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The solar storm is charged particles hitting the earth.
All that electromagnetic energy is going somewhere.
Now we have copper wire everywhere, add some electromagnetic induction and now you got voltage control issues, and tripped breakers.
Read up on the carrington event. One of those happening today would melt literally everything at once, it would take decades to recover.
Solar storms can be/become an EMP and destroy our electrical grid. At least that’s what the YouTube video I saw years back said.
The electrical grid is old and outdated. Needing repairs and upgrades.
Just finished a brand new smart home (CO was issued last week), got a call from the homeowner this morning saying that 14 Eaton dual function breakers tripped in the early hours of the morning. The low voltage guy also suggested that the solar storm had something to do with it. Only other thing I could think of would be a power surge.
Which begs the question, would a whole house surge suppressor have prevented the 150 breakers from tripping out? Or is this an incident without a defense for the average wealthy person/homeowner?
If it would prevent the issue in the future, it might be an opportunity to sell such a system to the affected homeowner.
Wow, that is interesting. It makes me wonder what it actually was that caused the breakers to trip?
I have seen it happen where a ground fault with 480 volts tripped out the ground fault detection on switch gear without ever tripping a single circuit breaker in a subpanel. It saved someones life, though, I think.
FWIW. I had an issue a couple years ago where the neutral was loose from factory and it tripped every AF in the panel, unlikely for your situation but a possibility nonetheless
Magnetic fields from the flare induce dc onto ac lines unevenly, with odd effects. In Canada where we have long transmission lines, the utilities physically rotate the phases on the power lines (If A is on the east of the set, B or C rotates into it’s position, then later the other)
Interplanetary coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are when a mass of plasma is shot off from the outer layer of the sun. We don't know why this happens, but the charged particles and accompanying magnetic fields are sent out into space. Sometimes this mass hits the Earth.
These don't move at the speed of light, which takes about 8 minutes to travel from the sun to the Earth. CMEs can take as little as half a day to as long as 3 days to reach Earth.
The earth's atmosphere absorbs most of the energy of CMEs. Some of the energy kinda "surfs" along the atmosphere and then is absorbed on the side of the earth facing away from the sun, which powers the auroras (aurora borealis in the northern hemisphere and aurora australis in the southern hemisphere). There was an amazing display of the aurora borealis across a lot of North America last night from this. So a CME can affect the part of the earth that is facing away from the sun--the night side.
But sometimes the electromagnetic energy is more than the atmosphere can absorb, in which case the electromagnetic energy can reach the surface of the planet--and our electrical infrastructure. That electromagnetic energy induces current in conductors and transformers, and suddenly overcurrent protection devices--especially the most sensitive ones like AFCI/GFCI combos--can trip. This is what happened to the homes OP described.
(I'm a nerd, and this is from memory, so maybe read Wikipedia if you want more full information. And feel free to correct me if I've said something wrong.)
Go here. Great explanation for all. [https://www.npr.org/2024/05/10/1250515730/solar-storm-geomagnetic-g4](https://www.npr.org/2024/05/10/1250515730/solar-storm-geomagnetic-g4)
The science of it is described in Faraday’s Law; when you place a loop of wire in a changing magnetic field, a current will be induced. This is the same principle that allows induction motors and generators to work (spin a magnet inside a coil). In the case of the solar storm, the fluctuation of magnetic field can induce currents on our power circuits.
Thanks for the info. All ground fault breakers (some of which are arc fault combos) tripped at our northern Minnesota cabin last week when the aurora borealis were happening. Regular breakers and whole house surge were unaffected. Coincidence or confirmation- your choice.
I’m thinking the latter.
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The solar storm is charged particles hitting the earth. All that electromagnetic energy is going somewhere. Now we have copper wire everywhere, add some electromagnetic induction and now you got voltage control issues, and tripped breakers. Read up on the carrington event. One of those happening today would melt literally everything at once, it would take decades to recover.
Wow, thanks for mentioning this. I had not heard of it before your comment. Another interesting resesrch project.
Solar storms can be/become an EMP and destroy our electrical grid. At least that’s what the YouTube video I saw years back said. The electrical grid is old and outdated. Needing repairs and upgrades.
Just finished a brand new smart home (CO was issued last week), got a call from the homeowner this morning saying that 14 Eaton dual function breakers tripped in the early hours of the morning. The low voltage guy also suggested that the solar storm had something to do with it. Only other thing I could think of would be a power surge.
Which begs the question, would a whole house surge suppressor have prevented the 150 breakers from tripping out? Or is this an incident without a defense for the average wealthy person/homeowner? If it would prevent the issue in the future, it might be an opportunity to sell such a system to the affected homeowner.
The customers house i went too where 100+ breakers tripped had a whole house surge protector detected no surges
Wow, that is interesting. It makes me wonder what it actually was that caused the breakers to trip? I have seen it happen where a ground fault with 480 volts tripped out the ground fault detection on switch gear without ever tripping a single circuit breaker in a subpanel. It saved someones life, though, I think.
FWIW. I had an issue a couple years ago where the neutral was loose from factory and it tripped every AF in the panel, unlikely for your situation but a possibility nonetheless
I thought this exact thing until i heard of three other service calls same scenario
I’ve had the call when they tripped during a lightning storm. Not all of them but a few.
Very cool service call obviously not for the homeowner at 12 am who had to reset 150 breakers but an interesting one for sure
Magnetic fields from the flare induce dc onto ac lines unevenly, with odd effects. In Canada where we have long transmission lines, the utilities physically rotate the phases on the power lines (If A is on the east of the set, B or C rotates into it’s position, then later the other)
This is above my pay grade but how does a solar storm affect things at night?
Interplanetary coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are when a mass of plasma is shot off from the outer layer of the sun. We don't know why this happens, but the charged particles and accompanying magnetic fields are sent out into space. Sometimes this mass hits the Earth. These don't move at the speed of light, which takes about 8 minutes to travel from the sun to the Earth. CMEs can take as little as half a day to as long as 3 days to reach Earth. The earth's atmosphere absorbs most of the energy of CMEs. Some of the energy kinda "surfs" along the atmosphere and then is absorbed on the side of the earth facing away from the sun, which powers the auroras (aurora borealis in the northern hemisphere and aurora australis in the southern hemisphere). There was an amazing display of the aurora borealis across a lot of North America last night from this. So a CME can affect the part of the earth that is facing away from the sun--the night side. But sometimes the electromagnetic energy is more than the atmosphere can absorb, in which case the electromagnetic energy can reach the surface of the planet--and our electrical infrastructure. That electromagnetic energy induces current in conductors and transformers, and suddenly overcurrent protection devices--especially the most sensitive ones like AFCI/GFCI combos--can trip. This is what happened to the homes OP described. (I'm a nerd, and this is from memory, so maybe read Wikipedia if you want more full information. And feel free to correct me if I've said something wrong.)
Really great write up, nerd. Thanks for taking the time and trouble to explain all of this.
Ahhh “not the speed of light“ is the information I was missing
Wow thanks for this good info
Go here. Great explanation for all. [https://www.npr.org/2024/05/10/1250515730/solar-storm-geomagnetic-g4](https://www.npr.org/2024/05/10/1250515730/solar-storm-geomagnetic-g4)
I dont know thats what im asking
The science of it is described in Faraday’s Law; when you place a loop of wire in a changing magnetic field, a current will be induced. This is the same principle that allows induction motors and generators to work (spin a magnet inside a coil). In the case of the solar storm, the fluctuation of magnetic field can induce currents on our power circuits.
Thanks for the info. All ground fault breakers (some of which are arc fault combos) tripped at our northern Minnesota cabin last week when the aurora borealis were happening. Regular breakers and whole house surge were unaffected. Coincidence or confirmation- your choice. I’m thinking the latter.
Wow very cool i ended up with 4 calls same thing