EMP Protection For Electronics For Non-Tecchies

There is already a post on this blog about how to build your own Faraday Cage to protect your electronics. This post is to tell you more about making your Faraday Cage.
  
Since many readers will not be familiar with EMPs and why electronics need to be protected from them, I will start there.

EMPs are ElectroMagnetic Pulses. You cannot see an electromagnetic pulse, but it can still destroy your cell phone, computer and television, etc. 

The two main sources for EMPs are from humans and from the sun. The sun is doing solar flare activity outside the recorded norms. When we get a very large solar flare, the sun actually throws part of itself out into space. The term for these events is Coronal Mass Ejection, or CME. I don't know why scientists are so in love with alphabet soup, but the rest of us are stuck with it.

When an especially large CME happens, it can generate an especially large EMP. An especially large EMP can reach the earth and do horrible things to electronics here. One large EMP knocked out the power grid in part of Canada recently, along with their electronics.

If you feel attached to your cell phone, etc. and want to protect it from EMPs then you can use a Faraday Cage to do this. It is possible for an average not technologically gifted person to make a simple Faraday Cage for cheap and possibly for free, depending on what you have handy.

The bad part about your cheap Faraday Cage is that it will not protect electronics while you are using them. You can either buy an extra of whatever you wish to protect, or cross your fingers and just put your precious electronics into your Faraday Cage at night when you are not using it.

If, like me, you are in the habit of using your cell phone for your alarm clock, you may be forced to invest in an actual alarm clock. That will be cheaper than another cell phone, so quit whining.

At this time, I only have my emergency radio protected by a Faraday Cage. My plan is to upgrade my cell phone before it dies completely and put it in a Faraday Cage. 

I am assuming you are able to scroll down the list of previous posts and find the instructions for building a Faraday Cage, so I am not going to repeat all that here. However, more experience with making a Faraday Cage gave me more information to share about doing it better.

It is very important that there be no gaps in the metal covering parts of your Faraday Cage. This is easier to do if you use glue for parts of it. Tape can insulate some areas of metal (foil or mylar), from contact with other parts of the metal. I think corners should be reinforced for extra safety. It can be hard to make sure they are completely covered and in contact with other metal.

I decided to use a velcro closure to ensure good contact along the flap of the box. This is because it tends to bend out a little and does not look as though there is good contact along that area. 

Another improvement is that I am covering the metal with clear contact paper to protect it from tearing and make it last longer. This could be done with other materials. The outer layer of metal does not need to be exposed on the surface. You could even enclose it in a bag or another box.

I also decided to add shredded paper between metal covered boxes for my cheap Faraday Cage. I don't like my emergency radio flopping around inside my Faraday Cage. The extra shredded paper makes the interior metal covered box fit securely inside the second metal covered box.

In case you don't already know, the second most likely, or possibly the first most likely source of EMPs from humans is nuclear bombs. With Shell's ship in the Arctic provoking other nuclear powers, environmentalists, and other normal people, nuclear war is looking much more likely to come soon. 

You might want to get right on making that Faraday Cage.

Cheap Faraday Cage Continued or More About Protecting Your Electronics From EMPs

This post is a continuation of how to make your own Faraday Cage to protect your electronic devices against EMPs. Electro Magnetic Pulses is the long way to say EMPs. 


I posted on this yesterday and did other posts earlier to explain what EMPs are and why they are a problem. The short version of why they are a problem is they will destroy electronics from cell phones to cars and power plants.


I like the idea of using metal cans with metal lids stuffed with shredded paper around the electronic device inside it. It was suggested that one file the top of the  inside of the metal can to make sure it is in firm contact with the metal top of the metal can. There is disagreement among experts as to how important this is.


If I am going to try to keep an electronic device safe from an EMP and some experts think filing the top of a metal can will work better, I'm filing.


It is suggested by some experts that a double layer of both metal and insulation is more effective protection.


A few experts said that none of the above will work unless the electronic device and its Faraday Cage, are under three feet or more, of dirt. 


There is at least one company that sells envelopes of various sizes, that they say are effective Faraday Cages. They demonstrate this effectiveness by placing electronic devices inside microwave ovens, with and without their product surrounding the electronic device. They have videos on youtube to let you see this demonstration.


The company admits that nobody knows if protection from microwaves means protection from EMPs. The electronic devices do seem to be protected from microwaves by the company's products. 


The envelopes are silver, metallic material that the company claims is not mylar and is superior to mylar for Faraday Cage sort of protection of electronics. The envelopes range in size from cell phone size up to very large computer or television size.


I am not certain that the above product will either work, or be worth the money, so I am not giving their name on here. You can do a search for it if you want to know more about them.


One of the major problems with using a Faraday Cage is that they will not work when you are using most things you want in Faraday Cages. You must have a spare electronic device to keep in the Faraday Cage to protect it, or take your chances when you are using it.


The reason a Faraday Cage will not work when you are using it is mostly because an EMP can travel along electrical lines from the outside. Even if you are underground, if you get electricity from above ground, the EMPs can still destroy your electronics. It will get wireless too. If it can get a signal it can pick up an EMP.


Apparently, even if you use a generator that is also underground, the grid in your underground shelter may act as a receiver and zap your electronics by an EMP. If you have plans along these lines, be sure to find a way to vent the generator so you don't asphyxiate yourself from the gases given off by it.


I plan to make my own Faraday Cage. I hope to build an underground home and keep it under three feet or more of dirt, eventually. Meanwhile, I am making a two layer Faraday Cage myself. At the moment it will only contain an emergency radio. The next occupant will probably be a spare cell phone.

Cheap Way To Make Your Own Faraday Cage

EMPs were the subject of previous posts. They were mostly to explain what EMPs are and why they are a problem for you. I will repeat the basic information in this post as well for those who have not read the previous ones.


Electro Magnetic Pulses, or EMPs for short, are one of the side effects of nuclear bombs. They can also be caused by the sun when it does a large solar mass ejection. The latter has wiped out electrical grids in small areas of the earth.


Electronic devices are affected by EMPs. That includes such items as cell phones, televisions, microwaves and cars less than 30 years old. Most electrical grids are so dependent on electronics that areas affected by EMPs will lose their electricity. 


Most experts seem to believe that it will take years to even get electricity going again in affected areas. Many experts think widespread EMPs will knock civilization back to the stone age permanently. 


If you think the last is unlikely, remember that factories run on electricity and the power plants need electronics to make electricity.


Most people can not do much about general EMP problems. We can, however, do things to protect some of our own most important electronic devices. A Faraday Cage is the way for us normal people to do this. There are some very fancy versions of Faraday Cages. I am going to tell you how to make a simple Faraday Cage. 


I can not guarantee you that the Faraday Cage I will tell you about will work. That is partly because nobody really knows what will happen with a really bad, widespread occurrence of EMPs. I will give you the best simple information that I could find.


The basic idea of a Faraday Cage is to surround your electronic device that you want to protect, by both insulation and metal. The electronic device needs insulation from contact with the metal. The metal needs to completely surround the electronic device.


Shredded paper, styrofoam and cardboard are some of the types of insulation that I have seen mentioned. I do not like styrofoam myself because I used to rub balloons on it to make them stick to things and that builds up static electricity. Some of the fancy Faraday Cages have elaborate devices to prevent static electricity.


One of the simplest ways to make a Faraday Cage is to put your electronic device in a cardboard box and cover the outside of the box with aluminum foil. It seems to be fairly important to make sure there are no gaps in either the foil or the insulation.


This post is getting too long, so I will continue this post.