breaker tripped under lightning
- Thread starter anbm
- Start date
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA
- Occupation
- Electrical Engineer
Severe under voltage when the lightning strike takes something out suddenly?
SceneryDriver
Senior Member
- Location
- NJ
- Occupation
- Electrical and Automation Designer
Does the breaker have under- or overvoltage trip protection?
every time
ggunn
PE (Electrical), NABCEP certified
- Location
- Austin, TX, USA
- Occupation
- Consulting Electrical Engineer - Photovoltaic Systems
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.
- Location
- Wisconsin
- Occupation
- PE (Retired) - Power Systems
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?
"in the area" is where the building has panel located.
- Location
- Wisconsin
- Occupation
- PE (Retired) - Power Systems
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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Here is breaker catalog # Eaton NGS212033E. Thought breaker only tripped under overload or short current condition, lightning sounds like over voltage to me...