What is the weakest color of lightning?

Grounding and Lightning Protection

Lightning and related static discharge is the number one cause of sudden, unexpected failures in PV systems. Lightning does not have to strike directly to cause damage to sensitive electronic equipment, such as inverters, controls, radios and entertainment equipment. It can be miles away and invisible, and still induce high voltage surges in wiring, especially in long lines. Fortunately, almost all cases of lightning damage can be prevented by proper system grounding. Owners of independent power systems do not have grounding supplied by the utility company, and often overlook it until it is too late.

My own customers have reported damage to inverters, charge controllers, DC refrigerators, fluorescent light ballasts, TVs, pumps, and (rarely) photovoltaic panels. These damages cost many thousands of dollars, and ALL reports were from owner-installed systems that were NOT GROUNDED.

GROUNDING means connecting part of your system structure and/or wiring electrically to the earth. During lightning storms, the clouds build up a static electric charge. This causes accumulation of the opposite charge in objects on the ground. Objects that are INSULATED from the earth tend to accumulate the charge more strongly than the surrounding earth. If the potential difference (voltage) between sky and the object is great enough, lightning will jump the gap.

Grounding your system does four things:

• It drains off accumulated charges so that lightning is NOT HIGHLY ATTRACTED to your system.
• If lightning does strike, or if a high charge does build up, your ground connection provides a safe path for discharge directly to the earth rather than through your wiring.
• It reduces shock hazard from the higher voltage (AC) parts of your system, and
• Reduces electrical hum and radio caused by inverters, motors, fluorescent lights and other devices, and not least

GROUNDING IS REQUIRED by the NATIONAL ELECTRICAL CODE (NEC)(r). Photovoltaic systems are included in Article 690 of the Code. Low voltage systems are NOT exempt from grounding requirements or from the NEC.

To achieve effective grounding Follow These Guidelines:

Install a Proper Grounding System:

Minimal grounding is provided by a copper-plated ground rod, usually 8 ft. long, driven into the earth. This is a minimum procedure in an area where the ground is moist (electrically conductive). Where the ground may be dry, especially sandy, or where lightning may be particularly severe, more rods should be installed, at least 10 feet apart. Connect or “bond” all ground rods together via bare copper wire (#6 or larger, see the NEC) and bury the wire. Use only approved clamps to connect wire to rods. If your photovoltaic array is some distance from the house, drive ground rod(s) near it, and bury bare wire in the trench with the power lines.

Metal water pipes that are buried in the ground are also good to ground to. Purchase connectors approved for the purpose, and connect ONLY to cold water pipes, NEVER to hot water or gas pipes. Beware of plastic fittings — bypass them with copper wire. Iron well casings are super ground rods. Drill and tap a hole in the casing to get a good bolted connection. If you connect to more than one grounded object (the more the better) it is essential to electrically bond (wire) them to each other. Connections made in or near the ground are prone to corrosion, so use proper bronze or copper connectors. Your ground system is only as good as its weakest electrical connections.

If your site is rocky and you cannot drive ground rods deeply, bury (as much as feasible) at least 150 feet of bare copper wire. Several pieces radiating outward is best. Try to bury them in areas that tend to be moist. If you are in a lightning-prone area, bury several hundred feet if you can. The idea is to make as much electrical contact with the earth as you can, over the broadest area feasible, preferably contacting moist soil.

You can save money by purchasing used copper wire (not aluminum) from a scrap metal dealer, and stripping off the insulation (use copper “split bolts” or crimped splices to tie odd pieces together. If you need to run any power wiring over a distance of 30 feet or more, and are in a high-lightning, dry or rocky area, run the wires in metal conduit and bond the conduit to your grounding system.

What to Connect to Your Ground System:

GROUND THE METALLIC FRAMEWORK of your PV array. (If your framework is wood, metalically bond the module frames together, and wire to ground.) Be sure to bolt your ground wires solidly to the metal so it will not come loose, and inspect it periodically. Also ground antenna masts and wind generator towers.

GROUND THE NEGATIVE SIDE OF YOUR POWER SYSTEM, but FIRST make the following test for leakage to ground: Obtain a common “multi-tester”. Set it on the highest “milliamp” scale. Place the negative probe on battery neg. and the positive probe on your ground system. No reading? Good. Now switch it down to the lowest milli- or microamp scale and try again. If you get only a few microamps, or zero, THEN GROUND YOUR BATTERY NEGATIVE. If you DID read leakage to ground, check your system for something on the positive side that may be contacting earth somehow. (If you read a few microamps to ground, it is probably your meter detecting radio station signals.)

Connect your DC negative to ground ONLY IN ONE PLACE, at a negative battery connection or other main negative junction nearby (at a disconnect switch or inverter, for instance. Do NOT ground negative at the array or at any other points.

GROUND YOUR AC GENERATOR AND INVERTER FRAMES, and AC neutral wires and conduits in the manner conventional for all AC systems. This protects from shock hazard as well as lightning damage.

PV ARRAY WIRING should be done with minimum lengths of wire, tucked into the metal framework, then run through metal conduit. Positive and negative wires should be run together wherever possible, rather than being some distance apart. This will minimize induction of lightning surges. Bury long outdoor wire runs instead of running them overhead. Place them in grounded metal conduit if you feel you need maximum protection.

SURGE PROTECTION DEVICES bypass the high voltages induced by lightning. They are recommended for additional protection in lightning-prone areas or where good grounding is not feasible (such as on a dry rocky mountain top), especially if long lines are being run to an array, pump, antenna, or between buildings. Surge protectors must be special for low voltage systems, so contact your PV dealer.

SAFETY FIRST. If you are uncertain of your ability to wire your system properly, HIRE AN ELECTRICIAN!

At Unbound Solar, we will be happy to help find the products that are right for you. For pricing and product information give us a call. We’ll also answer any questions you might have about your system. 1-800-472-1142

What’s the weakest lightning color?

The color of the bolt depends on how hot it is; the hotter the lightning, the closer the color will be to the end of the spectrum. The color spectrum in this case start with infared which is red and the coolest up to ultraviolet which appears violet and is the hottest.

What is the rarest lightning color?

Perhaps the strangest colors reported are instances of pink or green lightning seen during snowstorms. The phenomenon, known as”thundersnow”, is rare. The unique sky color is caused as snowflakes refract and reflect the white bolt in a unique way.

Does purple lightning exist?

If you see a lightning bolt it can look blue, maybe purple. There’s some colors that are more rare. Like you said, maybe snow lightning can look a little bit more green. But some reddish or orange or yellow lightning tends to be associated with volcanoes, which I know you’re just really excited to talk about today.

Is blue lightning hotter?

Lightning also has different temperatures and hence different colors, not unlike how astronomers grade the spectral temperatures of stars using the Henry Draper Catalog (in the Kelvin temperature scale). The hotter the star (or lightning in this case) the closer to blue or white it will be.

Is pink lightning real?

When lightning strikes, different particles will scatter this light and cause the strike to appear as blue, pink, purple, white or even a brown-ish tint. You’ll sometimes see more pinks or greens during snowstorms, as snowflakes tend to bend the light more.

Why can lightning be different colors?

Is Rainbow lightning real?

A little bit of rain rolling down catching those last rays producing a half rainbow and of course, lightning hitting the tallest thing on the beach.» According to Live Science, lightning flashing near a rainbow is very rare.

What is the rarest lightning?

ball lightning, also called globe lightning, a rare aerial phenomenon in the form of a luminous sphere that is generally several centimetres in diameter. It usually occurs near the ground during thunderstorms, in close association with cloud-to-ground lightning.

Is Black lightning a real thing?

However, the weather phenomenon referred to as «dark lightning» occurs much less frequently. According to NASA, dark lighting is a mostly invisible burst of energy inside of thunderstorms that fills the sky with gamma rays. It is widely considered the most energetic radiation produced naturally on Earth.

Does dark lightning exist?

Dark lightning is the most energetic radiation produced naturally on Earth, but was unknown before 1991. While scientists now know that dark lightning naturally occurs in thunderstorms, they do not know how frequently these flashes take place or whether visible lightning always accompanies them.

Does red lightning exist?

Red lightning, also known as a «sprite», is an intriguing weather phenomenon associated with certain very intense thunderstorms. While an ordinary lightning flash extends downward from the clouds to the ground, a sprite shoots way up into the upper reaches of the atmosphere.

What color lightning is the hottest?

The color of the bolt depends on how hot it is; the hotter the lightning, the closer the color will be to the end of the spectrum. The color spectrum in this case start with infared which is red and the coolest up to ultraviolet which appears violet and is the hottest.

Does silent lightning exist?

Heat lightning, also known as silent lightning, summer lightning, or dry lightning (not to be confused with dry thunderstorms, which are also often called dry lightning), is a misnomer used for the faint flashes of lightning on the horizon or other clouds from distant thunderstorms that do not appear to have .

What color is heat lightning?

A related term, heat lightning, is any lightning (IC or CG) or lightning-induced illumination that is too far away for the thunder to be heard. It may have reddish (“heat”) color, like sunsets, because of scattering of blue light.

What is the strongest lightning?

Whereas negative lightning produces 300 million volts and 30,000 amps, positive lightning can produce nearly a billion volts and 300,000 amps. It’s rarer, but it’s also more deadly.

What color is Force lightning?

Force lightning is a dark side ability used to torture, disfigure, and even kill one’s victims. Blue in color, Sith shoot Force lightning from their hands by calling on their hatred and aggressive feelings.

What is invisible lightning?

Cloud-to-Ground (CG) Lightning. In CG lightning, a channel of negative charge, called a stepped leader, will zigzag downward in a ‘forked’ pattern — hence it is sometimes called forked lightning. This stepped leader is invisible to the human eye and travels to the ground in a millisecond.

What are the 4 types of lightning?

6 Types of Lightning

• Cloud-to-Ground (CG) Lightning. .
• Negative Cloud-to-Ground (-CG) Lightning. .
• Positive Cloud-to-Ground (+CG) Lightning. .
• Cloud-to-Cloud (CC) Lightning. .
• Intra-Cloud Lightning. .
• Ball Lightning.

Is Gold lightning real?

Yellow lightning is uncommon; however, they tend to be cooler than the blue, lilac and white. They’re caused to due to a high concentration of dust in the air. And is an indication of a dry thunderstorm with low-precipitation.

Is Upside Down lightning real?

Mysterious Jets of Upside-Down Lightning Are Real, And We Just Got Our Best Look Yet : ScienceAlert.

What are 5 lightning types?

There are three common types of lightning: cloud to ground, cloud to cloud and cloud to air. Cloud to ground lightning is the most dangerous. The ground is mainly consisted of positively charged particles while the bottom of violent storm clouds have negative charged particles.

What is a Superbolt lightning?

“Superbolts” are the most powerful lightning on Earth, with discharges so strong that they cannot be reproduced in the laboratory. The bolts also display geographic and seasonal attributes opposite that of regular lightning, adding to their mystery.

Is green lightning real?

Lightning can appear to be many different colors depending on what the light travels through to get to your eyes. In snowstorms, where it is somewhat rare, pink and green are often described as colors of lightning.

Is blue lightning real?

When an unexpected event happens people describe it as a “bolt from the blue”. The phrase is actually based on real weather phenomena where a lightning bolt will strike an area with no overhead clouds. While bolts from the blue don’t originate from blue sky, they occur infrequently, are unexpected, and can be deadly.

What does dark lightning do?

The radiation in these invisible blasts can carry a million times as much energy as the radiation in visible lightning, but that energy dissipates quickly in all directions rather than remaining in a lightning bolt. This is what scientists are calling dark lightning and it is invisible to the human eye.

Hair Color Levels and Peroxide Developer

In any discussion of hair color, it is important to talk about color level and developer. «Level» refers to the lightness or darkness of a particular hair color. It is shown on a scale of one to ten, with 1 being black and 10 being the palest blonde. The hair color formulas available also have a level on this same scale. This tells you how light or dark the final hair color will be.

«Developer» is the oxidizing agent that allows the hair color to do its job. Most permanent hair colors today use hydrogen peroxide as a developer. The peroxide opens the cuticles, allowing the color to penetrate. It also disperses the existing color and can lighten the hair’s color level, depending on the strength of the peroxide formulation.

The oxidizing potential of the peroxide developer is denoted by its «volume.» Most hair color formulas today work with a 10, 20, or 30-volume developer. The effects of these developer strengths are as follows:

10-Volume Peroxide is a standard oxidizing strength for permanent, no-lift hair color. Designed for use when you simply want to add a tint or color tone to hair of the same lightness level, 10-volume peroxide opens the cuticle layer of the hair, allowing the color molecules to penetrate and be deposited in the cortex.

20-Volume Peroxide is also a common strength with permanent hair color and opens the hair cuticle like 10-volume, but also offers lifting of the hair’s level by 1 to 2 levels. 20-volume peroxide is used to best effect when the hair’s starting level is no more than one shade darker than the color you are trying to achieve.

30-Volume Peroxide works just like 20-volume, except that it will lift the hair’s starting color by two to three levels and works best when the target color is no more than two levels lighter than the starting color. It is important to remember that the stronger the developer is, the harsher it can be on your hair. You should always use a moisturizing conditioner after applying a stronger hair color.

There are hydrogen peroxide developers that are stronger than 30-volume (there are also 40-volume and 50-volume formulas), but you should never use these strengths on your own. Developers with a volume strength of 30 or above work very quickly, and without careful monitoring, these formulas can damage the integrity of your hair.

Lighteners:

You are likely asking yourself, «If 30-volume peroxide is the strongest developer you recommend, how do I get my dark brown hair (level 3) to blonde (level 8)?» The answer is relatively simple. You will need to use a lightener first. Lighteners are bleaching agents that are mixed with developers to decolorize, or lift the color from, the hair, usually in preparation for adding a lighter color tone or for creating dramatic highlights.

Lighteners come in two basic types: on-the-scalp and off-the-scalp. They are classified as such because they are designed to be safe when applied either on or off the scalp, as the name indicates. Off-the-scalp lighteners are much stronger and should never be used in such a way that they come into direct contact with the scalp, as they can cause chemical burns. These lighteners are generally designed for use with highlighting or frosting caps where they do not rest on the head.

On-the-scalp lighteners are formulated to be safely applied to the hair and to the scalp area. Often, on-the-scalp lighteners are slower-working, but infinitely safer for the scalp.

Using any lightener requires careful monitoring of the hair as it is being decolorized, as it can easily be over-processed. Once you have achieved the desired level of lightening, you can then color it as desired, and be confident that you will get the hair color you are trying for.

You should also remember that while hair color, when mixed with a developer, goes inert after 30 minutes, lighteners will remain active as long as they are moist. As a result, even a lightener mixed with only 10-volume peroxide can result in overprocessing if not watched carefully.

You also want to be careful that your hair is in good condition before you lighten it. Damaged or porous hair can become irreparably harmed by lightening.

By Stacy | Updated Jan 15, 2023 | ©Hairfinder.com

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