diy solar

diy solar

Is it possible to protect your Solar System against EMP?

Supervstech said:
Keep in mind people, this isnt the chit chat forum.
Do NOT make posts directed at a member if your opinions focused on the topic not the person
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Fair enough- let me rephrase to stay on topic given the thread title:

Even if it were possible to insulate a solar system against an EMP event of the magnitude everyone has been discussing (catastrophic, nationwide/worldwide, potentially multiple subsequent events)- maybe? Presumably not, if it's powerful enough?

To me, this is like the conclusion many came to in the small-turbine wind power thread... Below a certain threshold, it's not really reasonable/economical to do (i.e. a tiny wind turbine). If you ask me, I'd think there's far better ways to spend time and money to prepare for an EMP than building out multiple, inert backup systems stored in Faraday cages that are sitting there waiting for a unicorn event.

I also feel like I should add that Katrina is a sore spot for those where actually affected by it/the government response to it (or have friends and loved ones who were). Hearing "you're just being paranoid if you think something like that will ever happen again", as you imagine, can be frustrating. Especially in a thread about something like a massive, end-of-the-world EMP, of all things.
 
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AlaskanNoob said:
What ways do you advocate instead?
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I don't want to derail the thread further, as I think it in general would be better suited for a "prepper" thread- but let me preface it by saying if time, money, and space is not a constraint, build all the Faraday cages and EM shielding you can! Have at it, I'm not here to tell you what to do.

Without going down the rabbit hole, I think if you want multiple redundancies, I would strongly be considering those redundancies in regards to plans for food, water, shelter, arms, etc. Just throwing an example out, but rather than relying on a set of solar panels and a spare electric water pump that *hopefully* would survive an EMP, I think I'd rather have plans for multiple alternatives- water purification/filtration, rainwater collection, manual pumps, etc.

Anyways, as I said, I won't derail this further with non-EMP hardening talk. My point was mostly that everyone should try to be reasonable/realistic in expectations. Not sure I'd spend time and effort building my underground basement bunker while living in a 10-year floodplain. Would love to take it to a general prepping thread, though.
 
Dagoth Ur Does Solar said:
I don't want to derail the thread further, as I think it in general would be better suited for a "prepper" thread- but let me preface it by saying if time, money, and space is not a constraint, build all the Faraday cages and EM shielding you can! Have at it, I'm not here to tell you what to do.

Without going down the rabbit hole, I think if you want multiple redundancies, I would strongly be considering those redundancies in regards to plans for food, water, shelter, arms, etc. Just throwing an example out, but rather than relying on a set of solar panels and a spare electric water pump that *hopefully* would survive an EMP, I think I'd rather have plans for multiple alternatives- water purification/filtration, rainwater collection, manual pumps, etc.

Anyways, as I said, I won't derail this further with non-EMP hardening talk. My point was mostly that everyone should try to be reasonable/realistic in expectations. Not sure I'd spend time and effort building my underground basement bunker while living in a 10-year floodplain. Would love to take it to a general prepping thread, though.
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You think giving the options you think are better for defeating EMP than faraday cages would derail the thread about defeating EMP?
 
AlaskanNoob said:
You think giving the options you think are better for defeating EMP than faraday cages would derail the thread about defeating EMP?
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I think I'm being misunderstood, or have poorly communicated my point. I am not suggesting on how to protect equipment against an EMP. I am suggesting there are more useful things to spend time and money on than trying to protect against an EMP.

Going down the rabbit hole of prepping in general is off topic, which is what I meant by "derailing the thread."
 
Dagoth Ur Does Solar said:
I think I'm being misunderstood, or have poorly communicated my point. I am not suggesting on how to protect equipment against an EMP. I am suggesting there are more useful things to spend time and money on than trying to protect against an EMP.

Going down the rabbit hole of prepping in general is off topic, which is what I meant by "derailing the thread."
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Okay, I see the confusion. Thanks.

If you ask me, I'd think there's far better ways to spend time and money to prepare for an EMP than building out multiple, inert backup systems stored in Faraday cages that are sitting there...
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timselectric said:
Yes
Disconnect everything and put it in a grounded metal box.
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Incredibly BAD answer, no offense, and it was the very first answer, not a good sign... I stopped reading when it starts out this bad. I might add, yes, a sheet of toilet paper will stop a sniper's bullet! Place a steel plate in front of it!
Can a moped pull 100 train cars? Yes, chain a locomotive to the moped!
Can you fill a swimming pool with the water from one rain drop? Yes, while a fire hose blast water in the pool too.
Can pigs fly? Yes, they need to go in an animal crate on the plane though.
Can you buy a house with one Dollar? Yes, and about 200,000 more dollars too.
 
Disconnect all external wires, bond all connection points to each other.
Think about a linesman, they are touching many kv of electricity but are fine, as long as they don't touch anything else. Same applies here, it's ok if your box of tricks gets zapped by high voltage, as long as the whole thing floats up together as one.
 
Quattrohead said:
Disconnect all external wires, bond all connection points to each other.
Think about a linesman, they are touching many kv of electricity but are fine, as long as they don't touch anything else. Same applies here, it's ok if your box of tricks gets zapped by high voltage, as long as the whole thing floats up together as one.
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So, all these actions need to be taken in advance and the system will be shut down, right? That means you need to know about the strike in advance, as it will be practically instantaneous
 
Pranegus said:
So, all these actions need to be taken in advance and the system will be shut down, right? That means you need to know about the strike in advance, as it will be practically instantaneous
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Military will have 15 minutes of notice. Who knows when they tell us. But, there will be days of notice to the buildup as relations get further strained, and military is put on alert. Just like the warning of Russia invading Ukraine.
 
AlaskanNoob said:
What was bad about his answer? Was it putting items in a metal box, or grounding that box, or both?
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because at that point you do not have a solar system. You have a box of parts stored away and unusable, and this is not at all how to protect a working system. If you tell me the best way to keep my shoes clean is to box them up in an airtight container and put at the back of the closet then this is really really useless information, isnt it? It should be inferred that the question is about protecting solar that is in use ,not solar stored and boxed up and not useable. Unplugging the solar from the controller is a valid answer, but taking everything apart and storing away is not valid.
 
0truck0 said:
because at that point you do not have a solar system. You have a box of parts stored away and unusable, and this is not at all how to protect a working system. If you tell me the best way to keep my shoes clean is to box them up in an airtight container and put at the back of the closet then this is really really useless information, isnt it? It should be inferred that the question is about protecting solar that is in use ,not solar stored and boxed up and not useable. Unplugging the solar from the controller is a valid answer, but taking everything apart and storing away is not valid.
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I'm pretty sure people are aware that disconnected solar components in a box are not a working system at the time, and are to be used post event. I seriously doubt anybody is under the impression that unplugged components are producing solar power.

I think most people are thinking about a duplicate system. One system working that you might unplug and hope for the best, and another system boxed up and ready to go.
 
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0truck0 said:
because at that point you do not have a solar system. You have a box of parts stored away and unusable, and this is not at all how to protect a working system.
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You can't protect a working system unless you put your entire house in a Faraday cage. It is a wire cage, so light can still hit the panels. No wires to the outside world can enter the cage.
 
0truck0 said:
because at that point you do not have a solar system. You have a box of parts stored away and unusable, and this is not at all how to protect a working system. If you tell me the best way to keep my shoes clean is to box them up in an airtight container and put at the back of the closet then this is really really useless information, isnt it? It should be inferred that the question is about protecting solar that is in use ,not solar stored and boxed up and not useable. Unplugging the solar from the controller is a valid answer, but taking everything apart and storing away is not valid.
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Well, this is an opinion, sure.
Another is to protect it, you should have 100% backup components stored underground in steel containers.
Another would be to install shielding on all wiring with surge absorption components...
Idk, but calling out solutions as useless kinda defeats the purpose of this forum
 
Good news everyone! Solar panels are highly resilient against HEMP. In this paper (pdf) Swiss researchers dumped 2000A into solar cells and 150 kV/m field strength (3x full HEMP threat level) and they survived over 100 tests except 1 of 12 bypass diodes failed short. The only protection needed is bypass diode reverse bias protection and PV cable shielding from E1 wave coupling into PV wires. E2/E3 are too long wavelength and do not affect off-grid solar systems. No need to store panels in Faraday cage.
hemp_protection.JPG hemp_E1_coupling.JPG

(EMP-HARDENED PHOTOVOLTAIC GENERATORS: A POSSIBLE EMERGENCY POWER SOLUTION FOR CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE? Markus Nyffeler, Armin W. Kaelin)
 
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