As a professional lightning surge protection device manufacturer, when asked this question, we first need to analyze whether the “lightning” is direct strike lightning or inductive lightning.
If it is direct strike lightning, where does the point of impact occur? If it falls on external lightning protection systems such as lightning rods and strips on buildings, and these lightning rods and strips release the direct strike lightning through the building’s steel bars or down conductors into the ground grid, then the building is safe. However, due to circuits inside the building (strong electricity and weak electricity [weak electricity refers to signal types]), there may be inductive lightning generated by this direct strike affecting the circuit. In this case, different levels of surge protectors need to be installed in different distribution boxes to dissipate transient voltage and surge current generated by inductive lighting for protecting subsequent electrical equipment.
If direct strike lighting hits some metal structures (such as metal water tanks on roofs, satellite receivers) that are not part of external lighting protection systems, these direct strikes may directly enter the building interior which can be very dangerous.
Therefore, besides installing external Lightning Protection Systems on buildings, appropriate power surge protectors should also be installed inside various distribution boxes and signal type surge protectors should be installed inside weak electric boxes to filter out transient voltage and surge currents produced by inductive lightning layer by layer ensuring safety of electrical equipment.
