anyone worried about solar storm hitting earth?

i have been reading a lot lately about solar storms. Last big one was in 1859. They say we are way over due and they usually happen every 150 years . Experts say it can wipe out our power grid and we are not prepared at all. Can take years for power to be fully restored. I have always thought about getting a whole house generator but they usually only give power for about a week. Any one else worried about this? Any ideas on how to prepare for this? seems like any generator i look at the do not last long and you will eventually run out of gas or propane. Maybe solar. . Would like your thoughts. www.britannica.com...

originally posted by: HODOSKE
i have been reading a lot lately about solar storms. Last big one was in 1859. They say we are way over due and they usually happen every 150 years . Experts say it can wipe out our power grid and we are not prepared at all.

Remember people lived a lot longer without electricity than they did with.
The problem is we are so dependent on it today especially in regards to healthcare.

We can absolutely survive without electricity. It would take getting acclimated to the weather again.
Waking with the sun and sleeping when it goes down.We'd have to eat seaonally. We would have to clean with natural products. There is a reason why most people settled near water.

We would all probably be a lot healthier.

I'm worried about a self inflicted EMP shock that is blamed on a solar storm.

Sorta like I was worried about a self inflicted viral outbreak that was blamed on a bat raping a pangolin.

The first step of Build Back Better, Burn It All Down, is still months away from being complete.

a reply to: GenerationGap

It's really hard to believe that a solar storm is on its way. The political disaster that is being created can take a similar form and is easily duplicated by modern means. A blackout in communication is likely. Maybe more.

Anything with wires, like utility lines, house wiring, antenna or cable coax (and antenna of course), will fry. Things with a shielded ground will be protected so having a tin roof and real aluminum siding will shield your stuff indoors, except . . . you still have those pesky utility lines that will over load straight into your electrical panel any all your circuits, blasting everything you have plugged in.

Solar panels are unaffected by these emissions, but the wiring isn't. You'd need to be completely unplugged from the grid and have all your stuff protected with shielding.

a reply to: HODOSKE

Noooo, not worried at all over here! 🌞🌌 👀😱

Could the galactic current sheet theory be legit after all??? 😬

It will happen eventually and when it dose we will not be ready and really there's not much we can do now the whole system needs to be rebuilt for many reasons

In the time it takes to do that tho we will most likely get hit and be completely in the dark best we can hope for is a weak one that doesn't effect us to far into the lower latitudes so we retain the ability to rebuild

If the damage covers the globe it will take a lot longer than if we have some places that can start making the things needed to rebuild

Not worried, but I am worried about the totalitarian behavior of many the Earth's governments since about 2019 and Covid. The equipment can be replaced. Our insane leadership needs an overhaul, but they are gaming the system. There will be a zap one day from our sun, Sol. There will also come a day when Sol expands to the orbit of Mars or so. This Earth will die by fire in that manner. I believe we have a few more thousand years before we need to be off this ball.

a reply to: HODOSKE

No, I'm not particularly worried. We'll get a bad one at some point. But it's not a reason to worry.

I remember when we'd get threads on X-flares a couple times a week.

a reply to: HODOSKE
No chance. Well not in the next decades. If you care to look at the climate posts you will see that NASA is showing the Sun going into a solar minimum. That means hardly any Sun storms/ flares, the Sun is quitening down.

a reply to: HODOSKE

If a Carrington-Event level storm hit us : it could potentially destroy a lot of small private wiring, as the good members suggested.

The electrical-grid, has evolved, with this potential as one ingredient in their formula.
There are many different types of surcharge protections today, where quick local switching devices can quickly intervene, and divert surcharges to the ground wires.

Our familiar version is the GFI-outlets, mostly in our water-rooms.
But the grid has the similar systems, to divert even major power-lines to the ground, if needed.
Them big fricken transformers are NOT easily replaced !

Here's a semi-decent site to monitor sun-storms, space-weather, and meteor-showers :
SpaceWeather.com

I have a survival solar blanket in the back of my suv im fine.

originally posted by: HODOSKE
i have been reading a lot lately about solar storms. Last big one was in 1859. They say we are way over due and they usually happen every 150 years . Experts say it can wipe out our power grid and we are not prepared at all. Can take years for power to be fully restored. I have always thought about getting a whole house generator but they usually only give power for about a week. Any one else worried about this? Any ideas on how to prepare for this? seems like any generator i look at the do not last long and you will eventually run out of gas or propane. Maybe solar. . Would like your thoughts. www.britannica.com...

i wasn't until i watched 2012 again sunday night!

i want to ring that bell in tibet when the water comes over the Himalayas.

Ooooh, we had some awsome northern lights here last weekend. I like solar storms that do that, don't care for those that mess up the power grid though.

Everyone thought the mandates to stay home form the pandemic were harsh.

Let a true large solar storm shove the entire worlds population into nothing works, the result will result in world wide chaos. You can't replace anything that gets fried cause every manufacturer's facilities got fried too.
Food and water will also go extinct. At least in the way it's been delivered to us prior the CMP .
Plus any other things we currently use.

No food, no gas, no electric, no bank and or ATM functional so no money.

We as a whole will be stuck where we are with zilch-nada-resources.
Your vehicle has just turned into a oversized brick.

On the bright side looting becomes pointless after a few weeks.
It'll also get pretty exciting as every satellite in orbit will no longer function, so heads up!!
The sky REALLY is falling!!

A CME is just the beginning of humanities largest dumpster-fire since the dinosaurs
went extinct.

a reply to: HODOSKE

Not worried but I’m aware that it could happen.

So, one of those sleepless nights I was watching TV and got bored. Hmmmm. What else is on??

HSN was featuring a product that I was not aware that even existed: EcoFlow.

They are various storage units and at least 4 different solar panel charging options. They even have an Eco Friendly air conditioning unit!! It is spendy (5-7,000 US$ depending on battery/solar options. Another 2K for the AC unit) but it looks like the best option available now.

It got my nerdy heart thumping!!

If you are super paranoid about power, you owe yourself a look! If you are a techy, ditto!!

With record heat, the AC seems accessible (it is just money!)

The big worry is the energy transmission lines; specifically, power transformers (they are filled with PCBs and are not just lying around-each is practically a custom build… so if you need them in numbers, good luck!!)

Hope that I haven’t scared you anymore but helped on keeping you informed!!

a reply to: HODOSKE

It wont wipe out the grid.

The grid is built to withstand such events.

This is just doom porn.

originally posted by: Nothin
a reply to: HODOSKE

If a Carrington-Event level storm hit us : it could potentially destroy a lot of small private wiring, as the good members suggested.

The electrical-grid, has evolved, with this potential as one ingredient in their formula.
There are many different types of surcharge protections today, where quick local switching devices can quickly intervene, and divert surcharges to the ground wires.

Our familiar version is the GFI-outlets, mostly in our water-rooms.
But the grid has the similar systems, to divert even major power-lines to the ground, if needed.
Them big fricken transformers are NOT easily replaced !

Here's a semi-decent site to monitor sun-storms, space-weather, and meteor-showers :
SpaceWeather.com

That's encouraging information. Still, the 300 or so feet from the transformer on the pole to the house will pick it up and send the surge into my home circuits.

I've looked into the recommendations for grounding antennas to protect from a lightening strike on HAM radio websites. It's a little more complicated than just grounding the antenna mast and uses other protective equipment and measures. Are there any similar methods and systems available for home use? Also, I wondered if the circuit breakers at the utility pole or the ones in the house would shut off in a surge from an EMP (or would they just fry too)?

I'm familar with fusible links on automobile wire harnesses. It's merely a sleeve on a wire that causes a shorted wire to fry up to the link and not past that to the rest of the wiring. I wonder if there is a utility line version of a fusible link?

a reply to: scraedtosleep

The grid is built to withstand such events.

Not really. The grid has circuit breakers to protect itself, but they are kinda slow. A normal solar CME can be handled, but a directed, large CME will short out large portions of the grid and blow the transformers. Luckily, such events are rare.

A directed large CME would be the equivalent of a massive magnetic field surge. Such a surge would introduce a spike voltage in the power lines... these spikes, if small, are no problem. Even electrical storms produce that kind of spike; that's why we have surge protectors. But there is a voltage limit on the transformer coils; exceed that limit and you burn the insulating coating on the transformer coils and short the transformer out.

When a transformer shorts out (which normally only happens during something like a lightning strike) the breakers simply detect the power surge and open, isolating that section of the grid. However, damage from a CME occurs much faster than damage from a lightning strike. A lightning strike typically does not just inject an over-voltage condition, as the case is metal; it literally overheats the coils inside and shorts them out by melting the insulation. By contrast, a CME induces a voltage from the power lines themselves, which immediately breaches the insulation. Can the breakers handle that? That is a very good question.

If the breakers do not trip fast enough, it starts a chain reaction... sector A overloads, tripping the breaker, but not before sector B experiences an overload as well. That breaker trips, but not before sector C experiences an overload. And so it goes, until a breaker trips fast enough to prevent the overload from continuing.

When will that be? Depends on how long it is before the outage affects that one breaker that just happens to trip a millisecond faster than the others.

Also, a CME will not be limited to one little area like a lightning strike. A CME would cover hundreds of miles, likely even thousands. That's a lot of power lines going down and a lot of transformers that turn into paperweights. As has been mentioned, no one has a shelf full of transformers sitting around; they come in various sizes and are very expensive. The average power distributor might have 2 or 3 small ones sitting in the back room, but that's not a drop in the bucket if 100 transformers are damaged.

So while it is not likely that a CME would cause a national or even regional outage for months on end, it is possible. The sun shoots out CMEs all the time... it's just that it doesn't shoot out strong enough CMEs at that perfect angle to hit the earth very often.

Incidentally, any appliance plugged in when/if a CME hits is probably deep-fried before the lights fade away. Modern electronics uses a lot of MOSFET circuitry, which is destroyed in less than a millisecond if too much voltage is applied.

I don't overly concern myself, though. As I mentioned, rarely are CMEs directly aimed at the earth, and even more rarely are they powerful enough to break through the earth's protective magnetic field. Such an event is probably about as common as a sizeable asteroid hitting the planet.

TheRedneck