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Lightning Protection for Your Business
When Lightning Strikes
Packing up to 100 million volts of electricity, a bolt of lightning has the
power to rip through roofs, explode walls of brick and concrete and ignite
deadly fires. Most tragically, lightning kills.
The cost of lightning strikes to businesses is staggering. Millions of dollars
are spent by corporations every year as a result of lightning damage to commercial
properties. Insurance claims, destruction of equipment, fire damage, production
and inventory loss can result from a single lightning strike.
Most buildings, particularly those of comtemporary design, are vulnerable to
lightning damage due to multiple service entrances, the use of isolated building
components and the costly hi-tech equipment housed within. In addition to actual
property loss, lightning damage to robotics, communication lines and computer
equipment can result in extended downtime for your corporation. Protecting people
and property is what lightning protection systems are all about.
Because every building's architecture is unique, a custom-designed lightning
protection system from A/C Lightning Protection will meet a structures's specific
needs. Commonly specified during the construction phase of a building, a lightning
protection system can be easily installed on an existing building as well.
Who Needs Protection?
Thunderstorms occur virtually everywhere and that puts any building at risk.
State-of-the-art certified lightning protection systems are a part of the structural
design of thousands of commercial and public facilities worldwide and are designed to
maximize protection of life and property. Risk factors including your location, frequency
of thunderstorms, soil composition and building occupancy all determine the need
for a lightning protection system.
How the System Works
Lightning protection systems are designed to protect a structure and provide a
specified path to harness and safely ground the supercharged current of the
lightning bolt. The system neither attracts nor repels a strike, but recsives the
stroke and routes it harmlessly into the earth, thus dischargin the dangerous
electrical current.
Investment in a lightning protection system will protect your organization's
investment in property and equipment. In addition to structural protection, surge
arresters and suppressors are devices designed to protect a building's electronics
and software systems from harmful lightning surges.
A direct hit to a building, or a nearby strike to a power line, or even a voltage
surge originating from your utility company can cause a fire in the electrical service
panel boxes or seriously damage equipment by frying insulation and sensitive
microprocessor components. The combined technology of structural protection (lightning
rods) and surge protection minimize damage, while providing the highest level of
protection for properties.
When it comes to the incredible power of lightning, the bottom line is:
Certified lightning protection saves lives and money!
Commercial Lightning Protection Facts
Industrial parks, manufacturing plants, churches schools, banking centers,
hospitals, military installations, historical landmarks, emergency centers,
911 facilities, sporting complexes, corporate centers, chemical plants,
oil refineries, nuclear plats, etc... all benefit from certified
lightning protection systems.
- Lightning is the most dangerous and frequently-encountered weather
hazard that most people experience each year.
- National
Severe Storm Laboratory
- Lightning accounts for more than one billion dollars annually in
structural damage to buildings in the United States.
-
Underwriters Laboratories Inc.
- Between three and five percent of all commercial insurance claims
are lightning related.
- Factory Mutual Insurance Co.
- Over 40 million lightning strikes occur each year.
- The National Weather Service
- Lightning is the leading cause of church fires (30.2%) in the United States.
- Insurance Information Institute
- Studies confirm that conventional lightning protection systems are
highly effective in reducing lightning-caused fires and damage to buildings and structures.
- American Geophysical Union
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