What is Lightning??

→ Lightning is a dazzling bluish white light produce by clouds. It usually accompanied by thunder.

→ Lightning is a gigantic electrical spark travelling between cloud to cloud to earth containing an average charge of 30 to 50kv and a current of 50ka with a speed of 220 km per hour.

→ When the clouds fill up with electric charges, the positive charges or proton from the top of the cloud and negative charges from at the bottom, it causes lightning.

Entry pathway of lightning surge

Due to the online application of modern electronic systems, there are multiple interfacing parts to the outside for an instrument. One of such interface parts is signal pathway and the other one is power pathway.

These cables pulled from the outside can be perfect entry pathways for the lightning surge.

The effects of induced surge on a connected device will be more severe when the connected cable is longer and the device is located closer to the place where the actual lightning strikes. Even lightning rods with minimal cable length do not always protect as they are hoped. Surge protector, or lightning arrestor installed in those  paths absorb and eliminate the high voltage impulse energy and protect the electric instrument from damage.

What damage is caused?

Lightning surge interrupts or affects the continuous flow of normal power can cause a transient overvoltage to be induced onto the mains supply to your electrical equipment which can lead to serious damage to any equipments connected to surge pathways. Just look at your home appliances such as computer, LCD TV, hi-fi system, air conditioner, alarm system, CATV decoder, autodamaged autogate control panel and basically everything connected along the surged line.