Howar the following is a list of UL standards for wire and cable. To get all of the details you have to be a member of UL.


www.ul.com/wire/standards.html

UL 96
Publication Date: May 12, 2005
Title: UL Standard for Safety Lightning Protection Components

UL 96 defines the requirements of lightning protection components for use in the installation of complete systems of lightning protection on buildings and structures.

When properly installed, these components provide a safe and effective path to/ from ground for the electrical energy in a lightning strike.

The external use on housing suggests the requirement for labeling every ten feet. (At least one label on the cable at every installation.)

When I was a kid of perhaps 12 or 13, I clearly remember carefully examining the bare stranded copper conductor coming down the side of my grandmother's ranch style home and the ground bar and wondering just how the electrical energy behind the lightning bolt could move along that "small in comparison" conductor.

Best regards,
Peter J. Stewart-Hay
Principal
Stewart-Hay Associates
www.Stewart-Hay.com

I could not find it but had a feeling that it was something like this. Most often if you go behind your house or where your electic meter is located you will find a copper wire, usually a solid conductor leading from the panel box to a rod driven into the ground. In my part of the country you don't see a lot of lightning rods on houses.
thanks for the clarification.

rb

Hi Spectre,

I thought I would dig around a bit at lunchtime today and I came across the specification.

As far as not seeing lightning rods on houses, just think of all the big storms you missed as a kid by not growing up on the great plains. When we had storms in the spring, summer and fall, we really had huge electrical storms that would just light up the whole sky at night. I used to love them as a kid and from inside I would watch them coming towards us in the night.

The closest strike I ever saw was into an electrical distribution grid about 50 feet from my parents car while we were driving by. That was more than close enough for me.

Best personal regards,
Peter J. Stewart-Hay
Principal
Stewart-Hay Associates
www.Stewart-Hay.com

We lived a couple of years in MN. Also in late 60's lived near Reston, Va. Every evening in summer we had storms from hell. We lived in this tiny house on a hill. The storms were so bad that we went to the mall at Tysons Corner to avoid the storm. Once lightning stuck so close that the phone rang and lights came on in the middle of the night. scary.

rb