual tools is extremely difficult. It's not bedrock, it's just rocky soil mixed with clay. I really need some better power tools. However, I can't justify a tool only for a single job. It needs to be generally useful for many purposes. A hammer/demolition drill is probably something I could use for many purposes. The long concrete drill bit is something I can use too.

I really want to have 3 grounding rods to have the best earthing of my system.