Electrical Surge Protection

Several types of surge voltages can occur in electrical as well as some electronic systems. These surge voltages can be differentiated in terms of amplitude as well as their duration. A surge can last for days, hours and even seconds. The duration of the surge voltage depends on the type of surge it is. From a hundred thousand millivolts to ten thousand volts, the amplitude can vary positively or negatively depending on the type.

One major cause of voltage surges and long electric current withdrawal is lightning. Whenever lightning strikes, voltages are bound to surge and the current flow is bound to get dangerously long. In both scenarios, you will need proper protection against surge conditions to eliminate any threat to you or the people around you.

Every object and material has a certain dielectric strength. If the level of this dielectric strength is exceeded by the surge voltages, then it can cause devices and appliances to malfunction. Although it is possible that engineers can use insurance to fix the material damage caused to the system. It is estimated that a separate risk must be prepared for that is accounted for the total time when the system is down. This is usually not covered in insurance policies and if delayed, this downtime damage can cause a lot of financial burden on the owners.

Any surge voltages defect or any device failure caused by the same is more frequent that you would normally expect. It is believed that for a commercial system, the consequences and damage caused by surges are much grimmer and serious. The failure of the device or the machine that is used in a professional environment often leads to further costs that may be much higher than the costs to get the same device repaired.

For this sole reason, a consistent surge protection concept is necessary and urgently required for any kind of industrial, business and even residential systems. This is effective not only for having effective protection against fire and hire personnel, but this is also about eliminating the high financial risks associated with them.

Inductive Coupling

When fast-moving current is passed through a conductor or wire, the conductor or wire produces a magnetic field with a varying magnetic level strength around the conductor. In the case that another conductor is located inside of this magnetic field, then according to the principle of induction, a voltage difference can occur because of the varying nature of the strong magnetic field around the current carrying conductor or wire.

Capacitive Coupling

When there exist two points where the electric potential is different, an electric field is bound to form. The charge carriers of the conductive parts that are exposed within this electric field are arranged based on the direction of the field and strength according to the principle of influence. As a result, a potential difference may occur within the part that is conductive and exposed. Otherwise speaking, a voltage difference.

Galvanic Coupling

Consider two circuits that are connected to each other in an electrically conductive way. These two circuits are bound for switching purposes. These two circuits can directly and mutually cause influence on each other. A slight change in voltage or current in a particular circuit can generate a corresponding reaction in some other circuit.

Lightning strikes : Lightning strikes or Lightning Electro Magnetic Pulse has the greatest potential for destruction in terms of surge voltages. It is also a major cause of voltage surges. Lightning strikes cause dangerous transient over-voltages that can stretch over long distances. They normally also cause a long surge current flow that is of high amplitude mostly.

It is estimated that even indirect effects of the lightning can cause a huge overvoltage of kilovolts and longer current flows of up to tens of thousands of amperes. These dangerous effects can result in a total failure of the system installed or it can also cause complete destruction for the installation.

Operations Of Switches : Switching operations are the heart of electrical operations. The switching operations provide connections to several devices from the main electrical source. These switching operations give off switch electromagnetic pulses that go on to become induced surge voltages and long current flows that can damage or hamper the entire installation.

Discharges : The danger that electrostatic discharges pose is a great one. Electrostatic charges can build up when the conductive parts of electrical components or equipment with varying electrical potentials come in close contact with each other. This results in a charge exchange that in turn results in induced surge charges. The high electric potential eventually reaches a point where it sparks over to an exposed part of the conductive material or component. This happens suddenly that causes a brief surge voltage and long current flow.

External Lightning Protection : The protection aims to re-direct the strikes that come near to the object that is to be protected. It is used to lead the lightning strike from the point of incidence to the point where it can find the ground. It is also imperative that any sort of dangerous spark should not be formed and it must be prevented. Any damage caused by heat, magnetism or electricity should also be seriously considered and prevented through proper design and planning. NY Engineers aims to minimize any sort of risk using the lightning protection that is also their first and foremost measure for protection.

To identify and determine the protection class for the physical structure is the basis for planning any protection against such hazards. This is derived from the concepts of risk analysis. If there is no regulation or specification for protection from external lightning, NY Engineers highly recommend a protection class of at least class 3.

It is also important to keep in mind that the air terminals located on the building will also be determined by NYE professionals. The team uses three major methods to achieve this:

• Mesh method
• The protective angle method
• Rolling Sphere method

Coordinated SPD System : NY Engineers provide a coordinated SPD system for protection against surge voltages and surge currents. A coordinated SPD system can be thought of like a multi-level system of surge protective devices that are coordinating with each other consistently.

NY Engineers achieve a high-performance SPD system through following the below points:

• Determine coordination between several types of SPDs. The separate devices must operate with each other in a manner that is consistent and coordinated. This is done to prevent any sort of overloading.
• In order to protect the system against signal transmission circuits, NY Engineers usually ground equipment only through the respective SPD.
• NY Engineers lay down the unprotected and protected cables separately throughout the entire system.
• NY engineers divide the entire configuration into protected areas that can be calibrated according to the different electrical wiring.
• Incorporate all the cables that can potentially cross between these different zones into the local bonding using any suitable SPD.
• They use only short supply lines to connect SPDs between active conductors and the bonding.

Internal Lightning Protection : This system is developed by NY engineers after a thorough look at the internal circuitry of the physical structure. It can prevent any kind of dangerous formation of sparks inside the system. These sparks can be caused by lightning-induced surge voltages that are generated in the protection system or in the other parts of the physical structure that are conductive.

This kind of system may consist of an equipotential bonding system and a system of electrical insulation. This can be due to suitable materials or sufficient distances from the protection system provided by NY Engineers as well.

This lightning protection bonding is made to prevent any potentially dangerous potential differences that can harm the physical structure as well as the overall circuitry. This is why NY Engineers connect the protection system to the metal installations in the physical structure. This is also done to the internal systems as well as the electrical and electronic systems that are present inside the system itself.

Grounding And Bonding : The grounding system provided by NY Engineers aims to distribute and discharge the lightning surge into the ground. For this to be possible, the proper geometry of the grounding system is imperative for effectively deriving the lightning current. The equipotential bonding helps to connect all the electrically conductive parts to each other so that they do not conflict with each other.

NY Engineers consists of a team of highly trained and expert electrical engineers who know their way around electrical surges. Our team of experts is highly skilled in analyzing your current structure and circuitry and then finding out ways to make the currently existing system better. This is done so that the cost is least on you and hence the financial burden is lessened.

It is important to remember the risks that electrical surges caused by lightning can cause to the personnel as well as the equipment. It has always proven to be a great investment because you can never be too careful with the future. It is important to always have yourself covered from any financial damage as well as the loss of human life. NY Engineers offer all surge protection services with full satisfaction and a great pricing plan for you if you opt for it.

NY Engineers’ teams have a phenomenal sense of responsibility and technical knowledge when it comes to owning projects. We have always handled projects with sincerity and great care. We always make sure that your physical structures are safe and efficient. You can rest assured that our surge protection systems are proven and tested. You can even consult with our teams before opting for surge protection. Only after full satiation, you should opt to get the surge protection.