Anyone know of a simple way to test to see if a building power supply suffered a lightning strike ?
My hope is to note the time and date of the strike(s)
The concern is how to test and not be destroyed.
dave-in-nj:
Anyone know of a simple way to test to see if a building power supply suffered a lightning strike ?My hope is to note the time and date of the strike(s)
The concern is how to test and not be destroyed.
Hmmm...
I once visited a site that had been hit by lightning. We (my employer) got a report from a mobile phone company that the link to one of their base stations was down. We were responsible for the link. When I got to site there were engineers from the electricity company working at the substation next door. When I got inside our equipment room there were parts on the opposite side of the room to where they should have been; I particularly remember a flat metal cover plate about 100mm square that was no longer flat. It had been ripped off its screws and was on the other side of the room. There were burnt cables hanging out of the trunking.
Next door they had to change the substation transformer.
Pretty much all our equipment was damaged and had to be replaced.
No recording device that would have recorded the lightning strike would have stood a chance. However, we did know what time the strike happened; it happened at the same time the link to the site went down.
Working in a high voltage labb using Mega volts and flashes, we used very special oscilloscopes to be able to measure anything. The voltage, the conductors, the place where the lightning would take place was well controlled.
The methorological institutions are counting the number of such hits. Get in contact with them and ask how they do it!
This was one of the first hits for "Lightning Strike Detector" in google. It says it is adjustable so I would think you could find a way to limit it to the building. The hard part would be getting a good sample of strikes to test it with.
@Delta_G
How serious is that society? People only trying to make money? The link didn't exactly point out anything serious as I feel. Too many loose ends. But of cource, having the money willing to experiment and loose them, try it. When day comes for quality certificates on Google links, then I'll believe in them. Nowdays anything comes up, fortune tellers, miracle cures...
I didn't look that closely. I'll have to go back and look again. Either way it was open source it seemed so it would be simple enough to copy it instead of buying it if it costs too much.
I know I've seen this also done as a science fair experiment with simple components. I don't know how, but I know I've seen it done. It can't be that difficult.
Looking at the initial question from OP... "Looking to see a lightning that HITS THE POWER CENTRAL of the building, not only a hit the building directly. That involve hits down half the state. Just imaging the difference of hits and the distance of the hit... No way that can be measured, calculated, quantified.
Faraday sent up a wet paper dragon and discouvered lightning, and survived. Stay away from that business even if if only means lost Arduinos. Use the creative ambitions on something more measurable.
dave-in-nj:
Anyone know of a simple way to test to see if a building power supply suffered a lightning strike ?My hope is to note the time and date of the strike(s)
The concern is how to test and not be destroyed.
Certain surge arrestors we have used in large switchboards in the past have multiple hit lifespan.
Basically a hit over a certain level will be indicated on the front of the arrestor by a green indicator turning red.
With the multiple hit units, there are multiple indicators so that one hit does not mean replacement of the unit.
Most I have used are 3 indicators, there may be others.
Usually units installed in banks of 3, one for each phase.
You may have ideas on how to look at the indicators which would be an unintrusive method.
A quick Google just now showed units with LED indication which would suit any external monitoring to a T.
dave-in-nj:
Anyone know of a simple way to test to see if a building power supply suffered a lightning strike ?My hope is to note the time and date of the strike(s)
The concern is how to test and not be destroyed.
You did say simple.
You're probably much too young to remember the static discharge from an AM radio when there are lightning strikes nearby. The louder the static, the closer the strike.
"Building power supply" is quite vague, but let's consider a power transformer on a pole. There is a ground wire from the top wire of the power lines to earth ground. A small fluorescent lamp taped to that ground wire, not electrically connected to anything, will light up briefly when the top wire on the power lines gets a hit. A light detector on the fluorescent tube would pick up that flash.
Hang an electric analog clock on the wall. Time of strike = Taken care of.
The rest, I'll let you folks work out.
Thank me later.
LoL
dave-in-nj:
Anyone know of a simple way to test to see if a building power supply suffered a lightning strike ?My hope is to note the time and date of the strike(s)
So this after the fact, you want to know if the power supply was struck by lightning?
Some form of destructive indicator in the earth circuit of the power supply, might do it.
Such as a heavy fuse, or mechanical indicator, an electronic indicator that failed when strike current is detected might be worth a try and hour meter like arrangement.
Tom.. 
teh utility delivers power to the building.
the building has a 3-phase 480VAC panel
there is a 30-45kw transformer to 208/120volts
all lights, computers, etc are on 120 volt, single phase
with the advent of LED lights, we are seeing massive failures with LED's and the manufacturers are starting to cut back on replacing within the warranty period of 3 to 5 years.
often with saying the old unit has been updated, modified, replaced, etc.
and trying to say that the failures were related to incorrect installation or power line spikes, lightning, etc.
when you have over 1,000 fixtures, and 10% randomly fail over a year, while on a lighting only circuit, with all the other fixtures on the same circuit working and for these to have worked for well over a year... it seems the need to document conditions is escalating.
I have been working with power line monitoring (openEnergyMon) to make sure things like voltage drops when an HVAC unit starts does not cause problems in the lighting system.
In my premises, now just a few years old, I gave up on expecting the supplier to provide warranty on the LED luminaires (downlights) when the third one failed. I just bought a box of ten from a relatively local (eBay) supplier for AU$65 and keep the ladder fairly inconspicuously in one room. They have a plug lead on them; pull out, unplug, plug in new one (these are even switchable cool-mix-warm) and pop it back up. Barely more than the cost of a LED bulb, and not worth worrying the original supplier.
Power went off in a storm one day and two batten fittings in one room never came back on afterwards. Oh well, just replaced them but was not so easy (or cheap) as the downlights. 
dave-in-nj:
teh utility delivers power to the building.
the building has a 3-phase 480VAC panel
there is a 30-45kw transformer to 208/120voltsall lights, computers, etc are on 120 volt, single phase
with the advent of LED lights, we are seeing massive failures with LED's and the manufacturers are starting to cut back on replacing within the warranty period of 3 to 5 years.
often with saying the old unit has been updated, modified, replaced, etc.
and trying to say that the failures were related to incorrect installation or power line spikes, lightning, etc.
when you have over 1,000 fixtures, and 10% randomly fail over a year, while on a lighting only circuit, with all the other fixtures on the same circuit working and for these to have worked for well over a year... it seems the need to document conditions is escalating.I have been working with power line monitoring (openEnergyMon) to make sure things like voltage drops when an HVAC unit starts does not cause problems in the lighting system.
I can't help thinking that's a slightly different problem to the one you originally asked about.
It seems to me that the problem is with the LED lights. If the traditional lights were OK and the LED lights are not, then the LED lights are not fit for purpose. The electricity supply is what it is, it has spikes and noise and all sorts of crap on it. Anything designed to be powered by it should be appropriately designed to deal with the crap. If it can't then it's not fit. I've taken apart some failed LED lights and seen little more than a capacitor in series with the LED and the mains. That's never going to last long as the capacitor will pass any HF (high in this case being not much above mains frequency) noise to the LED and probably kill it.
This reminds me of early computers that had all sorts of problems with mains noise interfering with the power supplies and needing mains filters added. Modern PC power supplies seem to be much better designed and don't suffer any problems.
dave-in-nj:
Anyone know of a simple way to test to see if a building power supply suffered a lightning strike ?My hope is to note the time and date of the strike(s)
The concern is how to test and not be destroyed.
If it is indeed some form of filtering on the ac you need to try, then Clipsal used to make line filters for dichloric lamps in their C-bus range.
We initially had no end of trouble with the dichoric blowing but after installing the filters, lamps lasted for years.
They were a torroid and a couple of caps installed in a clipsal j-box, fairly crude by today's standards.
I would imagine they would have similar now but in a more conventional din rail mount enclosure.