Lightning Surge Protection

[Glan gluaisne]

Thanks. Shame that they are not modular units with a separate user replaceable cartridge - easy to replace, a bit like a fuse. If they only last a couple of years, I can see that many are not going to be replaced very often if at all.

They will probably last a great deal longer than a couple of years in most installations. It depends on how many spikes they see, as every time they short an overvoltage spike to ground they degrade slightly, and after a few hundred, to a few thousand, such shorts they fail, usually such that they conduct at normal voltages (hence the reason for them being connected via an MCB).

I don't know the anticipated normal lifetime, but the devices inside an SPD are just high current capacity metal oxide varistors (MOVs) and these are found across the supply terminals on just about every electronic domestic appliance made in the last couple of decades or more. I've once come across an MOV that had failed, causing the fuse to blow, and that was on a TV that was probably around 10 years old. I've no idea whether that MOV failed because it had seen a lot of voltage spikes, or for some other reason. I have a couple of 6 way surge suppressed socket strips here, running PCs etc, and they are at least a decade old, too, yet the MOVs in those still seem to be OK. We are in a rural area, prone to getting power outages in thunderstorms, so I suspect they've seen a fair few spikes by now.

 

[NewbieT]

Thanks. Shame that they are not modular units with a separate user replaceable cartridge - easy to replace, a bit like a fuse. If they only last a couple of years, I can see that many are not going to be replaced very often if at all.

The Wylex ones are. The top half unplugs.

 

[Neilman]

Well over 20 years ago at work we had strange equipment failures and crashes and my boss got hold of a couple of "surge clocks" to determine if surges on the mains were responsible.
They were big "wall wart" style plug-in box with a ring of LEDs on the front face.
Any surges would advance the lit LED so you could see if and how many surges had been detected.
We did have a lot of surges at the time.
Wonder if they're still available?

 

[OttoR]

A few days ago lighting stroke a power utility pole very near my vacation spot in rural France, causing a wide power outage and damaging several installations on the camping. It happened at night when the car was left overnight connected to the destination charger and have not been able to start a charge at public chargers.

Since today I tried both the DeC and mobile charger and both fail with the same message (waiting for charger). I'm starting to worry it is not the chargers that are defected, but the car is.

Logged a service request, but we are running out of charge soon.

 

[Wol747]

A few days ago lighting stroke a power utility pole very near my vacation spot in rural France, causing a wide power outage and damaging several installations on the camping. It happened at night when the car was left overnight connected to the destination charger and have not been able to start a charge at public chargers.

Since today I tried both the DeC and mobile charger and both fail with the same message (waiting for charger). I'm starting to worry it is not the chargers that are defected, but the car is.

Logged a service request, but we are running out of charge soon.

Sympathy!
Have you tried a reboot? Might just reset things. It sounds like the car.

 

[OttoR]

I did. Several times. Contacted Tesla Roadside Assistance and they are analysing from a distance. The car detects that it is the connected to the charger but the pilot pins do not open the contacts for charging.

 

[Adopado]

I did. Several times. Contacted Tesla Roadside Assistance and they are analysing from a distance. The car detects that it is the connected to the charger but the pilot pins do not open the contacts for charging.

I hope you didn't mention the lightning strike! I can't think they will deal with it under warranty if they believe it's anything other than a manufacturing fault.

 

[OttoR]

In my case it is a lease car. I really don't care who pays for it as long as it gets repaired quickly.

So far, no ranger in sight...

With regards to the damage, in France you can get compensation from the grid operator as they "passed through" the surge. At least that is what the camping owner tells me.

Again; let Tesla / Lease company / insurance decide who pays for what.

 

[Wol747]

I’ve been in the habit of pulling the plug when thunderstorms are in the vicinity but have got rather lax recently. Just heard a rumble so am trottong rapidly to the garage!

 

[OttoR]

How often does lightning really strike and not get diverted by a lightning rod.

Honoustly it is the first time in my life that lightning hit that hard. It really was a big explosion with continued crackling of electricity and sparks. Quite the discharge.

And I am not so sure that they have proper surge protectors installed. All Nespresso machines in the tents/houses needed replacements. So the charge passed the main breaker, the subnet breaker, the group at the subnet utility pole breaker, the main breaker in the houses and the group breakers in the houses.

It really is an rarity; but from now on I would disconnect the car as well. (And I would not have left it to charge overnight if I registered that thunder was coming)

 

[Adopado]

So the charge passed the main breaker, the subnet breaker, the group at the subnet utility pole breaker, the main breaker in the houses and the group breakers in the houses.

The extra high voltage of a lightening strike can easily jump these puny little obstacles if it's a direct hit!

 

[Wol747]

>>The extra high voltage of a lightening strike can easily jump these puny little obstacles if it's a direct hit!<<

Many years ago our neighbour's house was hit: the strike blew up their masthead TV amp in the attic. The surge went 100yds down to the main road, 50 yds along to our pole and 100yds into our house, blowing up our CD player and several other units. It doesn't have to be a direct hit!