Huge solar flare heading toward Earth; power disruptions, satellite problems are poss

[swapdmyvette4this]

Hey I am a Repubican!!!!

There are middle of teh road people on both sides... Whay does everything on this list have to do with politics?

You're exempt ! (except maybe from the gop backlash)

[DCFusor]

Just one more advantage of being fully solar powered - no huge antenna to act like a generator when the earth's magnetic field takes a lashing from the charged particles. It can be fun to listen to this with a high inductance coil and an audio amp if you can get far enough away from the grid to not have the 60hz swamp the signal.

I'm sure the car is robust to this EMI level - after all, it has inverters to the 100kw level that MAKE EMI in it and they don't fry the rest. I might worry about my EVSE cable if it was left plugged into a many mile long antenna, though.

[Bob_Livonia]

Considering that the auto companies have been testing for this type of "noise" since they started using electronic control systems roughly 30 years ago, I strongly share your doubt.

I am sure, that with the new technology of the Volt (and the not-so-new technology re-used from the EV-1), GM did more than it's share of EMI testing, both for susceptibility to radiated electromagnetic interference, and to make sure the car wasn't interfering with other cars and other systems.

A few related stories. GM and Delco Electronics used to test at the Voice of America transmitter that was located along I-75 near Cincinnati. (Today, there is a very nice VOA Park located where the towers used to be). When electronic fuel injection first came out, an EFI car with electronic ignition would start running poorly, then stall as it approached the transmitters. A car with a carburettor and breaker point ignition would run fine. GM and the others did a good job of toughening the car up.

In the early 80's on Cadillacs with fuel injection, the old pre-cellular high-power mobile (bag) phones would cause the car to stall when the phone was keyed up. We put in shielding as a service fix for those with bag phones, but that did not solve the problem of the car sitting at the light next to them stalling when they keyed up.

Finally, with these events, there was a day in the early 80's when nearly every Cadillac in New York City was coming into the dealer with the same baro sensor code. It turned out that in New York (at sea level), there was a 100-year high reading of barometric pressure that day, and the diagnostics were flagging it as a bad value.

[crom99]

From the Volt Owners group on Facebook:

"Actually, as a physicist & EE who's specialized in EMP, EMF, solar flare activity, etc for many years, I can assure everyone here that a car's self-generated EMF (even with its shielding, etc) is a MUCH worse threat than ANY level of solar flare activity. Why? For ICE cars: the ignition system. For EV's: the high-voltage switching needed in the motor drive electronics. So forget about it -- GM solved the tougher problem of intense broad-spectrum EMF generated by the Volt itself, which "hardens" it against ANY external EMF like solar flares!"

[Steverino]

I have a neighbor with a boxed emergency electric generator covered in aluminum foil in case of an EMP attack by the sun or a nuke.

[guyflyguy]

I think I'll wrap the Volts in aluminum foil to protect them.

(Just kidding!)

[Fulgerite]

Hey I am a Repubican!!!!

There are middle of teh road people on both sides... Whay does everything on this list have to do with politics?

Jack... Nothing against you. You will find plenty of republicans who own Volt's on this forum. As long as people like Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich and Fox News attack GM and declare all out WAR on the Volt... it has become a political issue. As long as certain republican petroleum puppets continue efforts to kill Volt popularity, kill GM and kill american jobs at GM... You will find many people on this forum feel strongly about the subject.

[DCFusor]

If you don't like talk of politics, don't feed the trolls by bringing it back up. Just ignore them. I don't drink the Kool Ade of either red or blue myself.

[Fulgerite]

So far NASA has measured this flare at a level of G1 out of G5 in terms of strength. You can follow the progress here:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/su...0712-X5-4.html

While a flare like this might damage the power grid and possibly some satellites... I seriously doubt it would ever get strong enough to actually damage isolated electrical devices like an EMP event. The earth's magnetic field protects us from direct exposure.

Leaving your Volt plugged into your EVSE while the grid has wild power fluctuations might be an issue. Of course your EVSE has some protection against power surges and it's protected by a circuit breaker... There are always limits to this protection. A large power surge does have the potential to damage your EVSE or the Volt's charging system if it's plugged in and charging. If you see unusual activity on your power... Unplug your Volt. (That goes for severe lightning storms too.)

[Fulgerite]

I have a neighbor with a boxed emergency electric generator covered in aluminum foil in case of an EMP attack by the sun or a nuke.

You volt is already wrapped in a protective steel shell.