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The South African Weather Service has been predicting a lot of thunderstorms lately, similar to the post below, so ensure your appliances are safe, by using Clearline’s protection products!

Lightning is the sudden discharge of a large amount of electrical energy that needs to go somewhere for equalisation and your electronic appliances are usually the equaliser. Large electrical surges, or ‘spikes’ are sent into the electrical appliances, which cannot withstand the electrical surge and basically ‘burn out’.

There are numerous ways that lightning can get into electrical appliances:

• Lightning can strike the air conductors directly and surge voltages, even from kilometres away, can enter into your installation. This surge voltage is then passed to ground through your equipment which can lead to damage or complete destruction of your equipment.
• When lightning strikes an object, (a building, tree or pole etc.) high currents at fast wave fronts occur causing large electromagnetic fields which are then induced into your electrical and data communication cabling. Equalisation then occurs which could cause damage to your equipment.
• When lightning strikes a structure, (a building, tree or pole etc.) a high voltage potential exists for the duration of the strike at the point of contact of the structure to the ground. Due to resistivity of the earth, decreasing voltage potentials will be experienced along the current paths moving away from this point. Should you have electronic equipment referenced to different earth systems while connected to each other via copper cables, equalisation will tend to occur via the copper cables resulting in equipment damage.

 Luckily for you, Clearline is continually adapting and developing new products for affordable lightning and power surge protection, and power conditioning, so you can rest assured that your appliances will be much safer when lightning strikes!