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Lightning protection for metal roofed residential housing in the UK?

Peter Brooks

In the US over the past 5 years there has been a trend to repair residential roofs with metal in place of shingles.

Here in Florida there does not appear to be any rules concerning grounding of residential houses with metal roofs, to provide lightning protection.

Lightning protection is used however on commercial building like hospitals.

Recent Insurance data for 2023 indicates that Florida leads the US in lightning related claims with over 6,000.

2023 Lightning claims for the whole of the US reached 1.2 billion dollars.

Do metal roofed residential housing have to be grounded? 

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    Peter Brooks said:
    Do metal roofed residential housing have to be grounded? 

    If we do that in the UK, and other countries that use EN 62305 or IEC 62305, it should be through the lightning protection system (LPS) conductors, not the electrical installation earthing. However, there is another approach, where air terminators of the LPS can provide a zone of protection for the roof itself - meaning that the roof could be connected to the either the LPS, or the electrical installation earthing system, or both. THe air terminator zone of protection is used for antennas too.

    I believe the decision in the UK would not be "residential vs non-residential", but chiefly on height (or adjacency to other tall structures), as we have a very low ceraunic level.

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  • 0
    Peter Brooks said:
    Do metal roofed residential housing have to be grounded? 

    If we do that in the UK, and other countries that use EN 62305 or IEC 62305, it should be through the lightning protection system (LPS) conductors, not the electrical installation earthing. However, there is another approach, where air terminators of the LPS can provide a zone of protection for the roof itself - meaning that the roof could be connected to the either the LPS, or the electrical installation earthing system, or both. THe air terminator zone of protection is used for antennas too.

    I believe the decision in the UK would not be "residential vs non-residential", but chiefly on height (or adjacency to other tall structures), as we have a very low ceraunic level.

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