lighting protection

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ltwright

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Tuesday afternoon we had a major thunderstorm with lots of lightning. Apparently, the lightning struck near the Con Maint and thru one of the legs at the pole mounted transformer.

When this happened, it did not trip the 'master' breaker for the building. Some systems worked or partially worked.

Should not this situation have tripped the building master breaker? and if so, why didn't that happen?
 
charlie b

charlie b

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Location
Lockport, IL
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Retired Electrical Engineer
Re: lighting protection

There is no reason to expect lightning to trip the breaker, and it may or may not do so. The current associated with lightning is very high, but very short in duration. The main breaker may not have had time to detect the high current before that high current was no longer there.
 
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ltwright

Member
Re: lighting protection

That's what I was thinking. Similar to when lightning strikes an appliance in somebody's house and the main breaker is not tripped.
 
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