Rating System

LEED BD+C: New Construction

Rating System Version

v2 - LEED 2.1

Inquiry

Lightning protection. This credit request is submitted under the innovation in design category and is related to lightning protection for two of the buildings in this project. This project is a military facility where mountainous terrain creates above average lightning strike conditions. It is more the norm for lightning protection to be considered as a method of protecting the building from the damages of a lightning strike. However, in this case the impact is far greater than one would expect, it extends well beyond impact to the building. The two largest of the buildings in our project each house explosive ordnance. Lightning protection is implemented on this project in a modified Faraday Cage design to prevent the lightning from reaching the building. This cage is built around a series of 25 Meter tall poles with copper wire strung between them to create a cage around the building. If the cage were not there, a lightning strike would likely set off the explosive ordnance, which would create an extensive blast circle. Within that circle very little would remain except contaminated soil. The cost to decontaminate the site and rebuild would be at least as great as the initial project cost. We believe that the owner\'s preventive cost and efforts, which are well above any relevant building code requirements to protect the site, the building and of course the occupants, warrants a LEED credit.