How to EMP-Proof a House's Electrics/Electronics?

You can't...
Although if you do without any electronic devices you should be ok.
You probably have more to worry about from the banks than from EMP
Next!
Del
_{(aside:Methinks we have another customer for the KrisDel antiparanoia pills)}

I wouldn't worry about it. If something like that were to happen on a massive scale, your undamaged home computer won't do you much good anyway. Well, I guess if you have a generator, you could play freecell or solitaire.

Besides, it's to late for anybody to eliminate us peons from the internet loop. Too much has come to depend on the internet. Banking, commerce, stock trading, etc. If anyone were to succeed in bringing down the grid, pretty much everything would be thrown into complete mayhem.

A suggestion that Lyn is fond of would be advised......................guns and ammo.

There is WiPeer. (It's a partial solution.) Stay connected.

http://www.bridgesforpeace.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3464

Agree with lyn on that one.......several guns and LOTS of ammo.

I'm sort of a DIY'er and "Prepper" myself, and have a nice arsenal for home defense against the Zombies and the criminal elements (incl. Gang Bangers). Have solar PV on the roof (doubt they'd survive an EMP attack though) and a Farady Cage protected AC/DC gen set, emergency supplies & equipment, medical-surgical bags (wife is a RN), Go Grab bags already packed + stored food stuffs locked away and well hidden.

Heck, we're located about 100 miles north of NYC and it's burbs......but I prefer that we were much much further away. If there is a NBC attack there where do you think the hordes from there will end up? Right here trying to escape that cesspool!

Nope...a Faraday cage won't stop the pulse that will be picked up on every bit of wire and pipe work that enters your building
Del

Del, you're correct that normal house wiring and plumbing will and cannot be protected. That would be an impossible task.

However, you can protect your portable radios (I prefer an emergency hand-cranked radio myself if batteries become scarce), laptops, cell phones, Geiger counters, other pertinent electronics, etc. with a Faraday Cage.

Yup,
Should I wrap my bows and arrows in foil?
Del

Nahhhhh, wrapping them with aluminum foil won't solve anything....they'd be save even without the foil.

Aside: I hope there's no one out there reading this thread contemplating wrapping foil around their male most vulnerable body part.......it'd be like having a "weenie roast"...well, sort of! hehehehehhehe LMAO

mercendarian, just to let you know that moving out to boondocks won't necessarily save your electronics (incl. cell phone, laptop and car unless protected).

Sorry to say, a high altitude EMP burst from an enemy's detonated nuclear weapon smack dab in the central states would literally fry all unprotected electrical equipment across the USA and Canada.

They are not going to because; A. the effect is quite local. B. the technology of the device is high C. the practicality of delivery 'non'. E. absence of a plausible threat.

I.e. it a total waste of money - compared to say a virus.

But if you wish to do it - a simple way is to add zeners to ground, after an air coil, on all dc outputs to sensitive equipment, and gas discharge, or spark gaps, on all incoming ac. It's not much different to lightening protection - just more prone to hysteria.

You're not talking about solar flairs, you're talking about nuclear war.

FEMA won't be much help in times of war.

Who are these, "Globalists of BOTH parties]" that are going to unleash this destruction on us?

In your case, I'd recommend guns, ammo and caves.

Actually, I've studied this a bit, and it would be relatively easy for a major country to EMP the USA from an offshore tramp steamer with a concealed missile silo. The hard part is the nuke, but Pakistan and North Korea seem willing, and there is much slop in the nuke security from the old USSR states, not to mention Russia's mob government. Google is helpful. There are many studies on the internet from way up agencies. It's a good education ini nukes.

Wow, Wow, Wow! Aren't we a touch paranoid beyond reasonable?!?

IF and WHEN an EMP hits, nobody can protect the nets. That is a physical impossibility. It is massive beyond imagination. You, and other people can do things to protect yourself. And I am talking simple physics. When 50 million households drain the pulse, most signal get thru, afterwards.

Here I am not talking rocket science. Radioamateurs lightning proofed this way.

All it takes is a door size sheet metal of your choice. Where ALL your wires into your home meet. The sheet is grounded, the best you can. All wires, including power, no exceptions, go thru it, protected by power MOVs or better. You look up the details. The idea is that a lightning lifts ALL electronics by the same amount more or less, and in passing drops them together. No voltage difference = no harm done.

Now, please relax, at least from this angle. It is tried and true method practiced by radioamateurs, when they need it. You do it to whatever degree you can, and it will work. Best regards.

Seriously? If your really worried you should see a shrink. Sounds to me like you not just paranoid but delusional if you think your electronics are ao important that "globalist" don't care about the emp risk. The only real problem scenarip would involve an act of war. In which case you better thank your sweet ass that they would rather spend money trying to save your and everyone elses life than preserving the "internet" . Humans are social creatures of habit, we all want to preserve our little niche, and I highly doubt anyone is so concerned about "peons" that they want to wisk them away for reeducation. I have more meaningful thoughts for you but I am starting to want to do something important, because this is a ridiculous scenario you are proposing. BTW I like the metal garbage can idea , I want to read more about that....

I use solar power to charge the batteries for my laptop, mobile phone, and my music system, and my radio is a wind up type so I won't have much problem with EMF's!

All of those are going to be killed in an EMP.....so that wind up radio becomes a wind up lump....and the other items fancy paperweights.

Now unless you consider your music system a wind up music box....then you are set, and your phone a couple soup cans and string. And that laptop will make a fancy folding lunch tray.

Those devices all have wires....and Integrated circuits....THOSE have small wires inside to make the connections to the pins....and every wire becomes a generator when a strong magnetic field passed by it. And will generate enough votlage to smoke anything connected to any wire no matter how small.

I'm going to keep a slide rule handy. It should be safe from EMP.

And, When You See The Bright Flash In The Sky.... Bend Over, Firmly Place Your Head Between Your Knee's and Kiss Your A$$ Good Bye!! Because, if your close enough to see the flash, you and your Faraday cage will be ash anyway. So, what's there to worry about, anyhow!

Well, I hope that is never the case. Since we live directly between NYC and the state capital Albany we would most likely not be at a target ground zero if the "Balloon Goes Up".....most likely we'd get nailed by an errant MIRV warhead that missed it's target. Closest military base is the 105th Airlift Wing of the NYANG that operates C-5B Galaxy transports (a Class "A" National Asset), some 70 miles away at Stewart International Airport in Newburgh NY (a former SAC [B-52's] and NORAD NE Air Defense Corridor/TAC base [F-106's etc.]....then there is the US Military Academy located at West Point. All of the former SAC bases (Griffiss AFB & Plattsburgh AFB) around here have been closed for nearly 20 years now thanks to BRAC.

I'd like to think we could survive a thermonuclear exchange and resulting fallout here....damn the electronic toys and go without them if need be....It's the resulting radioactive Zombies relocating from NYC, NJ and LI that worry me first!

I feel your worry, I'm 50 miles north of San Francisco and less than 200 mile from Sacramento, Calif. Taking out San Francisco would have the same Psychological effect as taking out New York. I remember all to well 9-11 here on the West Coast.

I agree with JRaef, take me out in the first round, I'd rather not have to deal with the aftermath and the radioactive Zombies coming out of San Francisco. Dam, they're already bad enough in San Francisco, without being irradiated!

I don't know, sterility from irradiation might be a big plus long term in that area.

Yep, I would agree, I would elaborate more but fear of being censor, well, in this day of liberation, somethings are just best left unsaid

Years ago I used to concern myself with armageddon scenarios, then I realized there was absolutely no point in surviving one because the long term outcome will be some other slow painful death anyway. Cancer, starvation, dehydration, injury, bio-disease, looters, freezing to death in the ensuing nuclear winter blah blah. Take me out in the first wave please...

Side note:

"I was told the US/FEMA is NOT going to protect the US electrical-power grids, even though such would not be difficult or especially costly to do so "

Absolutely ludicrous concept. The cost to even TRY to do it would be ASTRONOMICAL, and not likely possible anyway.

And by the way, the "electrical-power grid" is only indirectly related to the "pesky internet" in that servers need a LOT of electrical power. Google alone is estimated to consume 14.4GWh per MONTH. (450,000 servers worldwide, approx. 45kW each, 24/7/365).

Most everybody here mentions "faraday cages". I guess it would NOT be so expensive to outfit the Grids with those cages, because I balance the billions it'd suck-up to amour the grid(-not to mention tens of thousands of jobs), with the TRILLIONS lost through devolution to the 19th century and foreign occupation, although as our children are forced to away from their gaming, surviving families would be closer together?

Any discussion along these lines is an academic exercise for me and mine. I live within 10 miles of two atomic weapons establishments. We would all be shadows on the pavement in milliseconds.

Wow, amazing! how the discourse drifted away from what can be done, to how helpless we are. Well, yes, but still is darned not constructive!

It started with an inane premise, there was no place else to go...

Well. the thing is, there really is nothing the average Joe can do.....thats just being realistic.

If you factor in the amount and efficiency of magnetic shielding you would have to have, and combine the fact ANY wire outside of it that passes into is for all practical purposes would render it ineffective.

Plus, Beryllium isn't exactly a common or cheap element. And essential for shielding.

And anything short of completely effective solution will result in a very expensive folly.

RFI shielding an enclosure is a real PITA......magnetically shielding one is even harder.

Dear Smoothy: Does anyone make Beryllium-foil, or would you need truly massive amounts of shielding(thick plates of it)? If Beryllium-foil would "work" there's a "million-dollar-idea," in its manufacture. So a "pulse" from whatever source would melt/knock-out wires going TO... a thoroughly shielded area? The wires are made "bad" because...? --They then need de-gausing? --They can no longer carry voltage? --It's like they were "lightening-struck?" Faraday cages(covered with beryllium-foil or not) would NOT work in protecting electronics? Just asking.

Well, the Beryllium is actually in an alloy, if you have seen what looks like springy metal "gaskets" on electronic equipment cases, odds are thats a beryllium alloy, and for RFI shielding. But I've actually been out of the Manufacturing sector for quite a number of years now so I really can't answer that question. I have no doubts they have easier cheaper means to do this now than existed when I was still involved.

As far as wires you have to remember some basoc electronics and how electricity is generated, basicly any expanding or contracting magnetic field that intersects a wire. the stronger the magnetic field and the faster it does so, that larger the resullt.

And an EMP is a wicked strong and fast magnetic burst. I'm not sure if anything can respond fast enough to do anything....assuming its right at the point of the magnetic shielding and is itself sheilded.

I'm not an expert on the hardening of milspec equipment, but I am an Engineer that does understand the mechanics involved in what they are trying to protect from, and the damage it will do. I won't speculate on what the goverment is capible of. And definatly wouldn't do it on a forum if I did. But I know its a huge task, nad a hugely expensive one if it were possible.

Besides there is this point....say you actually could protect your equipment? If everything else including the power grid is killed, exactly what good would your equipment be? Radios are worthless without transmitters, same with TV's. Computers are even more sensitive and besides, think back to the Pre-internet at home days.... what did we use them for back then?

And your smart phone....the only thing that woudl be good for is to throw at a small animal you are trying to kill for food.

I think the efforts are better spent of stockpileing food with an exceptionall long shelf life, and weapons to keep someone from taking it from you.

Because life is going to become harder than anyone has experienced or can imagine.

Want what I think is the best movie to explain what you would deal with...

"The day after" was good, but made for tv and it shows. "The Road" I think takes a more pragmatic view of human nature and what it might be like.

Personally, I'm a survivor, but there are limits to what most people would want to put themselves through.

Damn 15 minute edit window....

Ok, the day after was a bad example, I remembered that move in enough detail after 15 minutes so couldn't edit....but while The Road migh be extreme, the event would be an extreme like as we knew it would be over for many, many years at the best, and at the worst a total collapse like in The Road. Protecting a few possessions you couldn't eat or keep warm with would seem to be the least of your worries if that ever happened.

And I suppose you believe life will go on as usual with a complete breakdown of the entire electical and electronic infratstructure of the country.

How will food be delivered, what businesses will stay operational? No refridgerators....etc.

Because an emp will kill everything solid state, everything electrical...etc....

And people freak out durning a snowstorm.

And people freak out during a snowstorm. While living in Colorado for several years, I was never worried about the snowstorms. It was the Lighting Storms that always got my attention, with their minor impulses thru the telephone lines. One quick half ring was all a telephone was worth during a strike. I quit counting, after replacing numerous telephones and answering machines. That was back in the late 70', early 80's before surge protectors were popular or affordable. And, that was in a part of the country that's used to such storms and the infrastructure was designed to absorb such strikes, I can only imagine what a Nuclear EMP would do to the grid. The smoke would be worst than all the coal fired power plant's out-put was, pre-EPA

And in Colorado you are used to a lot of snow....around here Washington DC, if they call for three inches of snow overnight all the fools rush to the store to stock up on milk, eggs and toilet paper....like they couldn't WALK to the store in the whooping THREE inches.....assuming it all didn't MELT before the next afternoon.

Smoothy, it happens here and downstate in NYC and LI....we have a lot of NYC/LI/NJ/CT transplants in our neck of the woods here and you should see the the panic buying before an approaching snowstorm...even Hurricane Irene sent them into a tizzy, as they emptied the supermarket and convenient store shelves in a matter of hours. And they wiped out all the local gasoline supply before the hurricane and it's remnants hit here.....peeps were stocking up on fuel for their cars and portable gensets! Simply amazing, from a long time wool-in-the-die "Prepper" point of view!

I'd really hate to see what happens when there's a real national emergency! Well, I do have plenty of stockpiled water and foodstuffs, medical supplies up the Kazoo, rifles and shotguns and plenty of ammo to knockdown a whole Zombie Legion. and the three "To Go Bug-out Bag" are always packed & updated monthly!

Beers & Cheers!

It is time for strong medicine. Wallowing in misery may be stylish, but I despise it. You do what it takes, and go on. Dropping down at the roadside, and moaning why me, gets you exactly nowhere. Look at the Fukushima people, and then try to look into the mirror. Are YOU less tough to stand up for your loved ones??

Now that you done with the crying iag, put on the thinking cap, because we are going on a trip, together. All disasters have central core, where nothing would help. Think Pompeii or Mt. St Helen's eruption. But, it is surrounded by 100s times area, where things are bad, but salvageable. That is surrounded by an area again 100 times bigger, where there is disruption and extended inconvenience.

You do not prepare for the asteroid falling precisely on your worthless head. You plan for the event, that is 100 times less likely, or 100x100= 10thousand times less likely. That is called life.

When you are done with the narcissistic navel gazing, focus on your real life responsibilities. Reread my note #15 (I think), and realise, that I am the messenger of other people who succeeded in that task at least, and not the message.

Have a good and profitable day.

Except that according to your post in #15. Its not that simple. Lightning protection is a breeze compared to an Electro-Magnetic pulse generated by an atmospheric detonation of a nuclear weapon.

One is an actual electrical discharge of natural sources....an EMP is a purely extremely powerful, extremely fast rise and fall time magnetic pulse, that will generate a very powerful and destructive voltage spike in ANY wire that's exposed to it. and effect anything those wires contact.

There really is no effective defense for it...and if you could save your toys by some chance, they would not have been hooked out to anything outside that magnetically shielded vault, including your backup generator....and what good would they be if everything else is destroyed?

That means no electric, not TV, no radio, no computers, no radio, no internet, no refrigerators, no air conditioning, no cars, no trucks, no motorcycles, no deliveries, no water unless its artesian. Count on no police force and the lowest common denominator takes over....those with guns will take what they need off those who don't have one.

That's no a woe is me, pity poor me, its being realistic. Try to completely RFI shield something from a very weak RFI level signal..its not easy....Now how does one do this with an extremely powerful pulse.

And any electronics guy would grasp what I'm saying.....guys that don't NEED or take meds to be off them.

Cold fusion would be an easier task to accomplish..

Incidently.....I'm one of those heavily armed guys that wouldn't be handing things over to a mob.

Well, Smoothie, allow me to use your note as an example of fallacies.

People tend to forget, that damage from lightning is strictly and steeply dependent on distance. An unprotected place may be damaged from a lightning strike from a few miles away. A modicum of protection may be - by experience - good for a few hundred yards. A strict application of the single sheet metal bonding may be good for a single hundred yards. Now, calculate the areas, and you come up somewhere in the range of 1:10million. Meaning, the chances are that much different for a protected vs. unprotected site. Substitute your numbers, I don't care.

Next fallacy is that EMP is some kind of magic. It is not. It hammers the electrically charged ionosphere, and causes a spike in anything it can couple into. Most prominent is the long distance high power line. It will spike your power entrance first and foremost. Spike clipping modules are available to be installed in your power panel, and power strips are protected by them. Power generators rotinely gets protected from the effects of lightning strikes. EMP is a granddaddy of that, nothing more.

Leave alone the magnetic shielding. It simply is not so. Static or close to static shielding for electric and magnetic fields have to be done both. In the electromagnetic area we deal with here, one does both handily.

Backup generators are offline and disconnected at the moment the strike comes in. And ready to roll right afterward.

By the way, the National Electric Code handles the subiect under the heading of Bonding to a bloody large extent.

The finish of Smoothy's defeatist and ignorant note is exactly I warned against. The woe me, I am helpless, lets stick head into sand ostrich behavior. And first of all, let's not learn anything, do anything, lay down and wait for the end to come, quietly.

Man, And I mean from the depth of my heart, you need help. Facts are facts, and perceptions are iust that that. Go, and Get It!

---------------------------------------------------

It is not, what we don't know. What comes back to bite firmly the ass, that simply ain't so!

Your comments are sop far off its not even funny....besides being violations of the site rules of conduct.

For one.....an EMP (Electro MAGNETIC Pulse) will generate TWO strong, and I do mean STRONG voltage spikes, forst when the magnetic fied expands, and the second when that same magnetic fiel collapses. EVERY and I do mean EVER integrated circuit has wires in it....tiny fine little wires. The majority of intgrated circuits work at low voltages, many far felow 5 volts.

They don't tollerate spikes of any magnitude well, an never of the magnitude that will be generated of that brief period.

Of course this is all basic electronic theory that you learn the first semester in college.

EMP is not a lighning bolt at all.......nor is it the same as ESD (Electro-Static Discharge) ....but at least that one actually is related in damage and effects to lighning, but thats not part of the topic of this thread. If you ever had to be certified in ESD you will would know this. I was back in the Mid-1980's.

Static shielding won't protect you from EMP no way no how...and the only way would be complete magnetic shielding and complete isolation from anything that an induced voltage can be on. And shield point isolators while effective on power surges and lightning strikes...would not be effective enough to save the equipment that needs saving, ASSUMING it was sufficiently shielded from the magnetic event.

About the only devices that were somewhat immune to it were purely vacuum tube devices. Something that at least in this part of the world....are not very comon.

Before you go off and get rude on people here...At least take the time to understand what you are arguing about.....ESD and EMP are totally different, and totally unrelated.

Looks like it has been a while since anyone has posted on this thread. While I find most replies interesting, some amusing, I did find a white paper on the topic: http://www.protectiongroup.com/ProtectionTechnologyGroup/media/PTG/WhitePapersandTechnicalNotes/1474-000.pdf Now, I am sure the company is just trying to sell its services, but it seems to support what others have stated. I hope we never have to endure this in our lifetime, however, the way things are heating up in the middle east, it can't hurt to at least consider if there is any preparedness to be done.