Power Failure- I think we got lucky!
In 16 years, our power system has been ultra reliable. Our Trace Inverter has never let us down. It was with a great deal of consternation that I watched our power system suddenly start kicking on and off the other night. A light and dishwasher which were on at the time cycled on and off with the inverter. Bummer I thought!
I'm pleased to report that the inverter is working just fine again. Here's why I think we got lucky. We have our wind turbine which sits on a 67 foot steel pipe tower. Our inverter started acting squirrelly during a lightning storm. I suspect, but have no way to know for sure, that we were building up a charge and likely were very close to a lightning strike. The inverter sensed something funky.
Fortunately, I realized the lightning storm and inverter problem might be related and I powered down everything pronto. I usually power down routinely during a major thunderstorm but this one didn't seem to be a big deal so I left the power on. I always unplug computers and critical equipment every lightning storm.
For what it's worth... we have some pretty vicious thunderstorms in the summer and although the lightning cracks all around, we have never been hit. I have lightning rods on the roof as well as chimneys with appropriate stranded copper cable to a grounding rod in the earth. Our electrical system is tied to the same point. We have a lightning arrestor indoors with our set up.
The turbine tower also has a lightning arrestor connected across the output of the turbine. I also have a heavy gauge stranded copper wire that runs to the top of the tower which is grounded. This wire is bent 90 degrees at the top and sticks out about 12 inches. I took the strands and splayed them out in kind of a roundish fan pattern. In theory, my understanding is this set up will bleed off any charges before the big bolt drops from the sky. So far-so good.
