Is Your Home Safe from Lightning Strikes?
On August 16, 2012, a man in Mansfield, Connecticut was struck by lightning while inside his home. During a thunderstorm, Michael Clooney was closing a kitchen window when lightning blew out the window. Clooney was taken to the hospital after being struck, but is fine now.
Lightning can strike at anytime and anywhere. It is important to take shelter during storms. It is also important to make sure your sensitive electronics are safe. Clooney's story proves that lightning does strike inside buildings. Our Residential Division, surgeassureTM, has an entire line of products dedicated to protecting the electronics inside your home.
Surgeassure™ products utilize the same technology and rugged components used in our industrial & commercial products that protect critical electronic equipment for Fortune 500 companies. When surgeassure™ products are installed using the proven zone concept used by APT for protecting hospitals, schools, wastewater treatment plants and other facilities, your valuable equipment will last without your lifestyle being interrupted.
Please visit the surgeassure™ website to learn more about Whole Home Surge Protection and review our wide-range product offering for surge protection solutions for your home.
If you require assistance selecting the appropriate product for your needs please call us at our toll free customer service hotline 800-727-0669 or contact us via email at info@aptsurge.com.
If you do not already have an electrician contracted for installation please feel free to select a local installer from our Electrical Contractor Referral Network.
This week is Lightning Safety Awareness Week (June 24-30)! Kicking off Lightning Safety Awareness Week we had our first named storm of the season in the Tampa Bay area over the weekend, Tropical Storm Debby. In honor of this week and with summer and storm season just begun, here are some lightning safety tips.
Lightning Safety Tips:
- Treat lightning with proper caution. If you are outside and a thunderstorm approaches, immediately seek shelter inside, in a home, large building or substantial, fully enclosed building, all preferably protected with a lightning protection system.
- If a building is not available, take shelter in a car with a metal top and keep doors and windows closed.
- If caught outdoors, try to minimize your risk by going to a place of lower elevation.
- Certain locations are extremely hazardous during thunderstorms. Avoid lakes, beaches or open water; fishing from a boat or dock; and riding on golf carts, farm equipment, motorcycles or bicycles. Take shelter in tunnels, subways, even ditches or caves if necessary—never under a tree!
- To avoid side flashes (voltage from a nearby struck object) stay clear of fences or isolated trees. Keep away from telephone poles, power lines, pipelines or other electrically conductive objects.
- Stay off the telephone. In your home, do not stand near open windows, doorways or metal piping. Stay away from the TV, plumbing, sinks, tubs, radiators and stoves. Avoid contact with small electric appliances such as radios, toasters and hairdryers.
Protecting Your Electronics
- Have a lightning protection system installed for your home or business.
- Be sure the lightning protection system is designed and installed in accordance with accepted industry standards and with National Fire Protection Association, Lightning Protection Institute and UL requirements.
- Include protection for electrical, telephone, cable or satellite TV lines entering the structure.
- Make sure all equipment is UL listed and properly labeled.
Lightning protection systems are designed to protect a structure and provide a specified path to harness and safely ground the super-charged current of the lightning bolt. The system neither attracts nor repels a strike, but receives the stroke and routes it harmlessly into the earth, thus discharging the dangerous electrical event. Investment in a lightning protection system will protect your personal or organization’s investment in its property and equipment.
Lightning Safety Tips from Insurance Information Institute, Inc.