Lightning protection for roof-mounted solar cell using two masts

Abstract

Houses invested in roof-mounted solar cell need protection from direct lightning. This paper presents the application of numerical method in designing the height and location of masts based on protection angle method according to international standard IEC 62305. An isolated external lightning protection system using two masts is designed. The protected zone which is in the volume according to the protection angle method, depends on the protection level, the rolling sphere radius and the height of the masts which must be less than the rolling sphere radius defined in IEC standard. Furthermore, separation distance between the protected house and mast depends on the height of the mast. This paper develops a program using heuristic numerical method to design masts to protect a house with roof-mounted solar cell. Input data such as the house dimensions and the lightning protection class should be provided. This program is tested on houses with different dimensions. The height and location of two masts are obtained. The numerical results show that this program can be used effectively and correctly.