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Surge and Lightning Protection
Types of products that could be affected:
Surge Protection
Lightning Solutions can provide you with market leading products that will integrate simply with your electrical systems, to provide your premises with electrical surge protection. We can install different types of surge protection devices, ideally suited to all industrial and commercial environments.
What is Surge Protection?
An electrical power surge can affect a property at any time posing a risk of fire or damage to electrical devices and systems within your business. This can be in the form of a lightning strike, an electrical surge from the distribution company or an electrical overload from machinery within the building.
Did you know you could minimise this damage by installing a device in to your electrical system, designed to protect electrical devices from voltage spikes? A surge protector attempts to limit the amount of unsafe voltage from entering and damaging your infrastructure, by either blocking or shorting to ground any unwanted voltages above a safe threshold.
What does this mean for you?
As part of your risk management, you may identify hazards as a result of surges that will pose a risk of injury and/or damage to the infrastructure. Dangerous flashover can result in fire and hazards, as it presents a risk of arcing, caused by dangerous levels of voltage being present.
Installing a surge protection system for your building offers production for your electrical installation and electronic devices. Many insurance companies also require surge protection for compliance of their insurance terms.
What can you do to protect your assets?
The new electrical regulations state that surge protection is required for the majority of commercial and industrial installations. All new installations will require this level of protection and it is good practice for business owners to understand the risk implications of not having surge protection in place on existing installations.
Lightning Protection
Lightning Solutions can design and install lightning protection systems that will protect a building or structure from a direct lightning strike. Lightning protection reduces the risk associated with the affects of a strike and can provide safety and peace of mind for owners, employees and the public.
What is Lightning Protection?
Lightning can strike unexpectedly, causing damage not only to a structure, but also to the systems and people within it. Certain atmospheric conditions can cause a thunderstorm to produce a series of sudden electrical discharges. These discharges may cause over voltages and electromagnetic disturbance which can damage systems or equipment (including those with electronic components or circuits).
The function of a lightning protection system is to protect the building or structure and prevent people from being injured or even killed. A lightning protection system includes 2 elements overall:
- External protection - Lightning Protection/Earthing: Interception, safe discharge and safe distribution of the lighting to earth.
- Internal Protection - Surge protection: Limits the amount of unsafe voltages from entering a building and damaging the infrastructure.
What does this mean for you?
Insurance companies often require a certificate endorsed by a competent company to verify that the lightning protection system is functional and adequately protects the building and infrastructure. This is normally requested annually.
As part of your risk management, you may identify hazards as a result of surges that will pose a risk of injury and/or damage to the infrastructure. Dangerous flashover can result in fire hazards, as it prevents a risk of arcing, caused by dangerous levels of voltage being present.
What can you do to protect your assets?
Installing an effective lightning protection system will help to reduce risk of damage. This is a complex process, as the requirements vary for every building. Every installation must be a total solution that encompasses both structure and infrastructure, to protect all aspects. Lightning protection is required to be tested and certified by a competent organisation every year, to satisfy building insurance.
