[PA Engineer]

I’d suggest that before anyone spouts off again with such ingenious statements as “Ah, not this $hit again!” or “this is a big nothing” or similar UNINFORMED statements, that they read all four of the articles/studies linked to in this post. Once you’ve gotten informed, then come back to the rest of us with INFORMED doubts, rather than just ridicule (like the Alinskyites). Come on, folks, you’re better than that!

Agreed. I would like to add something about modern house wiring. I have stated this before. There is a large antenna in the walls of most modern homes. A Carrington like event will ruin many peoples day. There are ways to mitigate that effect. The National Electric Code should be changed to revise home construction and retrofit. For those that don't, best to keep some fire extinguishers around. The majority of the electric surge is not going to come from without the house, but within it.

[bgill]

Lightening struck our house frying the tv, freezer and everything along one circuit. Not fun.

[Southack]

I did the math for that in post #56...

[higgmeister]

I would like to add something about modern house wiring. I have stated this before. There is a large antenna in the walls of most modern homes. A Carrington like event will ruin many peoples day. There are ways to mitigate that effect. The National Electric Code should be changed to revise home construction and retrofit. For those that don't, best to keep some fire extinguishers around. The majority of the electric surge is not going to come from without the house, but within it.

Talk about your uneven ground potential... LOL

I'll never forget. Around 1987 I think. We had just turned up a small remote site and had noise complaints from customers. The Grounding Engineer pulled out an old hand held transistor radio from his pocket. He shoved the tuner dial all the way over as far as it would go and started walking around the raised floor. He found several raised floor pedestals that were acting as antennas. That was just his quick check. He pulled out all of his high tech gear to verify and isolate the problems. There was also a nearby ATC Radar site that was interfering.

So, in addition to the house wiring, other factors could exacerbate the situation you described. Multiple ground taps on different points on cold water pipes... etc.

[sneakers]

We’re going to have our 200+ house rewired this summer (it has all knob and tube wiring running through it). Is there something the electricians should do to prevent such a situation? I’m a “better safe than sorry” gal!

sneaks

[palmer]

I would like to add something about modern house wiring. I have stated this before. There is a large antenna in the walls of most modern homes. A Carrington like event will ruin many peoples day.

That's completely incorrect. The induced voltage would be about 0.2 Volts (20 Volts per km).

[Ancesthntr]

Thanks for the information - its best to be prepared for an electrical fire starting within one’s walls, than to be completely surprised by it.

[palmer]

20 volts per km from the 1921 event: http://pages.erau.edu/~reynodb2/ep410/OdenwaldGreen_Superstorm.pdf The Carrington event was higher but not that much higher. A household wiring length or even a neighborhood grid would still only develop trivial voltages.