Do all commercial buildings need lightning protection? Do we need to treat steel framed buildings the same way that we treat concrete framed buildings?
In NFPA 780 – 2011 edition, Annex L is titled Lightning Risk Assessment, and should give most of the information you are requiring. This appendix gives a method for calculating the effective area of a structure from a lightning viewpoint, and shows a U.S. map of lightning frequency to rate the locale. Once you have determined mathematically the likelihood of a lightning strike for that particular structure in that area, there are a number of factors related to the potential loss included. Loss concerns include environment, construction type, contents, occupancy, and consequence. You will then have a mathematical value that indicates whether lightning protection should be required or may be optional. NFPA 780 has a copyright, so we make the entire document available at our cost of $40.00 each, click here . You may have access to a full set of fire codes through a company membership with NFPA. Member companies who can assist you locally with product needs are located on this site as well
