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Topic: Here comes the Sun, and I say... AHHHHH!
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Stereo
Solid Nitrozanium SuperFan!
Member # 748
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posted March 23, 2009 09:16
All the more reasons to go green. Even though the main electric grid may be down, if you have your own power supply (sun, wind, other), you'll do better. Get yourself a little garden (and hope this happens in summer). Oh, and do keep a few traditionnal tools around, for repairs.
Now, of course, I do think this is a bit over-the-top. I'd have to double-check, but I believe the 1989 solar storm (that I happened to live through, and whose children are going on 20 ![[Wink]](wink.gif) ) and the great electric short that happened a few years ago should have taught our electric companies to install big - err quick-reacting - surge protectors on their main transformers. And with a little luck, this report will convince them to do so if they haven't.
Still, nice find!
Edit: I checked. One of the things that Hydro-Québec do to attenuate magnetic interference is to reduce the load on its lines when they get advanced warning. And they do, since there are places around the world that do just that: monitor the sun to warn about incoming solar wind. So I'm probably safe... Probably. ![[crazy]](graemlins/crazy.gif)
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Eppur, si muove!
Galileo Galilei
Posts: 2286 | From: Gatineau, Quebec, Canada | Registered: Apr 2001
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TheMoMan
BlabberMouth, a Blabber Odyssey
Member # 1659
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posted March 23, 2009 09:40
________________________ ![[Embarrassed]](redface.gif) "WHOOOPS MY BAD, EXCUSE ME" said the SUN
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If it don't glow it ain't Ham Radio
Posts: 5089 | From: Just South of the Huron National Forest, in the water shed of the Rifle River | Registered: Sep 2002
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The Famous Druid
Gold Hearted SuperFan!
Member # 1769
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posted March 23, 2009 11:59
quote:
From TFA:
supermarket shelves would empty very quickly - delivery trucks could only keep running until their tanks ran out of fuel, and there is no electricity to pump any more from the underground tanks at filling stations.
Back-up generators would run at pivotal sites - but only until their fuel ran out. For hospitals, that would mean about 72 hours of running a bare-bones, essential care only, service. After that, no more modern healthcare
How about you put some of the backup generators at fuel depots?
Then you could fill the tankers that deliver fuel to hospitals, etc.
Problem solved, can I have my Nobel Prize in disaster-recovery planning now please?
I used to work for the people who run the long-distance grid in Queensland, they have some very clever people who are paid to think about things like this, and have detailed plans in place. They have computers monitoring every part of their network, ready to trip circuit breakers if there's a problem, and spares of key hardware in place, ready to be switched in as needed.
Sure, a major solar storm would be a problem, but not enough to throw us all into the Mad Max universe.
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If you watch 'The History Of NASA' backwards, it's about a space agency that has no manned spaceflight capability, then does low-orbit flights, then lands on the Moon.
Posts: 10318 | From: Melbourne, Australia | Registered: Oct 2002
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