Lightning Protection

A lightning protection system serves to prevent damage to people, electronics and electrical equipment from the effects of lightning strikes. It consists of air terminal, conductors, bonding, earthing, and surge protection. The lightning protection system is not intended to prevent lightning strikes. Its purpose is to provide a safe path on which the lightning current can be safely diverted to the ground.

The role of the air termination system is to capture the lightning discharge current and dissipate it harmlessly to the ground via the down conductor and earth termination systems. Therefore it is vitally important to use a correctly designed air termination system. The earth termination system is vital for the dispersion of lightning current safely and effectively into the ground. Equipotential bonding is simply the electrical interconnection of all appropriate metallic installations/parts, such that in the event of lightning currents flowing, no metallic part is at a different voltage potential with respect to one another.