breaker tripped under lightning

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anbm

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main breaker (1200A, LI trip, no ground fault detection) in service panel is tripped whenever there are lightnings in the area,
panel has no spd, does anyone has any ideas why? surges?
 
Years ago lightning struck the pole mounted transformer that supplied our house. Our electric clothes dryer was running at the time and the voltage spike took out the heating element in the dryer. Everything else was OK, but it was many years ago, before we had computers and other devices that have circuitry that is on all the time.
 
anbm said:
main breaker (1200A, LI trip, no ground fault detection) in service panel is tripped whenever there are lightnings in the area,
panel has no spd, does anyone has any ideas why? surges?
Click to expand...
What do you mean by 'in the area'? There is a big difference between 10 miles and 100 feet.
How often has this happened?

What is the complete catalog number of the breaker?
 
jim dungar said:
What do you mean by 'in the area'? There is a big difference between 10 miles and 100 feet.
How often has this happened?

What is the complete catalog number of the breaker?
Click to expand...
"in the area" is where the building has panel located.
 
anbm said:
"in the area" is where the building has panel located.
Click to expand...
If you are talking about lightning strikes to the building itself, your first step should be a lightning protection system.

If you are talking about lightning strikes to nearby buildings, their surge currents may be flowing through your grounding system. Have you had your ground and bonding tested with a 3 or 4 point tester?

If you are talking about lightning strikes on or nearby your utility distribution system, you should be checking your grounding bonding and adding multiple levels of surge suppression.

When testing bonding do not forget all underground piping, such as fire systems, gas piping, and process piping run between buildings.
 
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jim dungar said:
If you are talking about lightning strikes to the building itself, your first step should be a lightning protection system.

If you are talking about lightning strikes to nearby buildings, their surge currents may be flowing through your grounding system. Have you had your ground and bonding tested with a 3 or 4 point tester?

If you are talking about lightning strikes on or nearby your utility distribution system, you should be checking your grounding bonding and adding multiple levels of surge suppression.

When testing boring do not forget all underground piping, such as fire systems, gas piping, and process piping run between buildings.
Click to expand...
Here is breaker catalog # Eaton NGS212033E. Thought breaker only tripped under overload or short current condition, lightning sounds like over voltage to me...
 
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