New well pump causing false lightning alerts

vreihen
Mon, 11 Mar 2019 00:55:44 +0000
Tempest Owners

I have three Air units, all mounted to the far side of a detached/unheated garage. Each one is mounted in a different orientation, for detecting lightning favoring different directions.

About 35 feet away on the other side of the garage sits my well. The submersible pump failed two weeks ago, so we installed a new pump and also upgraded it from 115V to 230V (since 115V submersible well pumps are getting hard to find in stock locally these days).

Ever since the new pump was installed, I have been getting a few false lightning strike reports per day…all correlated to heavy water use in the house. These false strikes will frequently trigger lightning alerts from two and sometimes all three Airs! Remember, each Air is mounted in a different antenna orientation. I’m having a hard time believing that all three Airs can pick up the arc from a well pressure switch located in a basement over 30 feet away…through the detached garage and everything.

Just throwing this out there for anyone else who is chasing false lightning strikes with well water. Guess I’ll be installing arc suppression on the pressure switch before T-storm season arrives…

4 posts - 3 participants