SME Lightning Protection and Earthing is one of South Africa's leading lightning, earthing and surge protection specialist groups, celebrating over 35 years in the lightning protection industry since it was established in 1985. SME Lightning Protection and Earthing Pty Ltd is an SABS - ISO 9001:2015 certified company and operates across South Africa as well as throughout southern Africa.

Read more about SME

Featured Iconic Project Completed by SME

Construction World December 2021

Why do we need lightning protection?

Lightning is one of nature's most powerful and destructive phenomena.

Lightning discharges contain significant amounts of electrical energy and have been measured from several thousand amps to over 200,000 amps - enough to light half a million 100 watt bulbs! Even though a lightning discharge is of a very short duration (typically 200 microseconds) it is a very real cause of damage and destruction.

The effects of a direct strike are obvious and immediately apparent - buildings damaged, trees blown apart, personal injuries and even death to humans.

However, the secondary effects of lightning - the short duration, high voltage spikes called transient over voltages can, and do, cause equally catastrophic, if less visually obvious, damage to the electronic systems inside a building.The most common form of lightning strike in South Africa is an indirect strike, meaning instead of striking a building directly, the lightning bolt will hit the ground or an external object and then find the easiest path down to earth via buried cables or water pipes. With the adequate lightning, earthing and surge protection in place damages caused by these strikes can be minimized or avoided.

Advertorial by SME Lightning Protection featured in the August Construction Review