And we keep saying that on a lot of these podcasts, it's looking at that peripheral view into it as well.

It is.

I think that I think also electrical installers, electricians are very good at doing excellent, neat and tidy work.

Yeah.

And sometimes the rules that you might apply to installing SPDs maybe go against that by having cables as short as possible and not leaving cables with curly, whirly leads, as it might be described, or running cables around neatly, which is fine for most power systems and any system really, but not always suitable for a surge protection device.

So what do you think we need to do differently in this area then, Matt, just to finish off with?

I think from everything that we've said, I think the key point for certainly for a new project or even a retrofit project to an existing building, I think the key thing is to consider whether SPDs are needed either as part of lightning protection or indeed as standalone devices.

I think it has to be considered early on in a project.

So Matt, could we, could we start with you?

Certainly.

Um, I originally joined Omega in 1998.

Uh, I had a sabbatical away elsewhere for about four years, but came back in 2009 and have been here ever since.

I'm Omega's technical manager and mainly responsible for all aspects of lightning protection.

And I represent, um, Omega at our trade body, Atlas, and where I chair the Lightning Protection Technical Committee, and I represent the UK on the IEC, uh, committees, TC 81 for, um, protection against lightning and the development of worldwide lightning protection standards.

Okay

... and they're not maybe considering the wider, wider thing.

Mm-hmm

... radio frequency, um, et cetera.

And therefore, they, um, are constantly developing new products, um, a- and, you know, making things better and better, um, as they move along.

Yeah

... whether it's for fire alarm systems, data, telecoms, um, antenna communications, that type of stuff, I think they will take a far more active role in considering, um, SPDs, uh, in their designs.

So, Matt, could you just talk us through how that would work then when we've got something on site, how all those are kind of interdependent of each other? Why would we, how would it work on site?

Okay, so you would generally install a Type 1 capable SPD, which deals with lightning energy, as Adam has said.

And you would normally install those where cables enter or exit the boundary of a building, which is normally defined and where the whole structural lightning protection is installed in the form of a Faraday cage.

Because as a cable passes from outside to inside or inside to outside, it's changing what we refer to as lightning protection zones.

And there's a danger that that lightning energy during a lightning current flowing along the Faraday cage, that it will break into the cable, break down the insulation, and it can cause sparking.

Okay.

So the Type 1 device is designed to dissipate that energy to Earth.

And I'm guessing then that equipment from a maintenance point of view, what does that look like? Okay, so surge

So how would that look when you're on a

client site? Okay.

So there are many, many standards that are produced by British Standards Institution.

many of which are adopted from international standards.

They cover all aspects of electrical systems and the earthing world in which we work and height safety too.

But the ones that are particularly relevant are BS 7671, which is also known as the IET wiring regulations.

Currently the 18th edition, and I believe we've just had the Fourth Amendment released.

Yes.

Is that a right kind of

thing that people think about? Well, it's certainly correct.

It's one of the sources.

A surge as a lightning electromagnetic impulse, LEMP or LEMP, can be as a result of a lightning flash or indeed surges can be created as a result of electrical switching.

So when electrical systems such as the high voltage network or large load losing equipment such as lifts, welding equipment, for example, or indeed when circuit breakers trip, surges can be created through those switching actions.

OK.

The reason it happens is because when current flows through a conductor, it creates a magnetic field and that's where the energy is stored.

If you think about those areas then, what were some of the takeaways then when people think about why do I need to protect against surge and having the right SPD in place? If I could come to you, Matt, what do you think some of those key things are?