I am disconnecting my solar panel strings the next 36 - 48 hours.

[sunsurfer]

Just one wire at the SCCs. Just a precaution.

We have 6 CMEs now lined up. Might see some Auroras down south, that would be awesome. But, there is a phenomena called a bow shock that no one knows about where the earth magnetic filed gets stretched and pulled tight like a rubber band. When it snaps back, it can have a big affect not expected.

Solar flares are low frequency EMP affects, long wire runs can pick up stray currents. Last thing I want is to blow the front end of my SCCs. They are rated for 100v, I run at around 65v. Would not be hard to pick up an extra 40+v with a big solar flare. Just going to unhook 1 wire on each string.

Some thing to think about.......

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Just one wire at the SCCs. Just a precaution.

We have 6 CMEs now lined up. Might see some Auroras down south, that would be awesome. But, there is a phenomena called a bow shock that no one knows about where the earth magnetic filed gets stretched and pulled tight like a rubber band. When it snaps back, it can have a big affect not expected.

Solar flares are low frequency EMP affects, long wire runs can pick up stray currents. Last thing I want is to blow the front end of my SCCs. They are rated for 100v, I run at around 65v. Would not be hard to pick up an extra 40+v with a big solar flare. Just going to unhook 1 wire on each string.

Some thing to think about.......

+40V? What's the mechanism for the boost in voltage? PV voltage changes very little with light intensity. If the flare produced an intensity 2X normal (from 1000W/m^2), the increase in voltage would be around 5-10%.

 

[sunsurfer]

+40V? What's the mechanism for the boost in voltage? PV voltage changes very little with light intensity. If the flare produced an intensity 2X normal (from 1000W/m^2), the increase in voltage would be around 5-10%.

Yea, I don't know the math but I know the wave length issue with sun related EMPs. Its an electromatic/frequency combination or EMP affect.

One of my careers was as a communications engineer and I understand it well working with radio gear. The CMEs are not big enough by themselves with this one but if they stack up or PULL the earths magnetic field, they could add up to something.

No one knows, but why not spend 15 minutes for a little extra protection.

 

[AntronX]

CME induces DC in long distance transmission lines saturating cores of AC transmission line transformers and damaging them if not disconnected. It won't affect your home PV wires since they are not long enough.

One potential scenario of concern is widespread failure of electrical transformers. Because GICs can generate unwanted direct current (DC) in transformer windings, the normally symmetric alternating current (AC) becomes offset. This offset condition drives the magnetic transformer core into saturation which creates harmonics and leads to transformer overheating. This, in turn, can shorten the life of the transformer insulation. The generated harmonics can resonate with inductances and capacitances in the power system near the transformer, which results in higher-than-nominal voltages that can affect the integrity of the transformer winding insulation. While transformers are designed to operate somewhat beyond nominal ratings, this phenomenon could lead to catastrophic transformer failure if the condition is severe enough. Of concern to the reliability of the bulk electricity system is a common-mode failure (e.g. a very large geomagnetic storm that leads to simultaneous failures of multiple power transformers and significant loss of transmission capability). Given the extensive time to either repair or replace this equipment, a prolonged outage of electrical service could occur. Even the time needed to install spare equipment and develop workaround procedures would be measured in days and weeks, which would have a significant national impact under certain circumstances [Geomagnetic Storms and Long-Term Impacts on Power Systems, PACIFIC NORTHWEST NATIONAL LABORATORY .pdf link]

 

[sunsurfer]

CME induces DC in long distance transmission lines saturating cores of AC transmission line transformers and damaging them if not disconnected. It won't affect your home PV wires since they are not long enough.

You could be right, the only event we can reference is the Carringinton and those where LONG lines. Its all about the wavelength(frequency) and my 120' runs are a good match for low frequency EMF. Solar events are low frequency events but how low exactly, I have not looked into the actually numbers.

Still, I'm still disconnecting my strings this evening.

 

[sunsurfer]

I went ahead and unhooked em while on my lunch break. KP is already at 7 which seems very early. Could be a fast moving stream of particles. Solar winds are already moving fast.

 

[sunsurfer]

Just jumped up to KP8. Looks like it came early. Fingers crossed we get a good southern show tonight.

 

[Supervstech]

Interesting.
Id like to see aurora's again since i left iceland.

 

[Dagoth Ur Does Solar]

I'm not doing diddly squat.

 

[seneysolar]

Just one wire at the SCCs. Just a precaution.

We have 6 CMEs now lined up. Might see some Auroras down south, that would be awesome. But, there is a phenomena called a bow shock that no one knows about where the earth magnetic filed gets stretched and pulled tight like a rubber band. When it snaps back, it can have a big affect not expected.

Solar flares are low frequency EMP affects, long wire runs can pick up stray currents. Last thing I want is to blow the front end of my SCCs. They are rated for 100v, I run at around 65v. Would not be hard to pick up an extra 40+v with a big solar flare. Just going to unhook 1 wire on each string.

Some thing to think about.......

 

[sunsurfer]

I guess my prepper geek is showing....

My knowledge haunts me....

 

[sunsurfer]

Interesting.
Id like to see aurora's again since i left iceland.

You might tonight or tomorrow night. Stacked flares are a wild card.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

I guess my prepper geek is showing....

My knowledge haunts me....

I expect your experience is different than most. EM effect on wireless is probably a couple orders of magnitude greater than on short PV wires.

I think you should use this opportunity to conduct an experiment to see if there are any measurable effects, BUT it's your shit. Unplug it if you want.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

You might tonight or tomorrow night. Stacked flares are a wild card.

How far South are we talking? I did a bucket list trip to Fairbanks in 2015 to see the northern lights, and we weren't disappointed at all. Amazing even in October.

 

[sunsurfer]

I expect your experience is different than most. EM effect on wireless is probably a couple orders of magnitude greater than on short PV wires.

I think you should use this opportunity to conduct an experiment to see if there are any measurable effects, BUT it's your shit. Unplug it if you want.

Wires are antennas directly wired to IC components. I did damage a tv once working on a UHF radio years ago while watching a movie. If you hit the right "note" or "tune", it doesn't take much to do damage.

Luck favors the prepared. A few seconds to switch a breaker or unhook a wire is not a burden.

We know less then 1% about all of this.

 

[Texas-Mark]

there is a phenomena called a bow shock that no one knows about

Sort of a contradictory statement, no?

 

[Luk88]

Interesting.
Id like to see aurora's again since i left iceland.

100% clouds here in at 53N (Europe) I never had a chance to see Aurora here - clouds, every single time when it's reported.

 

[seneysolar]

I think you should use this opportunity to conduct an experiment to see if there are any measurable effects

+1 vote for the experiment. Would be very interested in the results!

 

[sunsurfer]

Sort of a contradictory statement, no?

There was a special on tv back in the 90s that ran a few times and there was a segment on it. Now, I can't find any info on it. It was probably a theory that just got buried. We really only know about 1% of what is going on with our sun.

 

[Supervstech]

There was a special on tv back in the 90s that ran a few times and there was a segment on it. Now, I can't find any info on it. It was probably a theory that just got buried. We really only know about 1% of what is going on with our sun.

Probably more like .001%

 

[JoeHam]

How far South are we talking? I did a bucket list trip to Fairbanks in 2015 to see the northern lights, and we weren't disappointed at all. Amazing even in October.

I saw them in Ohio in the early 70’s and in Wisconsin in the mid 80’s.

Nothing so far tonight.

 

[JoeHam]

Wires are antennas directly wired to IC components. I did damage a tv once working on a UHF radio years ago while watching a movie. If you hit the right "note" or "tune", it doesn't take much to do damage.

I have multiple antennas connected to multiple radios now.

I’ll report back in the morning if anything got damaged, but don’t expect to.

 

[Luk88]

I have multiple antennas connected to multiple radios now.

I’ll report back in the morning if anything got damaged, but don’t expect to.

I always disconnect and ground my antennas when not in use (especially in summer). Mainly due to lighting.(I do have lightning protection too, but this is how I was thought to leave equipment).

I'd love to see some comparisons what kind of voltage is induced in a 100m long conductor during :
- a small lightning strike 1km,0.5km,100m,10m away
- various CME categories including "Carrington" strength event.
- theoretically possibility of magnetic field reconnection (snap back) caused by a CME (we see these reconnections on the sun all the time and they release huge energies, but I don't know if any were ever observed on Earth)

This would let us know for sure, do we need to care about our equipment, or is it just a matter of concerns at grid scale?

 

[JoeHam]

I always disconnect and ground my antennas when not in use (especially in summer). Mainly due to lighting.(I do have lightning protection too, but this is how I was thought to leave equipment).

That’s how I was taught as well but over more than 50 years in Ham radio I’ve been away from home many times when nasty summer storms roll through and I’ve gotten lazy about it. Some day I’ll get the proverbial, and actual, hit by lightning and I expect to pay the price when/if that happens.

I do have my tower, solar panels etc. all connected to a common buried ground that encircles the house foundation. All bonded to the service ground as well. So I haven’t been completely lazy .

In addition, as the IOT has invaded Ham radio I’m very cautious about ethernet and computer wired connections as there have been many reports of lightning strikes entering via the cable company or other internet wired connection. I always have a wireless or fiber bridge in any connection path into the radios.

The first section on this page has some great resources on grounding/earthing :

Here are a list of technical articles on grounding and lightning protection. On the PDF files, “use right click, save file as†option.

 

[ksmithaz1]

I'd be stunned if a solar event caused a problem of any kind with a solar system. Not quite the same as low voltage device connected to something with a ton of external wire.

 

[Luk88]

In addition, as the IOT has invaded Ham radio I’m very cautious about ethernet and computer wired connections as there have been many reports of lightning strikes entering via the cable company or other internet wired connection. I always have a wireless or fiber bridge in any connection path into the radios.

My first "introduction" to let's call it atmospheric electricity coming in over Ethernet cables was in mid to late 1990s.

I had a small network of unshielded Ethernet wires between the roof of my building (imagine communist high rise apartment blocks clustered fairly close together) and some friends buildings.

We run rs-485 serial over some optocoupling adapters and later 10Mbit Ethernet over the wires with strict rule of "disconnecting it on any hint of lightning storm". We all had these (grounded) cast iron radiators under our windows and the normal thing would be to tie the cable around the pipe when not in use (Janku as hell, but we were kids, of course we never asked for the permission to install cables so they were damaged by roofers few years later).

During summer rain, even without lightning one could observe a 1~2 inch spark jumping the gap between the rj45 dangling next to it and the pipe with some regularity (every 20s or so).

 

[ksmithaz1]

During summer rain, even without lightning one could observe a 1~2 inch spark jumping the gap between the rj45 dangling next to it and the pipe with some regularity (every 20s or so).

Interesting. Must have been a static buildup, one would assume cat-2/3 or UTP of some description. Coax or outdoor STP with a ground should have eliminated that, of course four times as expensive. Static buildup was likely due to the plastic sheaths rubbing and twisting and the cable physically oscillating in the air inducing current. Not to mention the ground potential differences between the two buildings. I'm sure is was a lot of fun, and a great learning experience!