The Lightning Protection Institute (“LPI”) will soon embark on the third-annual Double Check, a national initiative to remind property owners and the design/build communities to
✓ Have a lightning protection system. ✓ Have the system inspected.
Double Check takes place August 23 – 27 this year. During the week, the LPI and its members focus property owners and the design/build communities on the criticality, quality, and efficacy of lightning protection systems. Providing a total sphere of protection, the systems address life safety, electrical infrastructure, and electronic infrastructure. They are the final component systems in best-practiced electrical construction and structure envelope design. Lightning Protection Institute-Inspection Program inspection is the final step in efficient system design, ensuring performance and compliance with national and local standards and codes.
LPI Executive Director Tim Harger commented, “Double Check reminds commercial property owners and design/build professionals that specifying and installing a lightning protection system, even a well-designed one, completes only one of two steps.” He continued, “The second step, inspection, completes best practices. It substantiates life safety, electrical infrastructure and electronic infrastructure are adequately addressed.”
As building becomes almost entirely dependent on “smart” and traditional technology to power structures and the lives and work of their occupants, insulating those systems from catastrophic interruption is vital. Architects and engineers are increasingly unwilling to merely “check the box” of specifying lightning protection. More and more they demand robust systems that match the complexity and function of the structures they design and build.
Annually, lightning-related property losses exceed $2 billion dollars. In 2018, nearly $1 billion in lightning claims was paid to almost 78,000 policyholders. The same year, $1.7 trillion dollars in data was lost. Sean Kevelighan, CEO of the Insurance Information Institute commented, “As a financial first responder, the insurance industry knows all too well that lightning can cripple data centers, causing business interruption, loss of revenue, a drop in stock price, and can even damage a company’s reputation. Double Check is an important mitigation initiative that risk managers are incorporating into their toolkit, along with proper insurance coverage, to more effectively protect corporate assets.”
