How We can Protect Led Shoebox Lighting from Lightning Strike

 When led shoebox lighting are installed outdoors, lightning strikes are a very big threat. It can cause damage to the street lights, and cause fire or casualties, resulting in huge losses. Here, I will introduce to you the impact of lightning on LED street lights and preventive measures.

There are four main types of lightning strikes in real life:

1. Direct lightning

Direct lightning contains great energy, and the lightning current with a peak voltage of up to 5000kv enters the ground, which has great destructive power. Will cause the following three effects:

(1) The huge rich current flows down to the ground within a few microseconds, causing the ground potential to rise quickly, causing a counterattack accident and endangering the safety of people and equipment.

(2) The lightning current generates powerful electromagnetic waves, which induce extremely high pulse voltages on power lines and signal lines.

(3) Lightning current flows through electrical equipment to generate extremely high heat, causing fire or explosion accidents.

2. Conductive lightning

The distant lightning hits the line or the extremely high voltage generated by electromagnetic induction is transmitted from the outdoor power line and communication line to the indoor electrical equipment in the building.

3. Induction lightning

Frequent discharges between clouds produce strong electromagnetic waves, which cause common-mode and differential-mode interference and affect the operation of electrical equipment.

4. Switch overvoltage

The inductive and capacitive loads in the power supply system are turned on or off, ground short circuit, power line short circuit, etc., can generate high-voltage pulses on the power line, and the pulse voltage can reach 3 to 5 times the normal voltage, which can seriously damage the equipment . The damage effect is similar to that of a lightning strike.

So how will we prevent led shoebox lighting from the occurrence of lightning accidents? After research, it has been found that the following methods are the most effective ways to prevent led shoebox lighting from being damaged by lightning:

1. Combination of external lightning protection and internal lightning protection

At present, the exterior of general led shoebox lighting is made of conductive materials, which is equivalent to a lightning rod. In the design, down conductors and ground nets must be installed. These systems constitute an external lightning protection system. The system can avoid fire and personal safety accidents caused by direct lightning strikes by led shoebox lighting. The internal lightning protection system refers to the protection of the equipment inside the street lamp by grounding and setting voltage protection. The system can prevent the intrusion of induced lightning and other forms of overvoltage, which can cause damage to the power supply, which cannot be guaranteed by the external lightning protection system. The two are complementary to each other. The internal lightning protection system must be connected to the external lightning protection system or set with overvoltage protectors on many components such as the housing, cables entering and leaving the protected area, and metal pipes, and equipotential connection is performed.

2. Lightning protection equipotential connection

In order to completely eliminate the destructive potential difference caused by lightning, power lines, signal lines, metal pipes, etc. must be equipotentially connected with overvoltage protectors, and local equipotential connections must also be made at the interface of each inner protection zone. The local equipotential junction should be connected to each other, and finally connected to the main equipotential place.

3. Set up lightning protection zone

At present, besides power supply equipment, led shoebox lighting will also be equipped with some communication equipment to control the switch and brightness of the led shoebox lighting. These equipment and power supplies need to be placed in the lightning protection area, and the protection area is directly shielded by the shell. The electromagnetic field here is much weaker.

4. High-quality protection equipment; lightning protection module and overvoltage protection module

The function of the lightning arrester is to connect the protected system to the equipotential system in the shortest time (nanosecond level), so that the equipment ports are equipotential. At the same time, the huge pulse energy generated by the lightning strike in the circuit is released to the ground via the short-circuit line, which reduces the potential difference between the equipment interfaces and protects the equipment.

These 4 methods of Lightning protection can also be used in Parking lot light/led street light/ led pole light outside. Hope this can help you. Our factory is professional in this area!