Surge Protection

When designing lightning protection it's important to consider adequate surge protection. On a smaller scale people protect their treasured home electrical devices with surge protection devices, on a larger scale devices are available to protect a wide range of items such as servers, communications, data storage, telephony etc.

There are a number of forms of protection needed against surges as there is more than one type of surge. One type of surge is transient over voltages which are short duration high magnitude voltage peaks with fast rising edges, often described as "spikes". The most common cause of these spikes is lightning strikes, but they can be caused by electrical switching when there is increased demand placed upon an electrical system it becomes overpowered. These surges can cause devastating damage to systems that are not protected. The most severe damage is to cable installation which in a worst case scenario can result in fatalities through either electric shocks or fire. Other damages can be to electrical and electronic equipment resulting in data loss, degradation and equipment failure. These aspects can cost a company a lot of revenue, in terms of a loss of productivity, product spoilage, staff overtime and delays to clients, not forgetting sales lost to competitors when your business is unable to run smoothly.

There are different types of surge protection devices dependent on the type of transient over-voltage. Direct lightning strikes are protected by lightning current or equipotential bonding SPDs. Indirect lightning strikes and switching transients are protected by transient over-voltage SPDs. The main purpose of lightning current and equipotential  bonding SPD's are to prevent sparking from cable damage by lightning strike, so the site does not become a fire hazard. Transient over-voltage SPD's are there to protect against secondary effects of indirect lightning and switching transients such as data loss and equipment failure.

There are certain areas that require surge protection in order for the protection to be adequate. You need to protect all cables which enter and leave a building including mains power supplies (including UPS), data communication and local are network cables, signal, control, instrumentation and alarm lines, CCTV, satellite, TV and antenna cables and telephone and telemetry lines. It is also important to protect the power supply local to important equipment, electronic equipment outside the main building.

Whatever the surge protection needed you can get both surge protection devices and advice from Churchill Specialist Contracting.