We’ve had a couple of bad storms and my father-in-law has been hit pretty bad: he’s had major lightning surges twice in a month.
Every time it has affected his security camera system:
First time it knocked out a camera, a network switch/hub close to the camera, the power supply of the ONT, the NVR and the LAN port of the router (TP-Link Deco)
Second time (tonight) it knocked out the older network switch close to the router and the NVR. No cameras or power supplies damaged.
I suspect the problem are the cable runs from the outside cameras and the fact that it all sits against/underneath a car port made completely of metal. The whole lot is wired up like this:
He has two security cameras mounted directly to the metal structure of his car port. Those are connected to a cheap switch via unshielded network cables (around a 5m cable run for the one and around 15m run to the other one). The switch also sits underneath the metal roof in an area where it never rains or get wet. The cameras and switch is connected to a multiplug which gets the power from a nearby garage.
From this switch it runs into the house for about 15 - 20m (also unshielded cat5 network cable), though the ceiling into the study, where the fibre comes in as well. It first goes into another cheap switch, which connects it to the router (a TP-Link Deco) as well as another LAN cable. This other LAN cable runs back through the ceiling to the NVR, which is in another room.
The fact that so many devices connected (or closely connected to the LAN) gets hit makes me think its a surge problem originating from either the long cable runs or because of the cameras mounted to the metal structure. He’s looking for suggestions to try and prevent all of this happening again. I can think, in the order of easiest to hardest:
Mount the cameras on plastic junction boxes instead of directly against the metal roof
Use shielded cables between the cameras and first switch (since these are literally lying losely in the bottom of the lipped C channels)
I’m going to watch this thread, but I have suffered similar damage and it’s hard to protect against it 100% because the surge can travel through the air and then into the nearest wire(s) if the strike is close.
One thing to do is to have sacrificial components in the line. My garage door motor has a fuse just before the control board that you’d think that there’s not much call for, but it’s there to go pop when there’s a surge in order to protect the electronics down stream from it. My heatpump has a transformer that sacrifices itself when there’s a surge.(A cheap component, the Kwikot service agents always have a few with them because it’s the part most likely to fail. So replacing it is cheap and quick, but in going pop it protects more expensive components.)
Get SPDs fitted in the DB, and DC SPDs on any strings down from solar panels.
The surge protection I’ve been looking at. Earthing it is my biggest problem - mostly because I don’t know enough about earthing standards for SA buildings. The room is next to a paved courtyard, so there’s no easily accessible ground where I can hammer in a copper ground rod. His inverter and batteries are also in the room and seems to have earth (and supposedly they hammered in a spike somewhere for the PV system), but he is hesitant to connect anything to it in case a lightning surge affects his PV system (which has been saved so far). Or do you use a plug-point’s earth?
supposedly they hammered in a spike somewhere for the PV system
Highly doubt this, they probably just wired it ot the home’s earth which usually is only 1 spike,
I am not an expert, but I have started reading a lot about earthing. What I can tell you is, the more I read, the more I learned I don’t know jack about earthing, but here is what I have pieced together so far.
You can’t have 2 earthing rods without them being connected together.
2 if you have 2 rods connected together, they would be relatively close to each other
you can’t really just add 1 earth rod 1 side of house and 1 other side. what you really need to do is, have multiple earth rods, all connected together. This is a ton of work I imagine, and why this is usually not done
The reason the PV system wont have a separate earth from the house earth, is because then you create a situation where lightning/surges can travel from 1 earth rod, through the whole system, ot the other earth rod. Not what you want, it will blow up everything inbetween, henc the earth rods needing direct connection between each other, at ground level.
Anyways, take this with a pinch of salt, I am not expert, only a couch potato doing reading, trying to figure this out for a completely different purpose. looks at radio antennas
