# Circuit Breaker Trips in Thunderstorm



## ryanborg

Hi, I am Ryan from Malta. I have just built a new house recently and have done all new wiring. I have a 3 story house, One garage (basement level) where the electric supply comes in with a circuit broad & breakers and another set of breakers on the ground floor. and a roof which is supplied from ground floor breakers

Whenever we have a thunderstorm and we are hit by a thunderclap close by the basement breaker goes out..i have already changed the breaker just in case it was faulty.. the number of times it goes out has been reduced but it still happens. I travel a lot and last time i ended up going home to a defrosted fridge and freezer had to throw out everything. Can anyone help me find a solution to this.. could it be related to teh supply connections from outside tripping the breaker? or is it something internal


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## Done_Fishin

Just guessing but if the lightning strike was close then it might be tripping the earth leakage detector. When lightning strikes there is a huge electromagnetic pulse in the vicinity that can influence voltages on wiring. You might want to think about some form of protection against over-voltage.


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## ryanborg

So you are saying something must be wrong with my earth rod?


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## Done_Fishin

What I am saying is that when lightning strikes there is a very large magnetic pulse that influences the voltages on ALL power cables (not to mention affects all electrical and electronics equipment). 

Earthing, as in the case of you earth rod, has nothing to do with this although if your earth is bad that is not good either since protection depends upon being connected to good earthing!

To safeguard against Electromagnet Pulses one has to create what is known as a Faraday Cage which will shield your wiring and equipment, most likely in conjunction with Over Voltage or Voltage Surge devices to clamp down unwanted peaks on voltage rails. 

I am not an expert in these matters and most likely it would be a good idea to talk to experts or do some research on this yourself. It's pretty heavy reading though even for someone like myself who has been working in the electrical / electronic "trade" for years.

I found a couple of pdf files you might want to browse to get an idea

http://www.alhof.com/cataloghi/cat_p011_f202.pdf

http://www.dehnargentina.com.ar/descargas/pdf/BBP_E_Chapter_07.pdf


and of course there is Wikipedia 

Electromagnetic pulse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## SABL

I'm going to move this thread to a better area......we're not dealing with electronics but high voltage distribution in a building. Even 110VAC is considered as high voltage.

What VAC is used in Malta?? US is 110VAC and I think the UK is 220VAC for common circuitry in residential applications. What is the normal load on the breaker that trips?? How many appliances (or devices) are on the circuit?? There should be nothing other than the freezer on a single circuit. How close was the lightning strike or was it a direct hit to the overhead power lines??

What kind of distribution system do you have in the house?? I hope you are not supplying power to your basement with a single breaker....:nono:


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## Basementgeek

You will need a clamp on amp meter to measure the load.

BG


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