Lightning Protection [RE-wrenches]

[Windy Dankoff, Dankoff Solar]

<x-flowed>From: Mark Downing <solarman4 at yahoo.com>
>For a while I was returning so many inverters
>with lightning damage that they knew me as "the
>lightning guy".  Since I started using Delta lightning
>arrestors we are having much better luck, but still a
>handful of lightning related failures per year.


Mark (and others) --

Where are the surges coming in from? Input side, or output side of inverter?


I'd like us to compile some good trade tricks. I'll start with this 
one, courtesy of Tony Jasman, Lake Superior Renewable Energy and also 
a radio broadcast engineer

For 48V and lower V circuits, both DC and 3-phase AC from wind: 
Start with ordinary MOVs available from Radio Shack but parallel with 
each one, put a little old fashioned neon light (the tiny orange 
lighting type, such as NE-51 from electronic parts suppliers). The 
neon light acts as a spark gap. It also gives a visual indication 
when it is discharging. The spark gap reacts faster than the MOV, and 
saves it from frequent destruction.

You place this combination between all susceptible connections and 
ground. The MOV will almost always disintegrate visually when it 
fails, whereas some other suppression devices will fail without 
showing any visible indication.

Windy Dankoff

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