Massive Solar Storm - Mayan's on to something?

[u3b3rg33k]

We heat with wood in the winter now, nevermind a hypothetical disaster. I've got 4 chainsaws, a 25 ton splitter, as well as hand tools (axes, mauls, wedges, and a two man saw).
There's also a stream that runs year round, so I do alright with power outages. If I get hungry, I'll just go shoot a pig or a deer. If we run out of fuel, I'll ride one of the 6 horses to town, and If I need to haul provisions or fuel, 2 of them are trained to drive.

[mrsleeve]

We heat with wood in the winter now, nevermind a hypothetical disaster. I've got 4 chainsaws, a 25 ton splitter, as well as hand tools (axes, mauls, wedges, and a two man saw).
There's also a stream that runs year round, so I do alright with power outages. If I get hungry, I'll just go shoot a pig or a deer. If we run out of fuel, I'll ride one of the 6 horses to town, and If I need to haul provisions or fuel, 2 of them are trained to drive.

this is the set up I am working toward trying to get back into. Its hard though with the real estate boom it pushed land resources outta sight, and they are just starting to settle out and maybe in a year or so will be in a better position to buy.

[87e30]

So most likely scenario is we lose power for a little, MAYBE?

I'm not seeing much on Nasa's website, mostly I'm seeing maybe we'll be affected and it will possibly effect electricity.

[z31maniac]

Having been in home remodels ~9 or so years my first and foremost recommendation is windows. Then insulation. Look at your doors and seals. Roofing plays a bit of a role, but not as much as you'd think. Depending on the house, check under your floors (for a raised non-slab style foundation). If you've got a slab foundation, get yourself some drylock (with LOTS of ventilation) and paint all of your concrete floor surfaces before re-surfacing. Moisture comes through slabs like crazy and often times get's absorbed into the pad and carpets. Not to mention, really destroys heating in the winters.

Windows. Insulation. Floors. Pipes (dependant on age of the house and current plumbing).

There's HUGE room for improvement in most water heaters. You'll spend an extra ~$500 for a good system, but it'll pay massive dividends in efficiency within 5 years. Zone heating for your HVAC is also a good idea so you don't waste where the heat's going.

Tell me more about the Drylock stuff.

We have a slab house, with the HVAC ducts poured into the slab (thankfully moisture/flooding isn't a concern in my area). We have talked about re-doing the flooring in a few years, so I'm interested if there is something I can do here as well.

I figure our house is on the small side compared to new homes, but making an older home comfort and VERY energy efficient will helps it value in the future.

[ACMF74]

We heat with wood in the winter now, nevermind a hypothetical disaster. I've got 4 chainsaws, a 25 ton splitter, as well as hand tools (axes, mauls, wedges, and a two man saw).
There's also a stream that runs year round, so I do alright with power outages. If I get hungry, I'll just go shoot a pig or a deer. If we run out of fuel, I'll ride one of the 6 horses to town, and If I need to haul provisions or fuel, 2 of them are trained to drive.

Same here. I bought a Heathstone wood buring stove. Nothing like it for the winter!

[mrsleeve]

So most likely scenario is we lose power for a little, MAYBE?

I'm not seeing much on Nasa's website, mostly I'm seeing maybe we'll be affected and it will possibly effect electricity.

The EMP, could wipe out the entire Grid and power generation capacity for a long time. Along with cell phones, and other communications, even much of the land line capacity could be effected hard by this. Many of all the electronics we take for granted in our day to day lives will be toasted, and those electronics control most of daily lives behind the scenes.

You live on city water, No power water supply will run out fast, as soon as the towers are below the intakes thats it. Back gensets too run the well pumps in many cases run on NG piped to them from a utility. Many of their compressors run on Electricity or if Direct drive from combustion engines, those are electronically controlled and would be fried by a big enough EMP .

So yeah pretty much most parts of modern life would be fucked, and for how long is the biggest question, Weeks, Months, Years, could be all 3. Could be all hype and nothing will happen, either way no matter what I will be just fine ;)

[Farbin Kaiber]

What he said. ^

What we need to keep in mind is that having one of the largest countries in terms of coverage of the globe. Thousands, (Millions???) of miles of rural fencing, power lines, copper home wiring, etc. will all act as an antenna. So, even if a small scale solar flare affects a small portion of the "grid", it can be transferred across the nation.

Did you know a nuclear weapon detonated at ~90,000 ft. will create the same EMP effect, and destroy the entire grid system we have. There are no failsafes, or back up redundancy systems in place. Interestingly enough, the US Government decided this was not an urgent issue, and did not make any moves to prevent it.

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=69280

[z31maniac]

Where would the hundreds of billions of dollars come from necessary to do all the work?

Are you going to tell seniors no more medicare/SS or the poor no more food stamps?

The gov't, at least around here, can't keep a decent road to drive on. They aren't going to be able to help/prevent this kind of damage.

[Farbin Kaiber]

I'm not saying anything about the money, you and I both know, if they need it for a project they approve, they will just print it and sell the paper to China. I'm not saying it's right, I'm saying it's what they'd do.

So, if I put on the tin foil hat, I'd hedge my bets that;

The US/World Governments knew about coming solar activity, and have for years, either the collapse was authorized, or allowed to run it's course, to remove assets from those who have it now, that will undoubtedly not survive the event, and place those funds into the hands of those who will be prepared, and situated in a location to survive the events.

If everyone(a majority) died, there would be no way to collect the assets held, but if you slowly peeled it away, for a few years before everyone (a majority) died, no one would be the wiser. Plus, starting the ball rolling early enough would allow those to be prepared.

examples;

http://www.terravivos.com/

http://www.projectavalon.net/forum/showthread.php?t=15480

http://www.2012shelteredtechnologies.com/sheltered-community-project.php

etc.

And, another blog from a tech guy who decided to go off the beaten path.

http://laptopandarifle.wordpress.com/

[Farbin Kaiber]

Also, keep in mind, this is a REAL threat.

On September 1–2, 1859, the largest recorded geomagnetic storm occurred. Aurorae were seen around the world, most notably over the Caribbean; also noteworthy were those over the Rocky Mountains that were so bright that their glow awoke gold miners, who began preparing breakfast because they thought it was morning.[3]

Telegraph systems all over Europe and North America failed.[4] Telegraph pylons threw sparks and telegraph paper spontaneously caught fire. Some telegraph systems appeared to continue to send and receive messages despite having been disconnected from their power supplies.

Now, how much "antenna" was there on the earth then, and how many gold miners had issues with their iPods and BlackBerrys? How many Country Store owners missed automated ordering for low stock items? How many people's FICO scores changed?

I just want everyone to know I'm not saying this is GONNA happen, but we should at least take heed when the signs are there. I'm not pulling a Chicken Little and saying a wormhole is gonna suck us up and put us into orbit around Sirius-B, but saying this is tangible, factual potential.

[Wiglaf]

There's HUGE room for improvement in most water heaters. You'll spend an extra ~$500 for a good system, but it'll pay massive dividends in efficiency within 5 years. Zone heating for your HVAC is also a good idea so you don't waste where the heat's going.

yeah i just did the windows.. while the attic was gutted (no insulation) with new windows it actually held more heat than crap insulation + old windows.

I did an analysis on my gas usage and determined that upgrading my boiler to a new one 95%+ efficiency will pay for itself in about 5 years. I can also use this heat source for my hot water.
However just doing the water tank itself.. I figure I'm only using $20/month to begin with (and that just went down w/ the lady moving out). If that part of my bill went to $0 it would still take over 2 years to see that $500... I figure it's not worth the trouble, at least until it naturally expires. Not looking forward to it though with all the safety BS the new ones have.

[CorvallisBMW]

What do I need to shield my e30 from this? Will it be compatible with my iS lip + drop?

[mrsleeve]

here

[ortholithiation]

What he said. ^

What we need to keep in mind is that having one of the largest countries in terms of coverage of the globe. Thousands, (Millions???) of miles of rural fencing, power lines, copper home wiring, etc. will all act as an antenna. So, even if a small scale solar flare affects a small portion of the "grid", it can be transferred across the nation.

Did you know a nuclear weapon detonated at ~90,000 ft. will create the same EMP effect, and destroy the entire grid system we have. There are no failsafes, or back up redundancy systems in place. Interestingly enough, the US Government decided this was not an urgent issue, and did not make any moves to prevent it.

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=69280

Don't worry the aliens won't let that happen. No nuke has ever been detonated at super high altitude or space. Whenever we try, they just shoot down the missile.

[u3b3rg33k]

As for the powerlines, the real problem is DC currents induced over long runs of power line. As in there will be voltage differential proportional to the length of the run.

Actual damage to small electronics takes a much greater magnitude EMP, although radio reception will be affected, and goodbye XM/Sirius (satellites will be fux0red). Time to go build a harness with cat7 SFTP stranded wire, and to heck with that stupid negative ground system. Go fully isolated wiring. Everything gets it's own hot and cold running electrons (and holes).