The pace of technological progress in India puts a significant responsibility on individuals and businesses to utilize the resources efficiently. It is equally significant to opt for security systems to avoid any adversity. Despite these advancements, it is necessary to address the damage that natural disasters result in. Lightning strikes present a real threat to residential and commercial buildings, causing equipment damage, high voltage spikes, etc. Without adequate lightning protection, a strike can easily overload a building’s electrical system and disrupt major components. However, with particular attention and design, organizations can limit the effect of lightning on a structure. This article will address the purpose of lightning protection systems and how SMPS protects your business from lightning.
Lightning Protection Systems: Protective Path to Ground
Lightning strikes are highly unpredictable, but their devastating effects are not. This forces us to take precautions against it.
A lightning protection system is a device that we install on a structure, building, or equipment that prevents any damage against lightning strikes. It is designed to protect a structure by intercepting such strikes and dissipating the electrical charge into the surrounding ground, thus diverting the current around the building. This reduces the chance of the lightning current rebounding through nearby surfaces and into nearby people. This, in turn, prevents damage to nearby structures through fire or structural collapse.
Tall buildings are highly susceptible to lightning strikes and damage. In severe conditions, overvoltage induced on conductive materials and short circuits can cause a fire. Such fluctuations cause widespread damage to electrical systems and sensitive equipment. This induces ignition of flammable materials that pose an extreme threat to people, loss of crucial data, and business productivity.
Essentially, the purpose of a Lightning protection system is to-
- Protect equipment and systems from the damaging effects of lightning.
- Protect building or structure and ensure the safety of the people inside.
- Mitigate fire hazards or any other severity which lightning strikes pose to structures.
Lightning protection systems include a network of air terminals, bonding conductors, and ground electrodes. These components safely redirect the electrical charge from “cloud to ground” and mitigate the risk of potentially fatal lightning strikes. However, it can be challenging to impede the flow of electric current directly into the ground due to external factors. To disrupt communications through induced electrical surges, one must use lightning arresters. Its link to electric power systems and telecommunication systems curbs the electric current, preventing overvoltage.
Purpose of a Lightning Protection System
The main benefit of lightning protection is to neutralize the electric current. The lightning system discharges it into the lowest point of resistance in the building, which is passed into the ground.
Tall and isolated structures are common to get struck by lightning. Therefore, businesses must ensure safety for facilities and places where lightning strikes are prevalent. Moreover, an efficient protection system is crucial for areas having a large number of people.
These protection systems conduct and dissipate any possible lightning current while protecting the system itself. The purpose of lightning protection systems include:
- Safety Hazard: Lightning strikes that enter the building expose a significant safety hazard to the building’s occupants. A lightning protection system thus maintains protective devices to minimize the effects of lightning-induced surges on buildings and their occupants.
- Disrupting Business Continuity: Sudden and unexpected power disruptions due to lightning affects vital utilities and disrupt business continuity and efficiency. A lightning conductor passes the current into the ground that allows the smooth functioning of your business.
- Protection of Electrical Equipment: While we protect our building from lightning strikes, it is equally important to guard the essential equipment within. The only way to fully protect your building and electronic equipment is by installing a surge protection device in a lightning protection system.
- Heritage Protection: Buildings and structures of historic importance stand isolated. As these areas are widely prone to natural disasters, lightning protection becomes necessary to secure these archaeological sites. Therefore, we need to preserve them whole and intact.
- Financial & Data loss: With current discharge involved, damage caused by lightning is often disastrous to property and people, even in a concise duration. Heavy devices prone to lightning destroy the main electric line, damaging systems and leading to loss of valuable data.
A lightning protection system provides businesses with safety and protection as per their requirements. But how do we measure the efficacy of a protection system? The potential for failures with lightning protection increases with the system age; therefore, it is critical to seek licensed and certified professionals. A certified installer ensures safe installment and maintenance of lightning protection systems. It helps intercept, conduct, and disperse a lightning strike safely to earth. This mitigates the risk of a system failure while meeting government standards and certification.
Safeguard Your Indoors- With VNT
There have been an odd number of incidents involving lightning striking tall buildings and other structures in the past years. While we cannot avoid the risk entirely, we can surely mitigate the risks associated with a lightning strike through risk assessments. According to Indian Standard IS/IEC 62305 for lightning protection, it is mandated to protect a structure against lightning. It is crucial to solicit services from certified professionals to cover all risks, including equipment damage, harm to people, etc.
With VNT at your service, we safeguard your business against the most hazardous weather calamity, i.e., lightning. Our lightning protection systems defend against the threat of strikes to the structure of buildings and their associated services.
We take government standards and business requirements as our priority. Our team of professionals undertakes a complete site survey. With our expertise, we recommend the most suitable technological solutions available with regular testing and maintenance after service.
To fortify your business against lightning strikes for any industrial site or commercial infrastructure, contact us.