Lightning Protection for Outdoor Kiosks
Can outdoor kiosk machines withstand lightning or voltage spikes? Have you ever thought about such a scenario?
Well, being a self-service kiosk manufacturer who have served several outdoor kiosk installation requirements – our team has definitely thought about it. We’ve also implemented ways to deal with it.
Outdoor kiosk machines are commonly installed in open environments like parking lots, transportation hubs, along roadside, highways, parks, and outside of building premises. As a result, they are prone to harsh weather conditions like extreme sunlight, extreme cold, rain, humidity, dust and even lightning.
However, a lightning strike, as you may know carries voltage in millions. Can kiosk machines withstand this sudden burst of voltage?
It’s time to explore!
What is Lightning? How is it caused?
In simple words, lightning is a discharge of charges between clouds or between cloud and earth. Lightning is nature’s most spectacular electrical show, crackling across storm clouds with raw power. It terrifies and mesmerizes us, at the same time. A strange phenomenon, isn’t it?
This phenomenon begins when ice crystals and water droplets bump around inside thunderclouds, creating electrical charges that separate like invisible magnets. The cloud’s top becomes positively charged while the bottom negative.
When this electrical tension builds to a breaking point, it seeks the quickest path to discharge. And this path is often directed towards the ground or to other clouds.
The result? A magnificent bolt that briefly heats the air to temperatures hotter than the sun’s surface. And, this is followed by the loud, booming sound of thunder. Bang!
Lightning is basically classified into 3 types based on how they occur. And the classifications are:
- Cloud-to-cloud – the electrical discharge takes place between clouds.
- Intra-cloud – Here, the electrical discharge take place between the oppositely charged parts of the same cloud.
- Could-to-ground – this is the type that affects life and property on earth, and the one we should worry about. The discharge takes place between cloud and earth.
The greatest number of lightnings in a year is recorded in Venezuela, in South America. The phenomenon is called “Catatumbo lightning”. The region experiences lightning for an estimated 7 to 10 hours per night for around 150 nights annually.
How lightning impacts outdoor electronics?
Unlike hot weather or rainy weather, lightnings strikes are unpredictable. And they are dangerous too. Lightning bolts can cause damage to both life and property. Hence, electronic equipment like outdoor kiosks need much protection from lightning strikes.
A single lightning strike can cause discharge of 1000s of amperes of current. It can also generate immense heat in the range of 5000 degree Celsius or even more. Even if lightning strikes close to an electrical or electronic appliance, it can cause irreparable damage.
And these damages come in the form of:
- Surge in power through nearby electrical lines
- Electromagnetic interferences that can damage electrical components
- Overheating of electrical components which can lead to fires.
- Failure of malfunctioning of components like touchscreen, processors, etc.
While direct lighting strikes are extremely rare, power surges through electrical distribution systems or wiring can pose dangers.
For a kiosk machine to deliver its optimum performance, you have to ensure uninterrupted power supply, network connection and smooth functioning of various electronic components. Any error or malfunctioning of these factors can adversely affect the overall kiosk performance.
How Outdoor Kiosk machines withstand lightning?
Panashi’s Outdoor kiosk enclosures are made of reinforced steel and are IP-rated. These kiosk enclosures are IP65/IP67-rated and offer protection from harsh weather conditions like dust and rains.
However, the capability to withstand lightning surges is enabled by few electrical components that are integrated into the kiosk circuit. And they are listed below.
Surge Protection Devices (SPDs)
As the name indicates, Surge Protection Devices (SPDs) or Surge suppressors are devices that guard equipment from sudden spikes in voltage. These sudden spikes in voltage can causes irreparable damages to the circuits and components which results in system downtime. It also hampers system reliability. The voltage surge can happen due to several reasons like lightning, wiring issues, or issues connected with power distribution systems.
How SPDs work?
SDPs engage special devices like metal oxide varistors (MOVs) and gas discharge arrestors (GDR) to redirect the transient voltage, thereby protecting the equipment. The current in excess is thus channeled towards the ground.
Earth leakage circuit breaker (ELCB)
ELCB is an electrical safety device that breaks the circuit whenever it detects an earth leakage current, thereby preventing equipment damage, electrocution and fires.
How ELCBs work?
What ELCBs do is interesting. They constantly check the current flow through the live and neutral wires and check for any imbalances in the current flow. In normal scenario, the current flow in the live and neutral wires is the same. If any abnormality in the current flow, the ELCBs come into play and breaks the circuit.
For example: If a human comes in contact with the live wire, it creates an imbalance in the current flow between the live and neutral. This happens because the current gets a new or unintended path to flow to the ground. This imbalance in current flow is detected, and immediately the circuit gets tripped. Hence, the power is cut off, and the mishap averted.
Types of ELCBs
ELCBs have two classifications and they are voltage-operated and current-operated.
Voltage operated – detects surge in voltage.
Current operated – detects change in current flow between live and neutral conductors.
Preventive maintenance measures to keep Outdoor kiosks safe
Preventive maintenance is an approach of inspecting and maintaining equipment on a systematic basis. This approach helps the service provider to reduce the incidences of system breakdowns and failures, preventing expensive repairs and customer dissatisfaction.
In the context of lightning, there are certain preventive measures that you may follow to ensure the optimum performance of the outdoor kiosk machine. And, here are they.
- Routine inspection: Kiosk technicians should routinely inspect SPDs for wear and tear. It’s not that, once installed, the SPDs can work forever. Repeated voltage spikes can cause wear and tear on the SPDs which might lead to system failure. Service providers should be ware of the life span of the SPDs. Most SPD manufacturers recommend a life cycle for their devices.
- Check earthing effectiveness – if the kiosk machine is installed in lightning-prone areas, the service providers can check the effectiveness of the grounding system, once in a year.
- Remote Monitoring – The kiosk operators can remotely monitor any surge in voltage or current and report the matter ASAP to the kiosk service team.
Benefits of protecting kiosk machines against lightning
Protecting outdoor kiosk machines against lightning rewards service providers with several benefits. And, here are they.
- Averts kiosk hardware damage – A single strike of lightning can cause debilitating damage to various kiosk components like touchscreen, circuit boards, modems and other delicate electronic components. This helps service providers save expenses in connection with parts repair or replacement.
- Reduces kiosk downtime – Your outdoor self-service machines are required to operate 24/7 day-in and day-out. If the kiosk goes non-functional due to lightning, it’s going to adversely affect the service delivery. As you know, interrupted service delivery results in reduced sales and increased customer dissatisfaction. Hence, always be on the safer side!
- Optimum performance and improved machine lifespan – Using quality devices to protect the machine against lightning and voltage spikes helps to maintain operational consistency in the long run. Afterall, improved service life of the machine contributes towards better ROI.
- Affects brand reputation – Being an outdoor machine, the news of a failed kiosk machine may touch the headlines. It’s a big NO – especially in the age of social media. It’s going to affect your brand reputation, badly.
- Peace of mind for service providers – service providers can focus on their routine operations without spending time, effort and money on damage-control.
Panashi Outdoor kiosk machines for Sheikh Zayed festival
The world-renowned Sheik Zayed festival, the annual event held in Abu Dhabi, makes use of Panashi’s outdoor kiosks for ticketing. 60 outdoor kiosk machines handled the ticketing task with utmost precision and efficiency. All the kiosk machines were loaded with the necessary protective devices like SPDs and ELCBs to withstand lightning and other voltage surges. With proper maintenance and inspection, the machines worked like a charm without any device failure or downtime.
The outdoor kiosk deployment was a grand success, and so was the festival!
To know more about our outdoor Ticketing kiosk project for Sheikh Zayed Festival, please visit here.
Panashi Outdoor Kiosks for ADNOC, Abu Dhabi
Our Outdoor kiosks are installed by ADNOC – one of the largest oil and gas producing companies in the middle east. The kiosk machines manage the access control for the employees of ADNOC. The RFID-enabled kiosk machine would permit or deny the entry of employees upon reading the employee information on the employee ID card or vehicle plate number. The outdoor kiosks streamline the access control tasks and facilitate 24/7 employee entry without manual intervention. Apart from access control, the employees are able to check their card status, perform card renewal or replacement with ease.
The ADNOC officials can easily gather the employee access-related information via the kiosk system like access history, location of access etc. For more on ADNOC Access Control kiosks, please visit here.
Panashi Outdoor Kiosk for Khorfakkan Municipality, Sharjah
The outdoor kiosk installed by the Municipality is actually a drive-thru kiosk machine. The kiosk was installed along the nearby pavement so that users/citizens could access the machine – in a drive-thru manner – without leaving their cars. The users could easily gather Municipality service-related information via the kiosk machine with a few taps.
This significantly reduced the wait times and congestion in the Municipality premises, improving the overall service efficiency. For more, on Khorfakkan drive-thru kiosk, please visit our official page here.
Outdoor Charity Kiosk for Ma’an, Abu Dhabi
The renowned, Abu Dhabi-based charity organisation named Ma’an, deployed our outdoor charity kiosk machines to improve their campaign visibility. The kiosk machines could effectively convey the purpose of charity campaigns via its large intuitive display, and through creative and engaging contents. The feature-packed donation kiosk significantly improved their campaign visibility, attracted more donors, and facilitated improved donor engagement. For more, visit our page here.
Outdoor Ticketing Kiosk for Abu Dhabi ports
Panashi’s Ticketing kiosk solution was deployed by Abu Dhabi ports to streamline their ticketing services. The outdoor ticketing machine deployed at the port premises automated the ticketing process so that the port authorities could eliminate the conventional manual ticketing. The visitors could easily purchase tickets via the ticketing kiosk terminal without having to wait in the long lines. This significantly improved visitor satisfaction and at the same time the overall operational efficiency of the port.
For more, visit our Projects page.
Conclusion
So, can outdoor kiosk machines withstand lightning?
Yes, definitely, provided the kiosk machine is designed and integrated with quality protective equipment. And, of course, systematic maintenance has also a major role to play in protecting the kiosk machine from voltage surges of all kinds.
Panashi Outdoor kiosks are designed to offer top-notch protection from all sorts of harsh weather conditions including lightning. By using surge protection devices and ELCBs offered by reliable manufacturers, adopting preventive maintenance measures, you may deploy outdoor kiosk machines in lightning-prone areas.
If you are a government agency planning to deploy a smart city kiosk or a parking kiosk machine, protecting your “self-service agents” from lightning is a must. No compromise!
Rather than just a best practice, it’s effective risk management too.
