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Being off-grid is not going to make a difference whenever all electronic devices become paperweights.
by Maken 4y ago
Being off-grid is not going to make a difference whenever all electronic devices become paperweights.
- lettergram 4y agoYes, but when you live off-grid most of the systems you use don’t use power (if you can avoid it). You can also build a faraday cage and store replacement electronics in it. My neighbor does both. I actually also store my emergency solar power source and radios in a faraday cage for this reason. It’s like $100 to build one that can likely survive one of these major events.
- fy20 4y agoWould a broken microwave be good enough?
- ben_w 4y agoDepends what you're protecting against. IIRC, most of the energy in solar storms is extremely long wavelengths, and the damage is primarily via continental-scale conductors such as power grids and telegraph lines, and you can defend against that by just not having stuff plugged in. On the other hand, I have no idea what you need to protect against the EMP from a high altitude nuke.
- lettergram 4y agoTBH I’m more concerned about the nuke, but I need a box to store stuff anyway. May as well just make it a faraday cage lol you can probably just use a grounded steel garbage can
- Maken 4y agoIf nukes are falling down, how good is your EMP shielding will probably be your least concern.
- ben_w 4y agoOne single nuke at high altitude can cause a big EMP without any land damage: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_electromagnetic_pulse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_electromagnetic_pulse
- dividedbyzero 4y ago> all electronic devices become paperweights Isn't this an exceedingly unlikely scenario? In the Carrington event, even extremely long conductors like telegraph lines only carried electricity in the "ouch" range, and as far as I understand the physics behind this, the longer the conductor, the larger the induction effect. So I guess most electronics should be fine even in a much worse event, as long as they're not connected to mains power, I doubt whatever gets induced into tiny electronics circuits would be enough to do damage.
- ben_w 4y agoI think you are technically correct, however if the grids (or even just the substations) burn out, the still-functional personal electronics aren't going to get many chances to recharge.
- Frenchgeek 4y agoWell, unless your car burns out too, you'll have at least 12V to work with.
- ben_w 4y agoThe fuel pump is electric, as is the payment mechanism in the station, the transactions between the station and the suppliers of refined fuel, significant parts of the refinery itself, and the international banking system if any of that fuel is from a different country to the one you live in, and automated monitoring of long distance fuel pipelines, and at least some of the equipment used to get the fuel out of the ground, and some of the equipment used to make that equipment.
- Frenchgeek 4y agoSo a bit of downtime while spare parts are installed, or older tech put back in use... A major disruption, maybe, but not the end of the world.