Sydney Lightning Protection

At Australian Construction, we design and install direct strike LPS (lightning protection system) that complies with AS1768 ensuring the ideal protection for your facility, people and contents. Earthing systems play a big role in protecting personnel, networks and assets. The Sydney lightning protection contractor’s designs certify and install earthing systems for a comprehensive range of HV electrical, static control and lightning protection applications.

Our skilled personnel help you pick the most efficient solution with SPDs (surge protection products) to match your environment, the area within a building and the equipment’s sensitivity that needs protection.

Testing and certification

We inspect all static earthing systems and lightning protection systems fully and test them. Our skilled personnel do this using calibrated test equipment. We carry out earthing grid testing and lightning protection testing after finishing the installation and afterwards regularly. We test and certify after every two years, according to the present standards.

Protection against lightning

The Australian Construction protection systems present the modern advancement of the lightning rod. Most people think that lightning rods attract lightning. Actually, a lightning protection system propels dangerous electrical currents away from a building and safely to earth. We install various products to avert the strike away from your structures and the equipment inside your building.

Lightning protection works as a safeguard, created to protect a building by intercepting significantly high strikes of current and passing them from the building to the earth safely through a network of conductors, air terminals and ground electrodes. There are many indications that the need for lightning protection is increasing. We assure you that we install a network that facilitates your building’s safety. 

Our skilled personnel provide a comprehensive service that includes: 

• Inspecting all joints, parts and conductors of the system.
• Continuity testing through conductors and the whole system.
• Earth resistance testing on separate electrodes and the entire system.
• Soil resistivity analysis and testing for new earthing systems.
• Detailed reports on the system’s condition under inspection or test with recommendations and costings of the required works.

Avoid surge overload

A surge describes a transient electrical fluctuation that leads to severe damage to electro and electronic, mechanical equipment. Australian Construction offers a variety of Surge Protection Products (SPDs) to alleviate this threat. After investigations, we suggest various types of surge protection devices. 

Type 1: we use surge protection devices together with a lightning protection system. To facilitate more protection against sensitive equipment failure, Type 1 SPDs may be required for use and coordination with one Type 2 device or more, which we usually install in distribution boards.

We install Type 3 devices as a Type 2 supplement. Their discharge capacity is low, and we install specifically for protecting sensitive equipment. To get an SPD’s optimal protection, we keep connecting conductors as short as possible.

Upgrades and maintenance works may be essential if the inspection and testing indicate any disintegration in the protection level. Changes and additions have taken place in the structure, rendering the current systems ineffective.

Lightning protection testing

Our lightning protection methods avoid damage to structures and buildings by safely averting very high voltage strikes to earth. These systems reduce the danger of fires in a building and safeguard treasured electrical equipment in a building.

Testing, maintenance and inspection of lightning protection systems is important. 

We use our high voltage testing systems for testing the lightning protection system for:

• Down conductor endurance
• Resistance to earth
• Extent and continuity/air termination system adequacy

Our team checks for loose connections, grounding electrodes integrity and surge protection devices damage and gives recommendations. After the conclusion, we present a certificate of compliance. Owners of buildings and or their appointed managers have the duty to maintain lightning protection systems.

They include Faraday Cage systems or Franklin lightning rod networks with any blend of cable conductors, strike termination devices, surge protection devices and grounding electrode.

When we test lightning protection systems annually, it ensures continuous compliance. It is a requirement from AS1768 (AS/NZ1768:2007) for minimum protection level for people and property.

Many business insurance policies stipulate this standard of compliance, so avoid waiting for the insurance firm to inform you that you do not have a cover. If you manage or own a roof structure, integrate lightning protection testing into your annual maintenance schedule.

The main features

Lightning protection systems feature various components made from highly conducted aluminium or copper alloys. A lightning protection system should last the building’s life; it protects and needs maintenance if the protected structure changes structurally. 

The following elements feature in a lightning protection system, and they work jointly to avoid lightning damage:

• Surge suppression
• Electronic protection
• Air terminals or lightning rods
• Conductors (particular braided metal cables)
• Ground terminations
• Bonding connections to metallic elements in the structure

Modern buildings are especially susceptible to mess that lightning triggers on vulnerable electronic equipment. To facilitate optimal protection level, we install the UL-listed surge arrestors on electrical service panels. The arrestors present the first defence line against the dangerous electrical surges that can enter a building through power transmission lines.

The Sydney lightning protection contractor filters and dissipates the dangerous surges, and the arrestors avoid electrical fires and safeguard against electrical passing voltage that damages a building’s electrical system. We install the UL-listed transitory voltage surge suppressors to protect particular electronic parts of equipment for more protection. Our experienced lightning protection expert makes suggestions for surge protection, which we customise to a facility’s specific needs.

Quality is crucial

You must allow trained and experienced lightning protection specialists like us to install the lightning protection systems. For quality guarantee, we ensure that all our methods and materials adhere to nationally acknowledged lightning protection safety standards as stipulated by National Fire Protection Association and Underwriters Laboratories.

Conclusion

We work in one of Australia’s most intense and active lightning strike areas, and we have vast experience in lightning-related destruction and its prevention. The Australian Construction team has been a success for years because of our persistent certification procedure. 

Our specialist team of technicians will be happy to work with you to ensure your facility’s optimal safety during a lightning strike.