Surge Protection for Car Washes
Practical recommendations for car wash owners and managers to help reduce transient surge damage and keep facility operations running through storm activity.
Automated car wash facilities help customers maintain their vehicles, but keeping operations running can be challenging, especially as thunderstorms pass through the area. This guide is designed to help car wash owners and managers reduce opportunities for transient surge damage. While no absolute guarantees can be made, implementing these recommendations can help reduce future damage issues.
Overall Considerations
Many areas experience increased thunderstorm activity during the transition seasons from spring to summer and summer to fall. These storms can bring more transient surge events, including lightning strikes at or near car wash facilities.
Electric utilities take steps to protect their distribution systems, but utility customers can also benefit from checking internal facility wiring and installing additional surge protection devices.
The recommendations in this guide are designed around protecting an automated car wash. If you have questions about your facility, contact Kenick for further discussion.
Safety First
Several recommendations require opening circuit-breaker panels and car-wash control panels. Follow all required safety measures during inspections and surge-protection installations, especially at facilities with 277/480-volt service, where severe arc-flash burns can occur.
Use a licensed, qualified electrical contractor experienced with 277/480-volt three-phase equipment and the required protective equipment, including gloves, face shields, and protective clothing. Kenick strongly recommends de-energizing panels and control equipment before inspection or installation whenever possible.
Label electrical and control panels to warn employees to keep out unless they are certified to work in them and are using the required safety equipment.
Protection of Three-Phase Pumps and Motors
Automated car washes commonly use large three-phase pumps and motors. This equipment requires three energized conductors to operate properly.
During utility line maintenance, blown fuse links, vehicle collisions with poles, or local storm events, one incoming phase may become de-energized. During a “loss of phase” event, three-phase pumps and motors should turn off until the lost phase is restored. Equipment that continues to run can be damaged or destroyed.
Recommendation: Verify that all three-phase pumps and motors have an operational loss-of-phase protection module that turns the equipment off during a loss-of-phase event.
The protection may be built into the car-wash control system rather than installed at each motor. The equipment manufacturer or electrical contractor can review schematics or inspect each device to confirm protection is present and operational.
Variable Speed Drives
Older car-wash systems may simply switch motors and pumps on or off. Newer systems may use variable-speed or variable-frequency drives.
If your system uses variable-speed drives, contact the equipment manufacturer to ask whether a “ride-through” kit is available. These kits may include inductive chokes that help maintain drive operation during momentary power interruptions.
Based on the manufacturer’s guidance, install ride-through kits where available and supported. If kits are not available, consider surge protection on each variable-speed drive.
Battery Backup Systems
Brief power interruptions, sometimes called “blinks,” can occur when an event on the distribution line causes a utility recloser—an automatic resetting circuit breaker—to operate.
Reclosers may operate during disturbances such as a vehicle striking a pole, a tree branch contacting a line, or a lightning strike. Although brief, these interruptions can disrupt the wash cycle and become a recurring nuisance.
- Install battery backup at the main computer control equipment in the data or control room. Test existing backup systems regularly and replace internal batteries every two years.
- If blinks cause damage or losses when equipment is in the wash cycle, ask the equipment manufacturer whether it recommends additional backup at key points in the system.
The intent is to carry the wash controls through a momentary interruption of approximately two or three seconds, not to keep controls operating through an extended outage. Consult the controls manufacturer before making changes.
Grounding
Proper grounding at each facility is important. Adding ground rods without understanding the existing grounding system can sometimes increase surge exposure. Kenick recommends having a qualified electrical contractor inspect the facility grounding system and review the following points.
Main Electrical Power Feed
The white paper references National Electrical Code Article 250 and related articles regarding ground rods and grounding resistance. Have your electrical contractor evaluate the existing grounding system and applicable code requirements before making changes.
- Visually inspect the main electrical service entrance to verify that a grounding system is present. If ground rods are covered by concrete, an electrician may be able to use a clamp-on ground tester to verify the ground.
- Inspect the grounding conductor or conduit between the metering system and earth. Avoid adding ground rods without first assessing the existing system and potential surge-current paths.
- Inspect the soil around ground rods at the facility’s electrical power feed and look for persistently wet conditions.
- Check for leaking hose bibs or air-conditioning condensate drains that may create saturated soil near ground rods. Wet soil can create a low-resistance path that may affect how transient surge energy reaches the facility.
- Verify that incoming utilities—such as power, cable, and telephone—are properly bonded together at the service entrance as part of a coordinated grounding system.
- Have a qualified contractor assess grounding for property fencing, especially at corners farthest from electrical equipment and conductors.
- Consider nearby signs and large billboard structures, which may have separate meters and electrical services. Ask a qualified contractor to assess their grounding and surge-protection needs.
Where nearby structures may contribute to surge exposure, the paper recommends hard-wired surge protection at the car-wash facility’s main electrical feed and subpanels as a mitigation measure.
Electrical Panel Inspection
The paper explains that the neutral and ground conductors are bonded at the service entrance. Additional neutral-ground bonds inside downstream panels can allow operating current to flow on safety-ground conductors and may create additional paths for transient surge energy.
Ask your electrical contractor to inspect each electrical panel and subpanel and confirm the following:
- Bare copper ground wires are connected to a common terminal block bonded directly to the circuit-breaker panel enclosure.
- White neutral wires are connected to the neutral terminal block. In subpanels, the neutral terminal block must remain isolated (“floating”) from the electrical panel enclosure.
If neutrals and grounds are mixed, or if the neutral terminal block is bonded to the panel enclosure where it should not be, have the condition corrected before installing surge protection. The paper also recommends labels warning employees to keep out of energized panels.
Surge Protection Recommendations
Surge protection can provide a path for transient surge energy to reach earth ground rather than travel through facility equipment or controls. Kenick recommends confirming panel voltages and reviewing each panel and connected load with a qualified electrical contractor before selecting protective devices.
Voltage reference from the white paper:
| System voltage | Configuration | A-B | B-C | C-A | A-N | B-N | C-N |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 120/208Y | Wye | 208 | 208 | 208 | 120 | 120 | 120 |
| 120/240D | High-leg delta | 240 | 240 | 240 | 120 | 208 | 120 |
| 277/480Y | Wye | 480 | 480 | 480 | 277 | 277 | 277 |
After documenting panel voltages, the white paper recommends reviewing these locations for surge protection:
- Install an appropriate hard-wired surge protector at each circuit-breaker panel.
- Install an appropriate hard-wired surge protector at the power feed to each car-wash control cabinet.
- Consider additional hard-wired surge protection for two-pole or three-pole breakers supplying equipment outside the main car-wash building, such as vacuums, irrigation or water wells, security and parking-lot lights, drive-up kiosks, and flagpole lighting. This can help reduce the risk of surge back-feed into the building from outdoor equipment.
- Audit 120-volt single-phase duplex receptacles, noting their locations and connected equipment. Review sensitive devices and consider additional protection, including Panamax M2 surge protectors at critical receptacles as described in the white paper.
- Protect 120-volt equipment in the main control/computer room with M2 surge protectors, as recommended in the paper.
- Confirm that coaxial cable/internet and telephone demarcations are bonded at the electrical service entrance. The paper recommends a coaxial power block with Type F screw connectors and a ground terminal, and bonding the telephone demarcation to electrical ground.
About Kenick
KENICK, Inc. has provided surge-protection products and solutions to the electric utility industry for over 32 years. Its manufacturing facility includes a research laboratory for testing surge-protection products against a range of transient surge events.
Questions?
Please contact Kenick if you have questions about this article or a particular issue with which you need help.
Email: Solutions@kenick.com