{"id":17828,"date":"2023-11-07T12:15:11","date_gmt":"2023-11-07T12:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/?p=17828"},"modified":"2023-11-07T12:15:11","modified_gmt":"2023-11-07T12:15:11","slug":"ignore-earth-spikes-at-your-peril-failure-to-install-can-invalidate-insurance-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/ignore-earth-spikes-at-your-peril-failure-to-install-can-invalidate-insurance-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"Ignore earth spikes at your peril! Failure to install can invalidate insurance claims!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><em>7 November 2023<\/em><\/strong><em>:<\/em> The upsurge of solar installations in both residential and commercial properties, often by less experience installers, who may not be fully aware of necessity for lightning protection, should be a major cause for concern.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Valsa Trading, which has been the \u2018go to\u2019 local manufacturer and supplier of a complete range of fit- for-purpose photovoltaic (PV) solar solutions since its establishment 14 years ago in 2009, point out that the importance of earthing in electrical system installations is of utmost importance and cannot be compromised.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Svilen Voychev<\/strong>, Valsa\u2019s CEO, said: \u201cSANS regulations clearly stipulate that <em>\u2018the earth reference needs to be taken down through a 25mm<sup>2<\/sup> Green\/Yellow GP wire, which will be terminated to an earth mat comprising a minimum of four earth spikes\/rods to afford the installation and insulation resistance not greater than \u22643\u03a9.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He added that lighting strikes can produce around 300 million Volts and 30\u00a0000 Amps, and this instantaneous discharge can not only terminally damage un-earthed electrical equipment but perhaps more to the point, lead to a building fire and loss of life and property. \u201cFailure to install an appropriate earthing system could also invalidate an owner\u2019s insurance claim.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cEarth spikes provide the protection required to ensure that the installed electrical system is compliant according to SANS regulations. The purpose of earth spikes is to protect installed electrical equipment, such as inverters, batteries and solar panels, from lighting surges by channeling these large electrical currents into the ground.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAs part of our comprehensive range of solar components, we have assembled an earth spike kit, which has been designed to comply with SANS regulations and comes as a complete package for installers, comprising earth spikes, BETAflamR Solar 125 RV flex 1500V DC cabling and all connections, at a competitive price\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Valsa provide installers with an earth spike installation guide as follows:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It is important to note that the ground rods should be placed at a minimum distance of<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2 metres apart. This is to ensure that any short circuit and leakage currents don\u2019t affect the system operation.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The entire grounding rod should be buried underground, leaving only the copper cable connector exposed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An explanation diagram is included in the kit to simplify the manner in which the Earth Spike kit is installed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<strong>ENDS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>About Valsa Trading:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Valsa Trading (Pty) Ltd, established in 2009, is a specialist photovoltaic (PV) solar turnkey supplier. The company\u00a0 designs, manufactures and supplies photovoltaic (PV) solar mounting solutions for all roofs, carports, ground, facade, and floating applications.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That, coupled with an extensive range of PV Solar products including panels, inverters, batteries, cables, switchgear, pumps, drives etc. adds to its\u00a0 comprehensive offering for all PV Solar requirements to suit residential, corporate, or industrial needs.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><u>Media Contact<\/u><\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Charles Poulter<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Account Manager: SWM Communications<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mobile | 076\u00a0812 8429<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Email | charles@swmcommunications.co.za<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><u>Valsa Contact<\/u><\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Zhante Hatting<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Marketing Supervisor: Valsa Trading<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mobile | +27 69\u00a0589 8007<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Email |\u00a0 marketing@valsa.co.za<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Office | (0)11 794 1306<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>7 November 2023: The upsurge of solar installations in both residential and commercial properties, often by less experience installers, who may not be fully aware of necessity for lightning protection, should be a major cause for concern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases","category-valsa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17828"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17829,"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17828\/revisions\/17829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swmcommunications.co.za\/press-office\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}