HOW to protect Motion Detector Lights from Lightning?

2 nights ago we had a thunder storm that killed 2 motion detector lights. One light stays ON all the time the 2 adjustments do nothing to turn it off. The other motion detector light does random flashes like a strobe light the adjustment does nothing to make is stop. We live in tornado alley I have a pile of a dozen dead motion detector lights. These use to cost $12 now they are $60 each. Circuit boards in lights have, LDR, motion sensor, 12 pin IC with no number, no burned parts.

Is there a way to protect these lights form lightning?

Does your house have a lightning conductor for protection?
Do you normally switch off / unplug all electrical appliances if you know a storm is approaching?

alec_t said:

Does your house have a lightning conductor for protection?
Do you normally switch off / unplug all electrical appliances if you know a storm is approaching?

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What is lightning conductor? All house wires are #14 Romex, city, country, state, code. WE live in middle TN we get on average 260 days of rain every year & lots of lightning in tornado alley. Yesterday we got the typical 4 pm thunderstorm then we got another 2 pm thunderstorm it was the 2nd storm that killed the 2 motion lights. If we turn motion detector lights OFF then what good are they to have, no reason to have lights and not turn them on. We are sometimes gone camping 3 days in the middle of the week no way to turn lights off while being 150 to 400 miles from home.

gary350 said:

What is lightning conductor?

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Google knows. See here for example. The theory is that by providing an easy path for the lightning to ground the house electrical system is essentially bypassed so takes less of a hit.

alec_t said:

Google knows. See here for example. The theory is that by providing an easy path for the lightning to ground the house electrical system is essentially bypassed so takes less of a hit.

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We have no lightning rods most of the info on the link is lightning rods. We had lightning rods on house roof when I was in grade school 1958 standing in barn watching the storm I saw lightning strike house wires to ground light up solid white across top of roof and down both sides of the house, no damage to house. We have tall trees that work like Faraday cage at this trees take lightning strikes before house. I like to experiment I put up a long wire 10 ft high about 60 ft long between 2 trees. Wire is attached to fluorescent light bulb on 1 end and ground wire on other end. Storm after dark 10 miles away makes fluorescent bulb glow dim all the time but when storm gets closer lightning within 5 miles makes fluorescent bulb flash and closer lightning strikes are the brighter bulb flashes. I put fluorescent on house circuit box to ground lightning will flashes bulb sometimes. I think lightning inters house on the power line wires. The 12KW Tesla coil I use to have made every motion detector light in 5 block radius of my house flash on/off. The tesla coil also made all garage doors go up/down none stop. My tesla coil had no arcs to the house or wires it was shooting sparks into the air and it was very quick to kill all the motion detector lights on my other house when we lived in town. I think the fluorescent bulb I have connected to the circuit box is grounding all the lightning coming in on wires but its not doing much to over the air signals. I think house wire in attic & walls act like the 60 ft wire I have running between 2 trees, house wires pick up lightning like an antenna. House ground wires can pick up over the air lightning. All wires in house are a temporary storage capacitor for lightning. Lightning rod wire on roof is woven #16 wire in the form of a 3/4 inch diameter tube. I should probably get a real surge protector. The 2 motion detectors and were killed were on the garage several feet from the house but all the AC power comes from the house.

Are these ferrite things on cords surge protection?

gary350 said:

Are these ferrite things on cords surge protection?

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No, they are for noise reduction. They are either to reduce signals that are radiated by the wire, or to reduce the pickup by the wire of noise from elsewhere.

gary350 said:

Are these ferrite things on cords surge protection?

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No.

Your electrical system may have poor grounding. Very rocky or dry sandy soil drains well but provides no conduction to earth ground. When we lived on the side of a rocky hill, we had to keep changing our electronics (VCR, TV and Garage Door Openers after lightning storm. Then we changed the grounding rod to something much longer with a second grounding rod connected to the first bud further down the hill and even longer - it seemed to work.

gophert said:

Your electrical system may have poor grounding. Very rocky or dry sandy soil drains well but provides no conduction to earth ground. When we lived on the side of a rocky hill, we had to keep changing our electronics (VCR, TV and Garage Door Openers after lightning storm. Then we changed the grounding rod to something much longer with a second grounding rod connected to the first bud further down the hill and even longer - it seemed to work.

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It has rained here every day for 2 weeks. We had 2" of rain yesterday and 1" already today. Soil is not dry. TN is solid rock. 12 acre field behind the house now has 50 now houses i notice when backhoe dig footing, ditches for sewer, water, electric, they can only dig 2 ft down it is solid rock. My yard is probably solid rock 2 ft down also. I found duel adjustment motion detector lights at Harbor Freight for $22 each. Lowe's has motion detector lights for $55 and Walmart $60 each & Hardward store $70. New light is up, adjusted, and working good.

gary350 said:

2 nights ago we had a thunder storm that killed 2 motion detector lights. One light stays ON all the time the 2 adjustments do nothing to turn it off. The other motion detector light does random flashes like a strobe light the adjustment does nothing to make is stop. We live in tornado alley I have a pile of a dozen dead motion detector lights. These use to cost $12 now they are $60 each. Circuit boards in lights have, LDR, motion sensor, 12 pin IC with no number, no burned parts.

Is there a way to protect these lights form lightning?


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Nice pile of deceased lighting. My experience with lightening strikes is if anything is in the direct path it's toast. That excludes things like the antenna systems atop the Empire State Building or World Trade Center which are designed to handle direct lightening strikes. The house beside my sister's house in Clarksburg, W. VA. took a direct roof strike and my sister lost a few wired land line telephones and her dial up modem in their PC. Obviously it came in through the phone lines.

You can buy all sorts of snake oil but again, anything in the direct path of a major strike is toast as ground wires melt or better put vaporize. As to motion detector lights? You can still buy the basic inexpensive units from Lowes for about $13.00 USD per copy. Now if you want higher wattage sockets the price goes up. Personally I would just buy a pile of them and be done with it. As to avoiding damages from lightening strikes you can try praying and or home owners insurance. Lightening strike hit a pole behind my mom's house and as strange as it gets, took out the central air compressor / condenser outside the house. Her home owners covered the replacement cost. Go figure?

Ron

gary350 said:

One light stays ON all the time the 2 adjustments do nothing to turn it off. The other motion detector light does random flashes like a strobe light the adjustment does nothing to make is stop.

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That sounds like an induced spike, rather than a direct strike to the power lines near the house.

A good size VDR (eg. a Zenamic or similar) across each light would likely reduce or eliminate damage of that level.


My parents house was miles from a town and fed by overhead power lines to a transformer on a pole nearby.
The power cables between that and the house were struck on three occasions while I lived there. As others say, you cannot protect from that level of energy - or not at practical costs.

The damage to items that I remember was such as the electrical parts being burned or melted & every fuse blown.
(It is around 50 years ago).

rjenkinsgb said:

That sounds like an induced spike, rather than a direct strike to the power lines near the house.

A good size VDR (eg. a Zenamic or similar) across each light would likely reduce or eliminate damage of that level.


My parents house was miles from a town and fed by overhead power lines to a transformer on a pole nearby.
The power cables between that and the house were struck on three occasions while I lived there. As others say, you cannot protect from that level of energy - or not at practical costs.

The damage to items that I remember was such as the electrical parts being burned or melted & every fuse blown.
(It is around 50 years ago).

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A local car sales place was struck a number of years ago - interestingly because there were no aerials on it, and it was surrounded by taller houses all with external aerials. Every single wire in the walls was blown off, along with the plaster for a yard or so each side!.

Nigel Goodwin said:

A local car sales place was struck a number of years ago - interestingly because there were no aerials on it, and it was surrounded by taller houses all with external aerials. Every single wire in the walls was blown off, along with the plaster for a yard or so each side!.

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I have always claimed that lightening is not exactly always predictable.

Ron

Reloadron said:

I have always claimed that lightening is not exactly always predictable.

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I think you're under estimating it

More like "never in the slightest way predictable".

Reloadron said:

I have always claimed that lightening is not exactly always predictable.
Ron

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Lightning is very predictable sometimes. NOVA TV show did a show about lightning many years ago. After watching the show I did the same thing in my back yard. I made 3 stick rockets with Estes model rocket engines and 3 rolls if very small enamel coated copper wire. I set up rockets ready to launch in advance about 25 ft apart with a dead man switch on each rocket. Certain time of the year we get storms with lots of lightning I used a clock with a second hand to check see how many seconds there is between each lightning strike. Each storm has its own personality with lightning strikes every 30 seconds apart, some storms lightning is 45 seconds apart, other storms lightning is 20 seconds apart. There is a certain time in the middle of a storm where lightning strikes becomes very predictable for about 4 minutes. When I notice the clock shows lightning is coming at a certain rate like 25 seconds apart I time for 20 seconds then pull the dead man switch on rocket #1. It takes about 2 seconds for rocket to pull copper wire up 1500 ft then lightning follows the wire down to my yard, BOOM explosion sounds like dynamite it shakes the house & knocks pictures off the walls. Check clock time for 2 more lightning strikes then fire off rocket #2, BOOM explosion sounds like dynamite. Fire off rocket #3, BOOM explosion sounds like dynamite. It has been 30 years since I did that. Neighbors use to say, why are there so many lightning strikes in your back yard every time there is a storm? LOL

gary350 said:

Lightning is very predictable sometimes.

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I'll have to remember that.

When my wife and I were dating we were in a park, a very large park and a storm moved through. We sheltered and lightening struck one of the many trees. Flash, bang and the strangest thing I ever saw, millions of toothpicks. Every bit of moisture in that tree became super heated steam in microseconds and the entire tree just exploded. Following the strike as the tree exploded it sounded like a string of firecrackers going off. Weird stuff.

Ron

gary350 said:

Lightning is very predictable sometimes. NOVA TV show did a show about lightning many years ago. After watching the show I did the same thing in my back yard. I made 3 stick rockets with Estes model rocket engines and 3 rolls if very small enamel coated copper wire. I set up rockets ready to launch in advance about 25 ft apart with a dead man switch on each rocket. Certain time of the year we get storms with lots of lightning I used a clock with a second hand to check see how many seconds there is between each lightning strike. Each storm has its own personality with lightning strikes every 30 seconds apart, some storms lightning is 45 seconds apart, other storms lightning is 20 seconds apart. There is a certain time in the middle of a storm where lightning strikes becomes very predictable for about 4 minutes. When I notice the clock shows lightning is coming at a certain rate like 25 seconds apart I time for 20 seconds then pull the dead man switch on rocket #1. It takes about 2 seconds for rocket to pull copper wire up 1500 ft then lightning follows the wire down to my yard, BOOM explosion sounds like dynamite it shakes the house & knocks pictures off the walls. Check clock time for 2 more lightning strikes then fire off rocket #2, BOOM explosion sounds like dynamite. Fire off rocket #3, BOOM explosion sounds like dynamite. It has been 30 years since I did that. Neighbors use to say, why are there so many lightning strikes in your back yard every time there is a storm? LOL

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That doesn't mean lightning is predictable, that means launching a rocket dragging a wire in a storm is predictable (not to mention incredibly stupid!).

Nigel Goodwin said:

That doesn't mean lightning is predictable, that means launching a rocket dragging a wire in a storm is predictable (not to mention incredibly stupid!).

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And fun!

Your motion detectors seem to be AC powered. Thus, they may be more sensitive to a pulse on the power line that other household appliances. One solution is a "whole house surge protector", a device that wires directly into your electrical panel, and will absorb surges. It is basically the same as a power bar with surge protection, just that it does the entire house wiring instead.
If they failed because of a nearby hit and the EMP caused them to fail (not via power line), not much you can do about that in practical terms. That is due to the design of the device, whether it has any internal protection or not (most don't, to save costs)
**broken link removed**
Plus, you need a proper circuit breaker wired to your panel. Get an electrician to install it.