Surge Technology "Surgetek", a specialist supplier of lightning and surge protection devices has expanded its market from South Africa to span 39 sub-Saharan African countries in which it holds the sole and exclusive distribution rights for DEHN + S"OHNE products.
German based DEHN + S"OHNE has over 95 years of experience in pioneering lightning and surge protection devices.
DEHN was rated number one among the top six vendors for hard-wired surge arresters (or transient voltage surge suppressors - TVSS) in the European market during 2003 and 2005 (VDC Power Protection Market Intelligence Report 2005-2006).
In March 2005, Prime Empowerment Group (Primgro), a local black economic empowerment company, invested in Surgetek. According to Premesh Narismulu, Primgro Group CEO: "Too many people wait until they have suffered extensive damage to their equipment before considering installing some form of surge and lightning protection.
"It is an established fact, that in South Africa, lightning is generally seasonal, and some storms are worse than others. One thing that you can be sure of is that at some stage your equipment will be exposed to surges associated with direct lightning strikes or to induced surges transmitted along electric cables, data cables, telecommunication lines (any cord or cable for that matter) as a result of close proximity (within a 1km radius) lightning activity."
Direct and indirect lightning-induced surges are not the major threat to industrial, commercial and domestic electrical and sensitive electronic equipment. Research indicates that up to 80% of voltage surges come from:
* Utility-related switching activity along the powerline,
* Switching activity in a neighbourhood, or
* Internal sources such as motors, fluorescent lights, photocopiers and other switching devices.
Because modern mains-powered electronic equipment is highly susceptible to sudden voltage variations, this makes voltage surge suppression an essential part of everyone's power and data protection regimen.
The actual chance of the average building in South Africa being struck directly by lightning is less than once in 25 years. However, equipment within the building will be exposed to the effects of a lightning strike, through induced lightning currents, up to 10 times per year.
Since 2005, South Africa has become susceptible to black-outs and brown-outs, which have dramatically increased the frequency and intensity of these transient surges or spikes. These are now resulting in the life-span of equipment and resultant failure of equipment increasing dramatically.
Seeking expert advice can save a lot of money in preventing damage to IT equipment, such as power/data protection of computers, computer networks, main-frames and servers, WiFi, hubs and routers, laptops, printers and UPS systems, to name just a few categories of sensitive and mission-critical equipment that demands protection.
The most common error is when people believe that if the building their equipment is housed in has external lightning protection, the electronic and electrical equipment within the building will be safe. Unfortunately, this is not true.
Buildings with external lightning protection stand a greater chance of taking a direct lightning strike and are in fact recommended, in terms of IEC/SABS standards, to have the highest levels of protection (ie, Class I lightning arresters) fitted, by a qualified electrician, to the main electricity distribution box within such buildings, to protect equipment housed within.
Other buildings, however, not fitted with external lightning protection, are recommended to have the minimum requirement of a Class II surge arrester fitted, by a qualified electrician, in the main electrical distribution box, to provide total protection to all light and plug-points within that building.
Only in high lightning density areas, which in South Africa is everywhere with the exception of a portion of the Western Cape along the Atlantic Ocean, does Surgetek further recommend that computer, alarm, home theatre, office automation and similar electronic equipment be additionally plugged-in to Class III surge arresters, provided a Class II surge arrester has already been fitted into the electrical distribution box by a qualified electrician.
The purpose of this lower-level secondary device is to protect sensitive electronic equipment from lightning-induced surges resulting from the airborne electromagnetic inductive force of nearby lightning activity. Such lightning-induced electromagnetic waves induce transient surge currents in cable/conductors/wires that lie between the higher-level Class II-protected electrical distribution box and the downstream equipment.
It is also a misconception that if a UPS (uninterrupted power supply) is installed, it will protect against the effects of lightning and switching surges. Once again, this is rarely true, as the primary function of the UPS is to ensure that your equipment will receive power in the event of a power failure or, secondly, to offer a stabilised power supply should your home or office be exposed to voltage fluctuations.
In many cases, the surge protection offered by the UPS is limited at best to lower-level Class III levels, therefore is not designed to afford the required higher-level Class II protection recommended by the IEC/SABS wiring codes.
Finally, there are also surge protection devices available for data lines too, in respect of incoming telephone/ADSL line, television aerial/satellite antenna cable, CCTV, intercom and similar cables that are also susceptible to surges, spikes, transients and lightning-induced over-voltages.
Power and data protection together form a complete protective environment for equipment in respect of these surge conditions.
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