Making a Faraday Cage Room out of 12'D Steel Culvert

[AlaskanNoob]

Would this work to protect (fingers crossed) against solar flares and EMPs? I know it's not guaranteed and lots of variables, but the increased sun activity and the chance of solar flares knocking everything out has me a bit concerned given that we off grid solar types are so dependent on our silicon chip circuits and such.

So thinking a culvert like this one, except some rebar mesh in the floor, somehow attached to the culvert, and then some kind of mesh across the top with a door that can be opened and closed to allow stairway entrance into the culvert. With the door closed to complete contact. Then we'd put a wood roof on top of it which would be the floor for a shed. So final thing would be a shed with a faraday cage underneath it for storing generators, tools, backup solar equipment, radios, etc. Probably stored in aluminum trash cans for added protection.

I'd put some kind of foam or something on the inside to make sure nothing touches the metal structure.

If this would work, my questions are:

• What size rebar would I want to use for the floor (I'd be using it for EMF protection, not for structural reinforcement of concrete) and what kind of spacing for the grid of the rebar?
  
  
• what size rebar or wire for the roof cover and what kind of spacing?
  
  
• or should I use a solid metal plate for the floor and roof instead of having a mesh (this seems to be the best option, although not the cheapest, so I'm leaning toward a concrete floor that is smooth and level and then welding a plate for the floor into the culvert and then putting wood on top of that, and a metal roof except with a cut out door on hinges that makes good contact when closed)

The culvert metal is 10 gauge galvanized steel.

Many thanks for any inputs!

 

[RussNM]

Ive seen Faraday cages made out of simple wire window mesh .. metal screen material.

 

[AlaskanNoob]

Ive seen Faraday cages made out of simple wire window mesh .. metal screen material.

Me too. I think there is some question as to how much of a Faraday Cage those meshes actually are. Depending on the size of the metal, and the size of the gaps, it's a faraday cage for *some* frequencies but not all, from the little that I understand. Apparently the best is to make the gaps smaller or even better is to use solid metal.

But this stuff is way beyond my comprehension and I'm not sure anything is 100% effective against a large solar flare. But something is likely better than nothing.

I'm leaning toward using solid metal for the floors and the roof (the walls already are) and then storing individual components in aluminum cans inside the culvert.

 

[RussNM]

In my lifetime there have been thousands of solar flares yet I have never lost 1 electronic device.. none of them protected. If we get the flare of all flares I believe electronics will be way down on the list of things to worry about. Same with a nuke....
Now keeping all your stuff down there makes sense but Id be more worried about moisture than an emp.

 

[D71]

you need to consider walls based on loads as well as ceilings.

Has there been any testing that you can find? should be info on line. I’d think preppers, solar panel equipment makers, and others might address some of these things for your questions.

The fast way to save things is wrap in foil toss in microwave ie a phone. Then there was debate: do you unplug the cord which is a yes…. Because might feed in on the connection. My brain tickle how do you know it is coming to prepare? I mean will we get advanced notice so can wrap toss phone in microwave. Is that really that important if everything else is taken out?

Ppl with their systems often want to protect their inverters, batteries, and such but their solar panels are connected and exposed. So?

We were always told commercial grade aircraft were emp proof because of their ability design to handle lightening strikes. If EMP drops think we are going to have a shit load more to worry with… There is often plan of follow up strikes.

 

[AlaskanNoob]

In my lifetime there have been thousands of solar flares yet I have never lost 1 electronic device.. none of them protected. If we get the flare of all flares I believe electronics will be way down on the list of things to worry about. Same with a nuke....
Now keeping all your stuff down there makes sense but Id be more worried about moisture than an emp.

Yeah, but apparently there are cycles of the sun and we're getting into a cycle where the flares will be more intense. Maybe so intense nothing I do matters, or maybe so intense that my stuff works while others stuff doesn't work. Plan for the worst, hope for the best.

And if a solar flare goes off, yes, my electronics will be a big deal to me. I'm off grid, that's how I produce electricity, so I want to protect it.

 

[AlaskanNoob]

you need to consider walls based on loads as well as ceilings.

Has there been any testing that you can find? should be info on line. I’d think preppers, solar panel equipment makers, and others might address some of these things for your questions.

The fast way to save things is wrap in foil toss in microwave ie a phone. Then there was debate: do you unplug the cord which is a yes…. Because might feed in on the connection. My brain tickle how do you know it is coming to prepare? I mean will we get advanced notice so can wrap toss phone in microwave. Is that really that important if everything else is taken out?

Ppl with their systems often want to protect their inverters, batteries, and such but their solar panels are connected and exposed. So?

We were always told commercial grade aircraft were emp proof because of their ability design to handle lightening strikes. If EMP drops think we are going to have a shit load more to worry with… There is often plan of follow up strikes.

Our walls are the culvert as shown in the picture above. The floor and "roof" won't be load bearing.

Yeah, I'm too dumb to know what "experts" to believe on YouTube. That's why I posted here, because I know that I can trust EVERY SINGLE THING you people say. Especially when it comes to how PHEVs operate.

I would love to put an EMP shield on my operating equipment, but like you said, since it's connected to solar panels I don't think it would work. I've seen some stuff about little devices that are sold, but I don't know if I can trust those.

So I'm thinking of putting extra MPPT, inverter, batteries, generator, radios, etc in this structure.