Charging and Thunderstorms

This is somehow reminisce of what happened to a non hybrid vehicle in Abuja,. Nigeria, during a thunderstorm. Her car got burnt because of the lightning.

In my head, I have being wondering what could have caused it.

Although I was not there, but what I think happened was that is either some parts of the vehicle was not properly grounded on the chassis, or don't even have grounds at all.

This may have caused a current path for the "thousands" of electrons to flow through, and caused a voltage surge/transient?

Can anyone explain, what in their view was responsible?

 

Would plugging it into a surge protector work?

 

That’s an interesting question, now that you mention it: We often unplug other electronics and appliances in the face of lighting, so why not EVs, you’re asking.

I can’t claim to have researched the topic, yet at least, but two off-the-cuff thoughts come to mind:

First, cars are not plugged in as much as usual appliances or home electronics — typically, 1/3 to 1/2 of the time rather than all the time.

Second, it would seem that, an EVSE basically just being a really really safe extension cord (i.e., AC-in/AC-out) really good surge protection would almost certainly be part of that.

 

Not sure what kind of surge protection is in that EVSE. I'm not comfortable having mine plugged in during thunder storms. I am going to soon be shopping for whole house surge protections, but I just haven't gotten to it yet.

 

Lots of variables with lightning strikes. Here's an example of a car & a direct hit/lightning strike, where the car's Electronics get totally fried. i wouldn't worry .... what do they say the odds are - of getting struck by lightning?

 

I read somewhere sometimes ago that no surge protector will protect anything plugged into the house outlet from direct lightning hit. I would not want my PRIME plugged in during active storm.

Do you have reference for this product? I am interested, but need more info.

 

for me, it would depend on where i live. i have never bothered to un plug, but we don't get much lightning, less close hits and even less direct.

if i lived in tampa with @jerrymildred , i would always unplug

anything is susceptible to a large enough direct hit

 

the product is called a lightning arrestor. There are tons of different kinds out there. Radio transceiver operators have them for their antennas, & you can get them for your house. This is what they may look like at your local Sub Station;

.

 

Thanks. I just Googled it, and it came back with a list of "lightning arrestor" or "whole hose surge protector" ranging from $30 to $1700. Well, I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA which one is appropriate for my application. lol

 

For a charge that has leapt between a cloud and the ground with several million volts, a silly little surge protector that you plug into the wall isn't going to do much

 

True. Most protectors are for the surges from nearby strikes, not direct strikes.

 

Being in the amateur radio service, (W6EEG) & realizing the better /taller antenna you have, the more contacts you can make, it's also more likely that a nice tall antenna Is what it's going to hit - presuming you are in an area prone to lightning strikes. Our Nashville house yes, So Cal hone, not so much. Ain't going to let > $1,000 go up in smoke. $200 ish for an arrester - & we're good to go.

 

Whoah!

However, lightning damage to electronics connected to house power is a kinda different kettle’o’fish from a direct strike to a car sitting outdoors. The strikes are generally “secondary” (strike much farther away), are somewhat higher probability (although still moderately rare), and involve lower voltages (but still high).

 

I not only would never charge during a thunderstorm, but I will shut off the breaker for my EVSE, which is outside the house, if storms move through the area. Bad T-storms are frequent here. Heck, the Prime just had $8,000 worth of repairs to it from hail damage a month and a half ago.

 

Not yet. I'm just doing a little casual shopping as I have time. My problem is that my panel is clear full and the ones I've found that I think I might like require two breaker slots in the service panel. I think that to do it right, I'll end up having to replace the whole service entrance. To me, right now, it's just easier to unplug stuff.

As to the comments about lightning protection in general, it's quite true that lightning is unpredictable and there's no guaranteed way to protect against it. That said, it's a lot better to protect than not to protect. Best example is TV, cell, and radio towers. They get hit all the time and usually keep on ticking. Our 190' tower in West Africa is in one of the world's lightning capitols. I'm sure it must have been hit a few times by now. It has the grounding protection that the tower maker provides, which is three ground rods at the tower base plus one at each guy anchor connected by 5/8" grounding cables. Our FM tower in Honduras is 600' up a mountain and I'm sure it's been hit numerous times. We grounded it by burying four 3" wide copper straps, 16' long, four feet deep. One end of each is silver soldered to the tower; the other end to a ground rod with the top of the rod four feet underground. Both towers also have the antenna cable outer conductor attached to the ground systems with factory kits made for that purpose. The transmitters themselves are also attached to the ground with 3" copper strapping. So far, so good.

 

Thanks. Sound like I will be in the same situation as you are. Our tiny service panel is completely full. A few years back I had an electrician install a whole house generator connection and he changed some of the remaining single breakers to all tandem breakers to free up enough slot to install a transfer switch. I have absolutely no more room in my current service panel. That is another reason preventing me to install dedicated high amp circuit for L2 installation.

 

Something like an SDSA1175 can just poke out of any available knockout on your box, with its wires cinched down on the busses inside. As a Type 1, it can go upstream of the breakers, ideally very close to your ground electrode connection.

It will soak up 36,000 amps while keeping the voltage surge below 700 volts line to neutral or 1200 volts line to line. Those are ideal limits, if you find a way to install it with its wires as short and straight as possible, and the shortest, straightest run to ground.

Lightning is a pulse with such a quick rise time that the inductance of even a sharp quarter bend in the wiring will slow down the conduction, and increase the peak voltage seen on the house wiring during the event. (Leaving its wires the original length and coiling up the extra is right out,)

Those levels, 700 V / 1200 V, are still higher than what is comfortable for sensitive electronics designed for 120 or 240, but the idea is that with 36,000 amps already soaked up and the voltages held to those levels, the downstream surge protectors you would have on individual circuits with sensitive stuff have no trouble mopping up the rest. You want those downstream protectors close to the protected equipment anyway, as otherwise the length and path of the branch circuit wiring could have allowed it to pick up additional energy inductively from the nearby strike's magnetic field.

 

Thanks for the link. And yes, I'll confirm that lightning does not "corner" well. I've heard of it (but not personally seen it) blowing right through a sharp bend and finding another way to earth ... along with taking out upstream equipment.

Edit to add:
Found it! Cheaper from Home Depot than from Amazon. Square D 36 kA Single Phase Panel Mounted Type 1 Surge Protective Device-SDSA1175 - The Home Depot

I'll need to see if I can find some double density breakers to make room because it really needs its own breakers.

 

that's right .... weird as it is, there have been people hit by lightning, and someone 20' - 30' away from the victim, & the nearby person still gets their own good jolt. Consider the fulgerite ... lightning striking sand and solidifying it into glass.

Sometimes these Collectibles run deep into the ground, others just in the surface area. While others formed quite a good long-distance along the ground oh, so you might not want to be the tallest person in the crowd when they get hit


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