Our house (roof) got struck by lightning last week, knocked out a lot of items including the BMS's of 2 of my Hubble AM-5's, getting them repaired at Hubble R8090 for both. I was surprised at the damage as I have all the protection mechanisms in place. DC protection on both the battery and PV feed as well as earthing on the system and SPD's. I also have a COC from a proper electrician. I now see my WIFI logger does not want to connect, the red light keeps on flashing (Sunsynk 12kw 3ph, 3x Hubble AM-5's, 18x 550w CS panels, 75mm batt cable, 6mm PV cable etc etc. Any comments on how / why this happens and why only 2 of my 3 batteries are damaged? Any experience with the Data Logger not coming back online? Thanks Pieter

Anything else that died in the house? Also did it kill the SPDS?

I cannot explain why lightning would do any damage, especially since you have all the “required” protection in place.

However, I can say the following about my own off-grid system that has been in operation since 2018. I have no earthing on my solar panels and no SPD’s anywhere.

I have been through several thunder storms, and no lightning has never hit my house, but maybe it’s because I never gave it a path to hit via earthed solar panels…

I know that many will disagree with me, but I feel that earthing your panels is an invitation for lightning to hit them and damage any number of components within the system. You are providing a path needed for the lightning to hit the earth.

Maybe I am wrong. Maybe I will still get hit and have to pay the price. If it happens, I will admit my fault.

2 hours ago, Weimaraner said:

Our house (roof) got struck by lightning last week

Tin roof? Earthed? are the Solar panels on the roof as well? A pretty much direct strike will generally cause a lot of damage... SPD's are great for near strikes, just a bit slow, I'd say for a direct strike... and presumably they did trip? just a bit retroactively... maybe.

On another thread I pretty much stated that disconnecting the solar panels from the system during high thunder & lightning likelyhood is probably the best option, to keep damage to a minimum or even avoid it...

Putting up a lightning rod, a few meters away from the house with a height of three times the peak of the houses height might also be a good way to try and minimise the possibility of of picking up damage...

2 hours ago, Weimaraner said:

Any experience with the Data Logger not coming back online?

That one might also be cooked, if the batteries got it then the DC side on the low voltage end got some spare tension it wasn't prepared or rated for...

Lightning is a bastard, that damage may even be lurking in the items that seem to be undamaged at the moment, so your inverter could stop functioning correctly in 3 months time for no explainable reason, other than, "yes, three months ago we had a lightning strike..."

Anyway, good luck to you, hope you don't have any further damage coming out the woodwork...

SPD's are great for near strikes, just a bit slow, I'd say for a direct strike...

SPD's are for surge, not for lightning?

Had an electrician tell me one day regulations require you to earth everything but by earthing everything gives a path for lightning to travel so everything thing in that path gets damaged . He said all the gate motor he installed with earth all get damage if fencing is hit by lightning but all the gate motors not he did not earth has never been damaged by lightning .

Don't bash me for saying this it's just what I was told

2 minutes ago, GMAC said:

Had an electrician tell me one day regulations require you to earth everything but by earthing everything gives a path for lightning to travel so everything thing in that path gets damaged . He said all the gate motor he installed with earth all get damage if fencing is hit by lightning but all the gate motors not he did not earth has never been damaged by lightning .

Don't bash me for saying this it's just what I was told

Until someone gets electrocuted. Then he will have to answer for not grounding the gate motor. Not bashing You , just saying

23 hours ago, Herbie. said:

SPD's are for surge, not for lightning?

ok, I'll bite, where is the surge supposed to come from on the solar panel side, other than from Lightning, please enLighten me?

On 2025/04/02 at 11:01 AM, Gandalf said:

I cannot explain why lightning would do any damage, especially since you have all the “required” protection in place.

However, I can say the following about my own off-grid system that has been in operation since 2018. I have no earthing on my solar panels and no SPD’s anywhere.

I have been through several thunder storms, and no lightning has never hit my house, but maybe it’s because I never gave it a path to hit via earthed solar panels…

I know that many will disagree with me, but I feel that earthing your panels is an invitation for lightning to hit them and damage any number of components within the system. You are providing a path needed for the lightning to hit the earth.

Maybe I am wrong. Maybe I will still get hit and have to pay the price. If it happens, I will admit my fault.

So I had a direct strike on 2 of my panels late last year, killed 5kw sunsynk and other electronics in the house. I'm currently disconnecting panels whenever there is lightning in the area but can't keep doing this. I'm considering installing rods on my flat concrete roof to mitigate the risk of a strike. So I guess I should not bond the panel frames to the rod? Juat ground the rods?I think the hit was due to the panel being the highest point on the roof. Any advise would be appreciated.

Just my 2c.

We had a lighning strike hit an antenna on the house, all electronics were completely disconnected.

Things like computer motherboards, dstv etc got fried. Things like ground potential, and EMP from the strike does make a major difference in sensitive equipment.

On 2025/04/03 at 3:22 PM, Kalahari Meerkat said:

ok, I'll bite, where is the surge supposed to come from on the solar panel side, other than from Lightning, please enLighten me?

That I've also thought of many times. Surge arrestor is like smoothing the spikes? (on the normal loads side)

On 2025/04/03 at 2:37 PM, GMAC said:

Had an electrician tell me one day regulations require you to earth everything but by earthing everything gives a path for lightning to travel so everything thing in that path gets damaged . He said all the gate motor he installed with earth all get damage if fencing is hit by lightning but all the gate motors not he did not earth has never been damaged by lightning .

Don't bash me for saying this it's just what I was told

But earthing is there to protect people, not circuits. So the explanation is perfectly plausible.

On 2025/04/03 at 2:41 PM, Jacques Ester said:

Until someone gets electrocuted. Then he will have to answer for not grounding the gate motor. Not bashing You , just saying

chances of anyone being electrocuted by a gate motor are zero. My centurion D5 gate motor is plastic molding and covers everywhere. The charger is covered with plastic and basically no exposed metal surface that can get in contact with live AC wires. Just saying 😁

On 2025/04/02 at 10:46 AM, Stefan Cornelissen said:

Anything else that died in the house? Also did it kill the SPDS?

The SPD's on the main incoming utility feed as well as my PV fuses and Battery fuses were all not damaged. The following got fried - Sub Woofer, TV, all my LED light dimmers, garage motor PCB's, oven timer, washing machine timer, electric fence energiser, intercom, network Poe switch and a couple of other things.

Thanks for all the replies and discussion - I guess I followed the regulations religiously which was the right thing to do but I am noting what you are all saying and there are valid points. The panels are earthed to the house earth system and a rod, maybe I should disconnect from the house system. Then again the lightning hit the roof not the panels. Panels are working 100%. Got my batteries back from Hubble, great service by the way. BMS' replaced (2 of them, 3rd one is ok), R4090. The 12kw Sunsynk does not see them however. I guess the inverter comms are also fried, other than that the inverter is working perfectly. I am going to take it out today and take it to Sunsynk in the morning. Lot of hassle. I need a solution for this - I do not want to go through this pain again. Issue is that one is not always around to disconnect equipment.

3 hours ago, Weimaraner said:

The panels are earthed to the house earth system and a rod

Rather disconnect the panels from the house earth, and only connect them to dedicated earth rods. I have never understood the logic of connecting "lightning conductors" to the house earth.

You never want multiple current flow paths between earth, as this can cause unwanted potential differences on earth.

Would your house insurance not cover this?

My policy covers this:

5 hours ago, TimCam said:

Rather disconnect the panels from the house earth, and only connect them to dedicated earth rods. I have never understood the logic of connecting "lightning conductors" to the house earth.

You never want multiple current flow paths between earth, as this can cause unwanted potential differences on earth.

I agree with you 100% and that is what I am going to do.

5 hours ago, Bl4d3 said:

Would your house insurance not cover this?

My policy covers this:

Yes, my insurance covers the damage. I did the install in 2023 and it was running clockwork till the heavens decided otherwise. PITA to remove the batteries and inverter for repairs but I took the inverter out today - will take it to Sunsynk in the morning. It seems the comms are not working. I will report back. I am learning a lot through this exercise.

On 2025/04/05 at 10:33 AM, Herbie. said:

That I've also thought of many times. Surge arrestor is like smoothing the spikes? (on the normal loads side)

Nope, the solar panels will provide a varying amount of current mostly, the Voltage during daylight hours won't vary all that widely, but that's the way solar functions, no need for SPD's for this... unless you regularly have local nuclear explosions, the only surges otherwise that come to mind that would be mitigated by an SPD are from mother nature, by way of plasma being formed, temporarily between clouds (usually) and earth potential and this plasma allowing the conduction of huge amounts of electric energy... if you can thi8nk of any other source, let me know, always keen to learn something new...

22 hours ago, Weimaraner said:

The SPD's on the main incoming utility feed as well as my PV fuses and Battery fuses were all not damaged.

Does that mean you have no surge suppression on the PV end between panels and MPPT?

5 hours ago, Kalahari Meerkat said:

Does that mean you have no surge suppression on the PV end between panels and MPPT?

I do have SPD's between the PV and MPPT.

I have fuses between the batteries and inverter.

I have SPD's on my utility feed from City Power.

I dropped my inverter, at Globaltech the SA agents for Sunsynk, this morning. My goodness, there is a mountain of inverters and they said 2-3 weeks for assess, quote and repair. I made the mistake of not boxing the unit. Better to do that as I can see that it is probable that units are scratched and dented while there (let me give them the benefit of the doubt for now!). I will report back on how long it takes.

By the way this is what the control board looks like for Hubble AM-5's.

Quick close on this matter - Global Tech the Sunsynk SA agent kept my inverter for 5 weeks, they fixed it under warranty despite me saying I suspect a surge damaged it. I reinstalled but it did not work so I took it back and they fixed it in 1 day again under warranty. I then found that one of my batteries were still faulty and that BMS was replace under warranty at Hubble. So all good now. I am generating power again!