Lightning Damage to Electrical Systems

Lightning strike or damage protection systems:

This lightning protection system website describes common lightning protection systems, certification, installation, and lightning protection system inspection. We provide information about lightning strikes, lightning hazards, related equipment, sources of lightning protection system installers, and lightning strike risk assessment.

The lightning bolt photograph at page top was taken by the author from an aircraft.

Effects of lightning strike on building electrical systems, electrical panels, grounding

Some common effects on the electrical system: service entry, electrical meter, electric panel, circuit breakers, fuses, wiring, grounding, individual electrical circuits, and appliances or other electrical equipment in the home are listed here.

Photo: This house fire in Georgia was caused by a lightning strike in April, 2008.

[Click to enlarge any image]

Fatal Shock Hazard Warning: Inspecting electrical components and systems risks death by electrocution as well as serious burns or other injuries to the inspector or to others. Do not attempt these tasks unless you are properly trained and equipped.

• Loss of power
  
  to some or all of the building's circuits.
  
  If only certain lighting or receptacle or appliance circuits are not working, start by turning the appropriate circuit breaker off, then back-on or replacing the fuse. Remember to check for a tripped GFCI receptacle in bathrooms or in the kitchen.
  
  Watch out: before touching anything in the electrical panel look for burn or scorch marks: do not touch any equipment that is visibly damaged.
  
  If some outlets are working but others not, all on the same circuit, then the problem is more-likely to be a lost connection at one of the receptacles (outlets).
  
  See ELECTRICAL RECEPTACLE ARC PITTING
  
  Watch out: If all power has been lost the main breaker may have tripped, or more-seriously, the electrical service, meter, or panel may be damaged.
  
  Do not try to work on or disassemble your electrical panel or meter. You could be shocked and killed. Ask for help from a licensed electrician.
  
  See ELECTRIC METER ARC BURN POWER LOSS
• Damaged or unsafe gas piping
  
  due to actual physical damage to gas lines causing a gas leak, or loss of proper electrical grounding. If in any doubt, turn off the gas supply at the main gas valve - provided you can do so safely wearing insulating gloves.
  
  Watch out: If there is a gas odor, leave the property without doing anything to cause a spark (turning anything electrical on or off, even a cellphone) - and from a safe location, call your emergency services.
• More subtle problems like flickering lights -
  
  see ELECTRIC POWER LOSS / FLICKERING LIGHTS
• Need to replace local surge protection devices (that did their job and are now no longer functional) at or in the electrical panel, at wells, pumps, or other local electrical equipment
  
  see LIGHTNING PROTECTION SYSTEMS
• Power surge damage to other electrical equipment in the building
• A current or future failure of one or more circuit breakers
  
  to trip in response to an over-current, resulting in a fire or injury or both.
  
  Even if a circuit breaker "looks" un-damaged, it may be damaged internally, or there may be scorching and damage at the breaker-to-pane-bus connection that you cannot see without disassembly of the electrical panel - a step to leave to your electrician.
  
  Watch out: while electricians and others may recommend a visual inspection of the electrical panel and its individual circuit breakers after a lighting strike, visual inspection alone may be insufficient to assure that these devices are safe and functioning properly.
  
  A circuit breaker may be damaged internally such that it may fail to respond to an over-current - it may fail to trip in the future.
  
  An incomplete test that is trivial to perform is to simply confirm that switching breakers OFF indeed turns off the circuit. ( beware that performing this switching test on some problem breaker panels such as FPE is not recommended and can instead increase the risk of a future circuit breaker failure)
  
  See also DO NOT PERFORM In-Home Testing of FPE Stab-Lok®
  
  Additional tests by an expert may include electrical resistance tests (looking for overheated, burned connections) as well as circuit breaker trip tests (these can NOT be safely performed in the electrical panel under normal circumstances and require advice from an expert).
• Visible damage
  
  to electrical components such as electrical panel bus burn-up, arcing, over-flash, etc. in the electrical panel.
  
  Look for scorch marks on electrical equipment, devices, inside and outside, but
  
  Watch out: do not touch any electrical device or equipment of which you have any doubt or on which you see damage. Rely on your electrician to pursue that damage further.
  
• Physical damage:
  
  dislocated breakers, wires, electrical devices in the building due to the physical shock wave from a lightning strike
• Need to replace the whole electrical panel - but, as you read
  
  at CHALLENGER ELECTRIC PANELS that panel, like FPE, Zinsco and some other brands, was already considered unsafe and in need of replacement
• Loss of safe local electrical grounding
  
  due to burning, melting, overheating, or physical dislocation
  
  An electrician can check for proper grounding at receptacles, circuits, etc.
  
  See GROUND SYSTEM INSPECTION - home, and
  
  See LOST ELECTRICAL GROUND
• Lightning protection system damage from the lightning strike, including melted, burned, or dislocated components.
  
  See LIGHTNING PROTECTION SYSTEM DAMAGED, UNSAFE
• Lost water pressure or loss of other building systems that require electrical power
  
  See LIGHTNING DAMAGE TO PUMP, WELL, ELECTRICAL CONTROLS

Watch out: the surge caused by a nearby lightning strike can cause serious damage to many building components, electrical, plumbing, even structural and siding, trim, appliances, etc. even if the lightning bolt did not strike the home directly. Even materials that are not obviously part of an electrical damage can be damaged by a lightning strike. (Mall 2009).

Watch out: beyond the actual damage from extremely-high voltage cause by a lightning strike at or near a building, the shock wave can cause physical damage to the structure, ranging from damaged glass or plaster to foundation damage or dislodged electrical or other components.

Watch out: "A house is a safe place to be during a thunderstorm as long as you avoid anything that conducts electricity. " - US National Weather Service, "Lightning Myths", https://www.weather.gov/safety/lightning-myths

Question: what lightning damage happens at an electrical panel?

2020/04/24 JohnJanicek

Read your article on Challenger panels with great interest. What might be the effect of a lightning strike, either direct or indirect on the service feed and ultimately the panel?

This Q&A were posted originally

at CHALLENGER ELECTRIC PANELS

Moderator reply: common damage & effects caused by lightning strike near residential electrical systems

Thanks for the question, John.

The effect of a lightning strike on a Challenger electrical panel would probably be about the same as on any residential electrical panel: significant risk of both visible and hidden damage that could make the panel (and / or other electrical wiring, equipment, devices in the building) unsafe, such as the defects listed above on this page.

Research on Lightning Damage to Electrical Systems

• Ametani, Akihiro, Kae Matsuoka, Hiroshi Omura, and Yoshiyuki Nagai. "Surge voltages and currents into a customer due to nearby lightning." Electric power systems research 79, no. 3 (2009): 428-435.
  
  Abstract excerpt: This paper presents experimental results of lightning surges incoming into a customer due to lightning to an antenna of the customer, a pole and a ground nearby the customer, and briefly discusses lightning current distribution in the customer, a distribution line and a telephone line.
• Colton, F. Barrows, LIGHTNING in ACTION [PDF] National Geographic Magazine, June 1950, provided courtesy of U.S. Forest Service, retrieved 2020/04/25 original source: http://ira.usf.edu/CAM/exhibitions/1998_12_McCollum/supplemental_didactics/14.Colton.pdf
• DeCarlo, Brian A., Vladimir A. Rakov, Jason E. Jerauld, George H. Schnetzer, Jens Schoene, Martin A. Uman, Keith J. Rambo et al. "Distribution of currents in the lightning protective system of a residential building—Part I: Triggered-lightning experiments." IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery 23, no. 4 (2008): 2439-2446.
• Eaton, Thomas E. "Electric services and building fires." Fire technology 28, no. 1 (1992): 70-86.
  Abstract:
  
  This paper discusses various issues regarding the supply of electric power and building fires. The scope of the paper is limited to services, service entrances and power supply. Electrical fires involving customer property are rarely caused by electric services or supply problems but instead are usually caused by customer systems and equipment.
  
  Physical evidence of shorting or faulting of the service or service entrance is commonly found at fire scenes but seldom is evidence of fire cause. Those service-related problems which do create fire hazards involve the customer system, physical damage, lightning, or improper service voltage.
  
  Fire hazards created by the connected service typically willinvolve either lightning or improper service voltage. Electric utilities are responsible for the supply system and for power supply within the system voltage range. Customers are responsible for premises wiring systems.
• ELECTRIC MOTOR DIAGNOSTIC GUIDE - home
• Etter, Ted, EVALUATING LIGHTNING PROTECTION on LOOKOUTS and COMMUNICATION FACILITIES [PDF] U.S.D.A. Forest Service, Technology & Development Program, Missoula Technology and Development Center5785 Hwy. 10 WestMissoula, MT 59808–9361 Phone: 406–329–3978Fax: 406 –329–3719E-mail: wo_ mtdc_ pubs@fs.fed.us June 2008, retrieved 2020/04/25 original source: https://www.firelookout.org/uploads/3/4/3/2/34327758/lightning-protection.pdf
• Gagné, Martin, and Daniel Therriault. "Lightning strike protection of composites." Progress in Aerospace Sciences 64 (2014): 1-16.
• Hosokawa, Takeshi, Sigeru Yokoyama, and Tsutomu Yokota. "Study of damages on home electric appliances due to lightning." IEEJ Transactions on Power and Energy 125 (2005): 221-226.
• Kern, Alexander, and Frank Krichel. "Considerations about the lightning protection system of mains independent renewable energy hybrid-systems—practical experiences." Journal of Electrostatics 60, no. 2-4 (2004): 257-263.
• Key, T. S., Doni Nastasi, Kermit Phipps, and François D. Martzloff. SOME ENLIGHTENING CASE HISTORIES ON LIGHTNING DAMAGE [PDF] In Proceedings 25th International Conference on Lightning Protection–Rhodes. 2000. - retrieved 2020/04/25 original source: https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/pml/div684/Enlightening.pdf
  
  This article points to the importance of proper electrical ground bonding between all of the electrical facilities at a building, such as including the electrical panel, TV cable wiring, telephone wiring, home entertainmenbt systems, etc. The authors cataloged damage to equipment in a lightning-struck home including to a stereo tuner/amplifier, satellite receiver, indoor and outdoor speakers.
• Mall, S., B. L. Ouper, and J. C. Fielding. "Compression strength degradation of nanocomposites after lightning strike." Journal of composite materials 43, no. 24 (2009): 2987-3001.
• Martzloff, Francois. "On the dispersion of lightning current after a direct flash to a building." In Procs. of ICLP 2000, pp. 429-434. 2000.
• Moongilan, Dheena. "Residential solar system bonding and grounding methods for lightning protection." In 2013 IEEE Symposium on Product Compliance Engineering (ISPCE), pp. 1-6. IEEE, 2013.
• Nagai, Y. "Lightning surge propagation and lightning damage risk across electric power and communication system in residential house." In The paper of Technical Meeting on Electromagnetic Compatibility, IEE Japan, 2005. 2005.
• Rakov, Vladimir A., Martin A. Uman, Mark I. Fernandez, Carlos T. Mata, Keith J. Rambo, Michael V. Stapleton, and Rafael R. Sutil. "Direct lightning strikes to the lightning protective system of a residential building: Triggered-lightning experiments." IEEE Transactions on power delivery 17, no. 2 (2002): 575-586.
• Renni, Elisabetta, Elisabeth Krausmann, and Valerio Cozzani. "Industrial accidents triggered by lightning." Journal of hazardous materials 184, no. 1-3 (2010): 42-48.
• Krider, E. Philip, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN and LIGHTNING RODS [PDF] Physics Today 59, no. 1 (2006): 42. - retrieved 2020/04/25 source: Citation: Physics Today 59(1), 42 (2006); doi: 10.1063/1.2180176 View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2180176
• "Lightning Fatalities, Injuries, and Damage Reports in the United States from 1959-1994", E. Brian Curran, Ronald L. Holle, Raul E. Lopez, NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS SR-193 October 1997
• UL - Underwriters Labs Lightning equipment certification program. "Underwriters Laboratories Inc. https://www.ul.com/lightning/
  
  (UL) has been testing and certifying lightning protection equipment since 1908. UL issues certificates of conformance for systems, inspecting system components and checking completed installations.
  
  Installations are required to comply with UL's internationally recognized Standards for lightning protection systems. Manufacturers, suppliers and installers demonstrate their commitment to safety by building, selling and installing only those lightning protection products that pass UL's rigorous testing." -- (Op.Cit.)
• SAFETY HAZARDS & SAFE PROCEDURES for ELECTRICAL INSPECTORS for Electrical and Home Inspectors at Residential Electric Panels
• ELECTRICAL PANELS, HOW TO INSPECT in buildings, safety for electrical inspectors, electrical panel, fusing, wiring defects, defective products. Inspection Class Presentation
• RUST & CORROSION in ELECTRICAL PANELS A Study and Report on Frequency and Cause for Electrical and Home Inspectors at Residential Electric Panels

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