# Solar Pannels and EMP



## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

I dont know it this has been discussed before and since an EMP is of a secondary concern to me as far as SHTF scenarios are concerned, I have a question. 

Do those of you that have solar pannels(and preparing for emp), have them installed and working or do you have them in a "Faraday Cage" type of storage container?

An emp would likely fry them but it would be tempting to have them producing electricity to lower or eleminate the electric bills. How do you handle/resolve this?

Just curious.


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## Nadja (Jan 12, 2011)

I am using mine daily. My understanding is that the only thing electronic in them is the "diodes" in the junction box's on the back. Often also called blocking diodes, I have spares for almost all my panels in stock and protected.


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## CulexPipiens (Nov 17, 2010)

If you have the money and enough of a concern, buy solar cells (off ebay or wherever) and the diodes and stock pile those in a faraday cage. A stack of cells enough to make a 60 watt panel fits in about a 4" x 6" x 2" space. In one cubic foot you can fit the parts for 9 - 240watt panels. Obviously glass and frame material doesn't need to be protected. The only problem is getting a soldering iron working to actually assemble these post EMP... Perhaps just putting the iron in a hot fire would heat it enough to connect 2 cells. Heat it a bit more, connect another cell, etc.

I've made my own panel so I understand how to make one if I had to and there are videos on youtube on how to do this if you're interested in finding out more. Here is one example:


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

The panels are themselves a semi-conductor(electronic), being made of silicon which would make them susceptible to EMP. 

As far as being susceptible to radiation from solar flare, I guess it would be a matter of the nature of the flare though. 

The effects of an air burst nuke "would" fry them, so they would need to be in a type of "Faraday Cage" to survive. This creates a quandary in my book, having a high dollar investment such as an alternative power system that you could not use until after the SHTF event.

Just something to think about.


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## Tex (Oct 31, 2008)

CulexPipiens - Try a propane powered soldering iron.


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

CulexPipiens said:


> If you have the money and enough of a concern, buy solar cells (off ebay or wherever) and the diodes and stock pile those in a faraday cage.


I just came back and read the thread, It looks like I was typing while you were posting. This is kinda what I was getting at. Thats a shame to have that kind of an investment and just have to look it while waiting for disaser.

I guess it just gets down to having "Insurance". You get "[email protected]#@!ed" having to shell out the money to buy it and and then even worse if you ever have to use it, but I guess its no different than the rest of the preparations you have to make.


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## CulexPipiens (Nov 17, 2010)

Davarm said:


> ...I guess it just gets down to having "Insurance". You get "[email protected]#@!ed" having to shell out the money to buy it and and then even worse if you ever have to use it, but I guess its no different than the rest of the preparations you have to make.


The same argument, in theory, could be made for any of our preps. Money tied up in something you're looking at/storing but not using. Would I run out and stock a bunch of these? Nope... not unless you've got all your basic needs met for at least a few years. Now if money wasn't really an issue... but in that case I'd already have a big bunker with room to store pre-made panels.


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## CdnMtlHd (Aug 4, 2009)

Tex said:


> CulexPipiens - Try a propane powered soldering iron.


I have a butane powered solder-iron from Canadian Tire ( http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brow...stercraft+Butane+Soldering+Iron.jsp?locale=en ) which works quite well. The best part is that there are no wires to plug in :2thumb:


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## GetPreparedStuff (Dec 16, 2009)

Though a solar panel is made of the same materials as a semi conductor the wires that span the cells are much much thicker and because of that they won't be as susceptible to being burned out by an EMP.

I don't know if a personal experience I had is a direct comparison to what an EMP would do but I accidentally "tested" a solar panel of mine using a 12v super capacitor battery I had built and was trying to charge when I reversed the polarity of the cables while connecting the capacitor to the battery. The panel got very hot very fast and stopped producing power. I found that the diode in the junction box had fused in a shorted state. However, once I cut the diodes out the panel's junction box the panel started producing power normally without any ill effects.

The diodes in a solar panel are not essential for power generation. The diodes purpose and functionality kick in when multiple panels are hooked together in series and one of the panels or even a string of cells in a panel is shaded. The diode allows the current to bypass that single shaded panel or on larger panels a string of cells that make up the panel to let the current continue to flow. If the diodes were not used in a shaded condition the circuit would stop flowing when part of any of the solar cells in the solar panel series were under shadow or shade.

If your solar panels are never in shadow/shade the bypass diodes do not serve any effective purpose.

As I found out in my "test" a diode may fuse and short the panel out when subjected to high current. To fix it though I didn't need to replace the diode I simply had to cut it so the short was broken and the current could flow normally.

Some panels like the flexible or folding light weight models may have diodes installed in-line with the current flow to act as a blocking diode which is added to prevent reverse current flow at night. If an EMP fuses this diode it would have no effect on the panels ability to gather energy however, at night their could be reverse current flow that could drain your battery if it was connected. If however, the blocking diode was fried and broke like a fuse then you would have to cut it out and reconnect the wires together or tie a wire across the diode to complete the circuit to get the panel functioning again. 

Most framed panels however, have the diode in a bypass configuration so if an EMP fries it like a fuse, you likely wouldn't notice any difference in how the panel performs unless the panel was connected in series with other panels and was shaded at some point during the day at which time it would stop performing until the shade condition was removed.


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