According to the NFPA, lightning strikes cause $451 million dollars in property damage each year.
Lightning protection systems are designed to protect your business and your assets from the destruction caused by lightning strikes. Each year thousands of buildings and businesses are damaged by lightning strikes. It is estimated that lightning causes more than $5 billion in damage in the USA alone. Commercial lightning protection systems can’t necessarily prevent lightning from happening, but they can make sure that lightning is controlled and doesn’t cause damage.
Lightning strikes can cause considerable damage to commercial buildings and the equipment inside. The most common risks associated with lightning strikes are damage to electronic equipment and fire. Damage to electrical equipment can be devastating to companies that rely on electronics to operate. Not only does the equipment need to be replaced, which can be incredibly expensive, but it can also lead to long downtimes during which the business can’t operate.
It’s clear that commercial lightning protection is something that any business can benefit from. In order to better understand the problem and the risks, it helps to know how lightning and lightning protection works. Lightning is simply an electrostatic discharge that can occur from cloud-to-cloud, inside clouds, and cloud to ground. The problem is when a lightning strike makes direct contact with a building. The ensuing surge of electricity from a lightning strike can spread throughout the building damaging fuses and potentially any electronic devices that were plugged in at the time.
A commercial lightning protection system is able to safely transfer the electrical energy from a lightning strike away from the building and into the ground where it is safely discharged. The purpose of a commercial lightning protection system is not to completely prevent lightning from striking, this isn’t really possible. Rather, the purpose is to provide a path of low resistance for the lightning to travel through without causing damage to the building. The major components of a commercial lightning protection system include lightning rods, conductor cables, and grounding rods.
It is important to make sure that a commercial lightning protection system complies with all codes and standards of the Lightning Protection Institute, National Fire Protection Association, and Underwriters Laboratories and that it is installed by a reputable and certified company, such as Northeast Lightning Protection.
Northeast Lightning Protection has been installing lightning protection equipment, including lightning rods in Connecticut (CT), Massachusetts (MA), New York (NY), Rhode Island (RI), New Hampshire (NH) and Vermont (VT), since 1976.
Northeast Lightning Protection, a Connecticut (CT) based company, provides the most advanced commercial and home lightning protection systems according to the codes of Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. 96A, Lightning Protection Institute 175, and National Fire Protection Association 780.
For a free estimate, contact New England’s #1 lightning protection company, Northeast Lightning Protection.
Northeast Lightning Protection LLC
10 Peters Road
Bloomfield, CT 06002
Tel: (860) 243-0010