With Summer comes Thunderstorms
Summer is here and with warmer weather comes thunderstorms and power outages. One of the most unpredictable and often most detrimental threats to any security system is extreme weather conditions and in Johannesburg, we experience severe lightning storms, every summer. An electric storm can wreak havoc with your gate motors, perimeter electric fence, external motion sensors, beams, backup batteries and internal alarm systems! During an electric storm, there may be many lightning strikes that hit the ground directly, or connect with electricity poles, trees, television aerials etc. There is an estimated 1 billion volts in one lighting strike, which generates a burst of heat 3 times hotter than the surface of the sun. Every time this happens the energy surge is incredible and it moves through the channel of least resistance, which could be your home or building’s circuitry, your gate or your electric fence – or all three. The surge pushes through the thin wiring and melts it instantly, leaving a burnt, damaged mess and destroying everything along the path.This is why a strike near your gate motor can destroy the motor, then travel through the wiring of the intercom system, destroying that, and if the wiring runs alongside your alarm cables, it can take that with it too.
What happens to your hard wired alarm system if it is hit by lighting?
Wired systems rely on physical wiring, whether it’s a phone line or a broadband connection. Lightning will travel through these lines, ultimately reaching the security unit. Since a wired system needs a constant connection via phone or internet, what happens when the storm knocks the power out? The internet and the phone are going down too, resulting in a home alarm system that won’t be doing its job.
Why you should consider installing a Wireless Alarm system!
A wireless security system does not require a hardline connection since it sends out its signals through cellular communication. If lightning knocks out your power, your connection will not be interrupted. A cell phone works perfectly fine during a storm; a wireless system is exactly the same.
A wireless security system has so many advantages over a wired system. Rain or shine, lightning or calm, a wireless system is simply more reliable. ProSafe Security is committed to offering you a system that is virtually impossible to defeat, even when the lightning strikes.
