When there is a thunder storm, how/why does your electricity always go out?

Answer 1

Many electricity lines are above the ground. Many are protected against lightning strikes but not all. If one of these lines gets hit then the sub stations on that line will close down and an area will lose electricity.

Answer 2

It doesn't always go out. However, it does go out when lightning, drawn to tall electrical poles, strikes a transformer, damaging it. The transformer (that metal box up on the pole) is responsible for transforming high-voltage into the normal 220 or 110 volts required by the typical household electrical outlets. After it gets hit by lightning, if it doesn't need outright replacement, it usually needs to be reset by an electrician. Until that happens, it will not function, and the usual result is that a city block or two is left without electricity.

Answer 3

Lots of incorrect answers above.

The most common cause of electrical outages in thunderstorms is not lightning, but wind. Wind can rip out wiring or bring down trees or limbs on power lines.

The second most common cause is ice, which can bring wires down or drop trees or limbs on the wires.

Utility electric systems vary widely in their sensitivity to lightning hits. The older the system, the more likely it is to fail, be damaged, or trip off because of a lightning strike.

Your public electric system has various circuit protection devices designed to disconnect power from damaged wires. Falling trees or limbs, or wind damaged wires, can trip off safety devices. Then the guys with the hard hats and the boom trucks have to come out.

Most cities eventually modernize their systems with stronger wiring and "smarter" safety devices, reducing the number and severity of outages. Also expect tree pruning from time to time.

People used to talk about "lightning striking a transformer," but in reality that is a very rare occurrence. Seen it happen about 3 times in the last 20 years in a city of 75,000 people.

Answer 4

Wind blows the power lines into trees or vice versa. Or makes them slap together and short out. Breakers built into the system either shut down momentarily or until the problem is fixed to prevent serious damge to the electrical grid.

Answer 5

If you mean the hpfi relay, then it is because it feels the electricity in the air, or a lightning that have stroke near the electricity wires, and messures it as an shortcircut to ground.

Answer 6

If electricity strikes a focus point in power systems, it overloads the systems with amps exceeding 1 million amps(.007 amps across your heart will kill you). So the 10 or so amp system breaks down. This results in the outage.

Answer 7

beats me dude!oh...now i know.thank u clever ppl wo answerd b4 i did