LIGHTNING AND POWER QUALITY

Lightning kills more people than tornadoes and hurricanes combined. It causes many Workers Compensation claims and law suits.

The cost to facilities in lightning related electronic equipment loss is substantial. Loss control managers need to be assessing what can be done to prevent not only the financial loss but also the down time, risk of injury and the loss of the reliability in equipment.

When you install surge suppressors it not only eliminates lightning losses but will prevent the transient deterioration of equipment, which causes early replacement. In an IBM study they determined that using clean power could eliminate 88.9% of the failures. To view a demonstration of data and CCTV protection got to the following link. Hit return to come back to this page.

The problem is getting the right equipment installed correctly. It is a vital part of power quality and lightning protection to have the proper grounding that not only meets the National Electrical Code but also meets proper standards for lightning.

There is transient activity in facilities every day causing small blisters in the microchips. These blisters can build up and short out the chip but surge suppressors will prevent the blisters. It is no longer an option to clean up the power in most facilities it is imperative. We keep adding more and more sensitive microprocessors to raw power and these computers keep adding problems to the power.

1. Personal injuries
2. Equipment not damaged by lightning
3. Equipment will last longer
4. Equipment will be more reliable
5. Less down time
6. No bad publicity from emergency services being out of service
7. You will use less electricity
8. Save on liability law suits

Conclusion: You will improve your power quality someday so it might as well be now and let it pay for itself. You cannot keep adding non-linear devices to the power without some changes.

Bob Turner