Protecting Homes: EMP Shield
Photos by: Emma Highfill | Rose Wheat Photography & Grace Place
EMP Shield, a one-of-a-kind patented, protective device manufactured in Kansas, protects your entire home from lightning strikes, electrical surges that damage home electronics, as well as an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) or CME (Coronal Mass Ejection/Solar Flare). It is basically a super surge protector, the only whole home and vehicle EMP protection that exists.
The device, from the brain of inventor Tim Carty and the team at EMP Shield, works by draining the voltage away from equipment so fast that it does not have time to do damage.
The technology, called SightSpeedTM, reacts in less than 1 billionth of a second.
In the first year of business, EMP Shield has sold devices in 13 countries.
Each EMP Shield costs around $350. General Manager Pete Keegan notes that the nearest competitor is a surge protector with a base price starting at $3,000 and does not have the functionality of the EMP Shield. So why is EMP offering their product at such a bargain price?
“We want to protect people,” Keegan said. “We want our device to be accessible.”
“We treat people how we want to be treated,” founder Tim Carty added. “We’re fair. We set our price point low, less than the deductible on insurance, and we did that intentionally.”
OLD SCHOOL VIEW
Carty said EMP Shield takes an old school view on business. He wants to turn a profit, of course, but more importantly, he wants the product to be accessible to everyone and his staff to be compensated well for their work.
“We are not trying to get rich,” Carty said. “Good businesses take care of their customers and their employees.”
Part of taking care of customers is offering a solid product warranty. Much like an airbag in a car, if the EMP Shield is activated and fulfills its intention of protecting your home from a power surge, the device will no longer function. Under the company warranty, a customer may return the ruined EMP Shield, and the company will replace it with a new one for only $50.
IT’S NOT IF, IT’S WHEN
EMP and CME might sound like plots out of a science fiction novel, but Pete Keegan says these are very real threats. CMEs have already occurred in the past, but the last one with the potential to do real damage struck before our nation was wired for and dependent on electricity.
Science warns that a recurrence is a certainty, much like an active volcano will eventually erupt again.
“It’s not if,” Keegan said, “it’s when.”
In addition, Carty says the Department of Homeland Security has identified the possibility of damage to infrastructure from electromagnetic incidents caused by an intentional electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack as a high-level threat. They also name naturally occurring geomagnetic disturbances (CMEs) as events to protect against.
Even though the potential damage from CMEs and EMPs have been noted, a product that could truly mitigate the effects of these hazards did not exist until now. So, how did Carty develop a product that no one else could?
His colleagues note that he is an out-of the-box thinker who sees things that others don’t.
“Tim’s about half a bubble off plumb,” Keegan said, laughing.
Others have applied the word, “genius,” but Carty is uncomfortable with that label and turns the credit back to his team. While the patent for the device is in Carty’s name, the intellectual property belongs to the company.
“No one gets there alone,” he said. “We all stumble, but with a team we keep moving. We find a way to go forward together.”
EXPANSION
At the end of the first year in business, EMP Shield is expanding its current facility in Burlington, Kansas, and looking at possible locations for another. The website is filled with glowing reviews from satisfied customers, and EMP Shield was chosen as one of 10 companies among thousands to be honored in Washington D.C. as part of the ASBDC Annual Awards.
