Questions about EMPs?

[Old Swampgirl]

Would they wipe out a small solar set-up, with just a few panels, an inverter & a storage battery?
and
Would they knock out an electric golf cart?

[Energy Rebel]

Most likely the inverter and probably any small electrical components on the golf cart (transistors, capacitors, etc.)
That's why the gov't and military back-up radios and electronics are the old style tube based units.

[Cyngbaeld]

I'd want the inverter shielded. It doesn't take much of anything to knock out an inverter. I think the rest would likely be ok. JMHO, of course.

[tkrabec]

my eventuall plan is to put in an array & then get a backup set of components (inverter & charge controller) in a make shift faraday's cage.

[tab]

My understanding is that anything electronic that is not protected will be fried by an emp. The strength of the emp figures in. Over at endtimesreport.com there is a lot of good info.

[Ernie]

Some devices will survive an EMP due to placement, simplicity of components, or just simple luck.

You had best count on almost everything being toasted though.

[Cyngbaeld]

If you are on a solar system, you need backups of the main components anyhow.

I've fried so many inverters that I wouldn't even plan on having one again. Just static electricity can do them in.

[Explorer]

I have been using various inverters since 1995 and have never had any damage. I currently have about 8 or 9 and they all still work. I just keep buying bigger and better ones. One in each vehicle, three hooked to my solar system and a few semi retired. If you buy elcheapos, don't expect them to last.

[Old Swampgirl]

Thanks for the info. Glad my old bike will still work.

[Jim-mi]

Actually there are so many "if's" to a question like yours that a *good* answer is going to be very hard to come by.

Yes elcheapo inverters would be very suspect.
how sophisticated are the controls on the golf cart . .????

Good questions but it is so 'iffy' that nobody has any real world answers......

[texican]

Doubt the panels or the batteries would be affected... if one were using the system right now, and had a good amount of data in their heads, one could work (imho) without a controller.

Back when I was off grid, I knew pretty much how much my appliances would use per hour, and how much I made on a rainy day, shady day, or sunny day.... and how long it'd take before the controller shut down the charging. If my controller were to have cratered or EMP'd, I'd know roughly at what time my battery bank would be recharged the next day (from the previous nights usage)... and I could flip a switch cutting off the panels from the batteries, or just turned a 'load' on.

A cheap controller and inverter could be stored in a faraday cage (insulated ammo box, or other cheap faraday cage setup).

[Gary in ohio]

I would worry about the panels. There are lots of small wires in a solar panel and they may get fried.

[mightybooboo]

Originally Posted by Jim-mi

Actually there are so many "if's" to a question like yours that a *good* answer is going to be very hard to come by.

Yes elcheapo inverters would be very suspect.
how sophisticated are the controls on the golf cart . .????

Good questions but it is so 'iffy' that nobody has any real world answers......

I agree with that,and if an EMP electric would be the least of our worries.

That said,anybody got PICTURES of a faraday setup for a few components,like that idea,cant hurt,very outside chance it might matter so why not?

Talk to me about putting a golf cart into faraday protect,get specific,I want a GC and I could really see a use for that!

[AngieM2]

I once did some work with ex at a radio station where control room was basically under the tower. The EMP of the tower would have interferred with the electronics of the station. (this was about 1970's). What the owner had done was "wallpaper" the walls and ceiling and floor with a screen mesh, and ground it in a few places. Seemed to work.

I want a directional EMP gun for use on very loud boom box cars. I'd settle with just disabling the thump thump thump of the sounds (not music usually).

[Bigkat80]

As a cold war Submarine Communications Tech and Operator, One of the biggest problems we had to overcome was how to continue to communicate electronically in a post or trans nuclear enviroment. We used a myriad of devices called in line Break line fuses...Real technical but for the laymen, we had automatic fuses that blew at thresholds of EMP in order to protect the downline electronic componenets. Think of it as a surge protector for the old computer. The issue with EMP is that it is air radiated and not necessarily inherent to the tranmission lines so breakline protection will not be totally effective, screening in a faraday manner would be better. Back up equipment stored in a fraday cage would be best. Here is some information that i thought might help.//Will//

A Faraday cage or Faraday shield is an enclosure formed by conducting material or by a mesh of such material. Such an enclosure blocks out external non-static electric fields. Faraday cages are named after the English scientist Michael Faraday, who invented them in 1836.[1]
A Faraday cage's operation depends on the fact that an external static electrical field will cause the electrical charges within the cage's conducting material to redistribute themselves so as to cancel the field's effects in the cage's interior. This phenomenon is used, for example, to protect electronic equipment from lightning strikes and other electrostatic discharges.
Faraday cages cannot block static and slowly varying magnetic fields, such as Earth's magnetic field (a compass will still work inside). To a large degree though, they also shield the interior from external electromagnetic radiation if the conductor is thick enough and any holes are significantly smaller than the radiation's wavelength. For example, certain computer forensic test procedures of electronic components or systems that require an environment devoid of electromagnetic interference may be conducted within a screen room. These screen rooms are essentially work areas that are completely enclosed by one or more layers of fine metal mesh or perforated sheet metal. The metal layers are grounded to dissipate any electric currents generated from the external electromagnetic fields and thus block a large amount of the electromagnetic interference. See also electromagnetic shielding.
The reception of external radio signals, a form of electromagnetic radiation, through an antenna within a cage can be greatly attenuated or even completely blocked by the cage itself.
Some Examples:
• The shield of a screened cable, such as the coaxial cable used for cable television, protects the internal conductors from electrical noise.
• A booster bag (shopping bag lined with aluminum foil) acts as a Faraday cage. It is often used by shoplifters to steal RFID-tagged items.[3]
• The cooking chamber of a microwave oven is a Faraday cage, made to contain the RF signals of the cavity magnetron which cooks the food.
• Some linemen wear Faraday suits, which allow them to work on live, high voltage power lines without risk of electrocution. These suits work because they are not grounded. The suit prevents electrical current from flowing through the body, and has no theoretical voltage limit. Linemen have successfully worked even the highest voltage (Russian 1150 kV) lines safely.
• The scan room of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine is designed as a Faraday cage. This prevents external RF (radio frequency) signals from being added to data collected from the patient, which would affect the resulting image. Radiographers are trained to identify the characteristic artefacts created on images should the Faraday cage be damaged.
• Faraday cages are routinely used in analytical chemistry to reduce noise while making sensitive measurements. A home-made Faraday cage used for simultaneous microscopy and electrochemistry is shown to the right.

http://www.armymars.net/ArmyMARS/Gen...%20Fiedler.pdf

Long PDf but it will give some Idea as to what and how of EMP protection it can be applied to Solar components or at least help you understand EMP and its effects better so that you can make rational decisions about how or if to protect.

my Guess is that if we get in to a man made EMP conflict we are all heading to the stoneage again...so Meh perhaps the candles will be the best back up plan along with oil lamps and curtailing activity to day light hoursetc... and other old world living habits.

[kan-green]

Has anyone heard about the prediction for increase solar flares late 2012 into 2013. The author said it would make the ones in the 1840s look tame. Will this have the same effect as an emp?

[Bigkat80]

Originally Posted by kan-green

Has anyone heard about the prediction for increase solar flares late 2012 into 2013. The author said it would make the ones in the 1840s look tame. Will this have the same effect as an emp?

Not as intense but in some locations you could incur electronic interference or even damage. I remember look at sunspot and solar flar data constantly to see when communications would be degraded up north in the atlantic.... Due to the angle of inclination of our axis the more north the more effect on electronics....

In effect your titled and pointed at the sun and its flatter in the Winter soltices....

[Wags]

You might find some of the info at this site helpful. It's a 4 part article on EMP's and the fourth part is on how to build a faraday cage.