Is it possible to protect your Solar System against EMP?

[OffGridForGood]

take aways:
long unshielded wires create problems.
don't connect to the grid at all.
have a back up for everything in a shielded container.
cross your fingers and think pleasent thoughts.

 

[DIYrich]

Read this whole thread, and still not a clue about how to reasonably protect a working system.

The thread is "is it possible ...". Since you have read the thread, and did not see a "reasonable" way to protect ...

 

[Sanwizard]

The thread is "is it possible ...". Since you have read the thread, and did not see a "reasonable" way to protect ...

I just did whatever I could to REDUCE possibilities of adverse effects from a CME or EMP. Nothing is perfect.

* Use Fair-rite ferrites on all cables
* Enclose as much wiring as possible in a trough or conduit
* Install whole house lightning suppression and surge suppression
* Ensure your grounding is perfect
* Install wire mesh around exposed inverters
I used simple wire screening around a wood frame to enclose the inverters.

 

[AntronX]

Use Fair-rite ferrites on all cables

Those need to have 2 ferrite halves touching or they do not work at all. If you have too many wires through them where they cannot slide, even if plastic cover clamps shut it may not press ferrite pieces tight enough rendering them totally useless. Use larger one piece ferrite beads or toroids. Not sure which ferrite material is best for E1 wavefront onset and intensity, probably type 61 with few turns. Maybe combine type 43 and 61. Need to do research on this.

 

[Madcodger]

take aways:
long unshielded wires create problems.
don't connect to the grid at all.
have a back up for everything in a shielded container.
cross your fingers and think pleasent thoughts.

Yup. That's the closest I'm getting to taking something away from this (which is what I was getting at with my somewhat tongue-in-cheek comment.

The only thing I'm struggling with keeping in storage are the panels. I just know I'll want to see them mounted and producing power. Maybe ask my wife to hide them from me...

 

[0truck0]

hiding the systems in a box is still kinda useless unless you plan to hide it until post-emp.
How to protect a working system is the question, not how to hide it in a box. IDT anyone has missed the faraday box option, nobody is asking how to put anything in a faraday box, this is simple, they ask how to protect it while it is being used.

Nobody really knows unless they are able to work with emps, and seems those who do work with emps are not talking (military, govt etc).
All are guesses as no solution has been tested and verified to the public. Please dont bleed in the option to hide it in a box, this is not the discussion.

 

[OffGridForGood]

When not in use, I keep my 12v & 24v mobile units in a secure location. Not very big compared with the main solar, but it is something. Maybe I can fall back on those in the case of an event taking out the main system.

 

[AlaskanNoob]

hiding the systems in a box is still kinda useless unless you plan to hide it until post-emp.

I think that's the point.

 

[Sanwizard]

When not in use, I keep my 12v & 24v mobile units in a secure location. Not very big compared with the main solar, but it is something. Maybe I can fall back on those in the case of an event taking out the main system.

I have a spare MPP LV2424, and four SOK 12V 100AH batteries, along with 5 x 100 Watt panels in the shed as a backup. All still in boxes. Not sure if they will fry in the box if SHTF, but nothing I can do about.

 

[DIYrich]

hiding the systems in a box is still kinda useless unless you plan to hide it until post-emp.
How to protect a working system is the question, not how to hide it in a box. IDT anyone has missed the faraday box option, nobody is asking how to put anything in a faraday box, this is simple, they ask how to protect it while it is being used.

Nobody really knows unless they are able to work with emps, and seems those who do work with emps are not talking (military, govt etc).
All are guesses as no solution has been tested and verified to the public. Please dont bleed in the option to hide it in a box, this is not the discussion.

Your question is like: how to keep from getting wet when you jump into a pool.

Emp will be all around you, like air. In order to avoid any emp, you need to be in a Faraday box. You also need to keep anything that conducts electricity from being inside and outside the cage at the same time. Solve that problem, and you have your solution.

There are levels of emp hardening. If you are only worried about voltage induced in wires by the emp, but not the emp itself, then that is more easily solved.

 

[AntronX]

Emp will be all around you, like air. In order to avoid any emp, you need to be in a Faraday box.

Big faraday box will pass emp via surface current excitation that will let some emp frequencies pass through. Placing box within a box within a box is the technique to reduce it. From "Protection of Equipment and Electronic Systems against Electromagnetic Interference, especially NEMP by Dr. Diethard Hansen, February 1987"

 

[Hedges]

Most small devices, including handheld radios, survived simulated EMP. Some radios were damaged. I don't have the details, might be voltage whip antennas vs. current loop.

Automobiles typically stalled. Only one out of many required repair (ECU).

PV system connected to the grid will be at risk. House wiring and PV wiring (which has bigger loops) might be. Individual pieces of equipment, unconnected, unpowered, stored, probably won't be damaged by a distant event. Faraday cage provides additional protection.

There is a huge difference between a prepper in a valley without line of sight, vs. an aircraft or space vehicle that gets a nuke lobbed in its direction. Many more types of ionizing and non-ionizing radiation threat in the latter case, as well as extreme levels.

Aircraft and designed and tested to withstand it. Including ITO on windows to maintain Faraday cage.

 

[MisterSandals]

Placing box within a box within a box is the technique to reduce it.

This was my conclusion as well for spare units. It can be done cheap and easy.

I have a Victron 150/50 and 2000W inverter that I unboxed and wrapped in heavy aluminum foil. I then put the internal packaging on an wrapped that in foil. I then placed it in the outer box and wrapped again. 3 layers. Fingers crossed.

If you label the outside foil, you or someone else will appreciate that effort later.

I am not convinced I will have anything to run on AC like a fridge or freezer…
Maybe a clock and battery charger? Radios, tvs, phones probably useless without services if they happen to survive.

 

[Luk88]

I read a military EMP prep manual once long time ago. It was full of things like "cast steel enclosures for critical equipment need to have at least 12mm (half inch) wall thickness and be equipped with lead seals". I'm not sure what this tells us about the suitability of your typical mesh Faraday cage or aluminium foil, but at the same time if our solar install is half a mile from a small nuke blast, we're likely to have worse problems than EMP protection.

I think there are a lot of things one can do to increase resilience. This will follow the typical resilience curve.
Initially you can make great gains in your system's resilience with very little effort.

Things like surge protectors. For example my current array has no surge protection at the panel end of the main wire. I have 4s4p array, then 25m of underground wire, a surge protection and the inverter. Probably adding surge protection at the panel rack is a very good idea.

But then, what is a "good ground" in terms of surge protection (as good as you can get - I know, I know ). Here the legal requirement for house ground is below 7 ohms I think(it was long time ago I read it). In a clay soil with pockets of sand that is very difficult to get sometimes and to measure it easily you need a very expensive equipment.

I managed to get my solar system ground to about 4ohms,but it took lots of grounding rods. I'd love to find out if there is an easy straightforward method to measure grounding quality without hiring a very expensive meter.

 

[MisterSandals]

I managed to get my solar system ground to about 4ohms,

How does one test/measure that?

 

[Luk88]

How does one test/measure that?

With a very expensive meter.

At the time I hired two young guys who were learning to be electricians at a local technical school to do the wiring in my workshop. Initially it was just to do the wiring. I was going to do everything else myself. And I was going to hire someone to do grounding for both lightning protection and the main building ground. But, they talked to their teacher and he let them borrow their school's meter.

It was something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Sonel-MPI-540-Multifunction-Electrical-Installation/dp/B08K2SFDHN not by sonel, some other brand, it might have been a Fluke. It had ~40m of wire x2 and ground spikes you're supposed to place exactly 40m(if i remember correctly) apart.

There are cheaper meters and various elaborate methods that involve ungrounded gas generators etc I read about online. In the end these two guys resolved my problem and they got a good grade for it at school