Lightning PROTECTION, EARTHING & Surge Protection
With over 300,000 lightning strikes in the UK every year, organisations should have a lightning protection system installed to protect their building, its occupants and contents from potential damange in the event of a strike.
CRITICAL STRUCTURES
The majority of buildings will be termed a ‘critical structure’ as defined in the recognised British Standard for the design, installation and testing of lightning protection systems, BS EN 62305:2011 (part 3), and will require an annual test and inspection programme undertaken by a competent Specialist Contractor to ensure their continued safety to protect the building.
A critical structure is defined as one which contains sensitive internal systems including office blocks; commercial buildings or places where a high number of people may be present, such as churches or heritage buildings; and buildings where explosive materials are stored. Buildings which are classed as ‘critical’ should have their lightning protection system visually inspected every six months with electrical testing performed once a year.
Electrical testing should be undertaken every year by a competent person who has the training and experience of working within the lightning protection industry. Additional testing will also be required to the lightning protection system after any building remedial works have taken place.
LIGHTNING PROTECTION SYSTEM DESIGN
Our in-house design team are trained and certified to the current British & European Standards BS EN 62305:2011 for Lightning Protection Systems and BS 7430:2011 for Earthing. They can attend your site to undertake a Design Risk Assessment of each building to ascertain if there is the potential for loss of human life or loss of service including any potential damage to sensitive electrical or electronic equipment, including IT equipment. In addition, the accredited designers are highly competent to undertake design work from supplied installation plans and drawings.
The design work relating to Lightning Protection Systems and Surge Protection Measures are all bespoke to the requirements of the individual buildings and incorporate a range of external factors within the calculations. Once the calculations have been completed, to ascertain the extent of requirements for Lightning Protection and/or Surge Protection devices, the designers will provide a full specification and a firm cost quotation, detailing any specialist access issues relative to building constraints, to provide the necessary protection measures to comply with the applicable British Standard guidelines.
LIGHTNING PROTECTION INSPECTION
Lightning Protection Systems should be tested at 11 monthly intervals in compliance with the applicable British Standards of BS 6651:1999, BS EN 62305:2011 and BS 7430:2011 to meet the requirements of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1999. The 11 monthly inspections are recommended as a means of recording variances within the sub-soil conditions which vary seasonally, this is advantageous as it provides a more accurate analytical picture of the system as a whole when compared with undertaking surveys at fixed 12 monthly periods. As part of these inspections, Horizon undertake a visual inspection of Surge Protection Devices to determine continued functionality of these devices.
Lightning Protection test & inspection surveys are undertaken by experienced, NVQ trained, CSCS carded Horizon personnel with the aid of mobile electronic devices for the “real-time” relay of data back to Head Office. A detailed inspection report complete with test results and recommendations for remedial repairs (where deemed necessary) is sent to the client including a test certificate (where appropriate), which is valid for a 12 month period. In addition, Horizon’s customer service department offers an inspection programme tailored to meet your exact requirements and as part of this service will contact you each year to remind you inspections or other works are due.
SURGE PROTECTION
Horizon are partnered with a leading Surge & Transient Overvoltage Protection provider for the Design and Installation of Surge Protection Systems. Surge Protection designs and installations are completed in line with the current applicable legislation relating to both lightning protection standards of BS EN 62305 and also relating to the electrical standards, namely BS 7671 (18th Edition Wiring Regulations) for compliance to the Electricity at Work Regulations.
Following the introduction of the BS EN 62305 standard in 2008, Surge Protection now forms an integral part of a lightning protection system installation and should be a key consideration for the protection of sensitive electrical and electronic equipment. As surge and overvoltage current events are applicable to both direct and indirect strike occurrences, as well as inductive switching loads from equipment, then it is imperative to protect equipment at source with the use of co-ordinated surge protection installations.
These designs and installations are often highly specialised and Horizon is able to offer a bespoke service for all types of equipment.
