I don't get much lightning here, the occasional electrical storm usually sends sparks into the distant hills. Last night the rumbling started and soon the sparks were flying but a close hit on a power pylon about a Km away was interesting. The air below this pylon, 440kv type, is interesting as a 2 foot floro tube lights up bright with no power connection but last night after the hit it seemed the whole tower was glowing. The long insulators that hold the suspended cables were sparking and red hot bits were falling off. Great entertainment, best fireworks show since last Halloween :)
This got me thinking about my turbine tower, 12 metres tall, I know a direct hit would probably fry everything but is there any advantage in fitting SPDs to the ac lines from the turbine. There are already MOVs with activity LEDs on the ac inputs on the Clipper circuit board. So there is some protection from transient spikes. Would SPDs offer any useful additional protection?
Dgd
Good question dgd did you get an answer? Would you put an spd on each AC line in? How far from the Clipper is the tower, i.e. how long is the antenna?
Well there is a single MOV per phase on the AC Clippers now. I prefer more protection myself so I have 2 SPD'd in the clipper and I do the 3 phases and DC+ leaving the clipper with those 2.
Ryan
in my opinion lightning emp is unlikely to pop the clipper as i see it as a giant power resistor. on the other hand i've also said that the more steps you take, the better your odds.
Quote from: niel on September 19, 2013, 07:43:28 PM
in my opinion lightning emp is unlikely to pop the clipper as i see it as a giant power resistor.
Niel;
True as far as it goes. However, the Clipper has a circuit card in it with sensing for voltage and an SSR. Both could get buggered by a sky spark. I went overboard on SPD's and high grade grounds because we have a history of lightning losses here. Made me paranoid of sky sparks.
Tom