Would a alluminum mobile home work as a farady cage?

I have been wondering for a while if a alluminum mobile home would suffice as a make shift farady cage against a possible EMP event?

An enclosed metal shell acting as a Faraday cage can offer protection from lightning and other electrical effects.
Aircraft are often struck by lightning yet we don't hear about victims who are killed when their planes are struck by lightning. People often say that a car is a safe place to wait out a severe electrical storm. Why? In both cases people are relatively safe because they are inside a hollow conducting shell.



Here is a brief desrption of what a farady cage is.

A Faraday cage is an enclosed hollow shell made of an electrical conducting material. If there is a large electric field outside the conducting shell, the electric charges on the shell will move around and rearrange themselves until the electric field inside the shell is zero. Therefore a Faraday cage acts as a shield for large electric fields or for electromagnetic waves. Even if a Faraday cage experiences the large electric fields of a lightning strike, the electric field inside the Faraday cage will be zero. Hence a Faraday cage makes an effective shield against lightning strikes.

So my question is if planes being made of alluminum act as farady cages would a old style alluminum mobile home or trailer also work as a farady cage against a EMP event?

reply to post by proob4



Good question. I don't think you would be able to have windows though.

reply to post by Turkenstein
I thought about that also. But planes and cars both also have windows. But that could be resolved by covering the windows with sheet alluminum coil or something.

What about having Mica windows, I dont feel like sourcing that info, but I've heard Mica has interesting effects of protecting against various unseen forces and is a transparent sheet like mineral. Could be used as windows in a faraday cage.

I don't think the house or trailer would act as well as a real cage. AFAIK the faraday cage works on the same principle that the shield on the front of your microwave oven does. The em waves that are being blocked are of a larger physical wavelength than the holes in the grill, hence they cannot pass through. As for the house if you maybe had stucko chicken wire made of copper, lining your place you might get the desired effect.

It depends on the energy you are trying to redirect.

For electricity yes to a certain extent before it melts.

For magnetic waves say from a high altitude EMP sadly not very effectively. You would need something that "conducts" magnetic waves to redirect them around you.


edit: that said a Steel shipping container like i have out back $3000 ish cost including shipping here would work just fine.

The answer is : Almost yes. B-)
" almost " because of the windows.

To make it better, in your windows, put "insects screens" made
of aluminium. . .

But don't forget that your cage will be almost perfect, if
ALL the 6 SIDES are made of metal. . .
Is the floor made of metal ?

Blue skies.

Let me try to explain why not.
Here is the problem... magnetic shielding is not shielding.

Lead shield stops X-rays,
magnetic shielding materials on the other hand attracts the magnetic field. "permeability".

magnetic fields travel from the North pole of the source and return to the South pole. they will occasionally travel through air, EMP which has a permeability of "1". But if a material with a higher permeability is nearby, the magnetic fields will travel the path of least resistance. leaving less magnetic field in the surrounding air.

Air ........... 1
Copper ...... 1
Aluminum ... 1
Tin ............. 1
Lead .......... 1

Nickel .................. 100
Commercial Iron ... 200
Stainless Steel ....... 200
MagnetShield ........ 4000

Magnetic Shielding Alloys* ....... 20,000+
Annealed MetGlas ................. 1,000,000

so STEEL shipping container yes.. aluminum not so much

Theoretically you should not have any opening towards the possibly sources of radiation. Or it is worse.
A microwave beam can get in and it can be bounced back several times inside.

That is also why it is pretty bad to talk on a cell phone in a car.

reply to post by proob4


S&F for an excellent question!
I never have thought of this.
But there have been some good explanations and it seems a good test of sorts, will your phone work inside.

Why not just 'harden' the sensitive electronics inside the home along milspec lines? That would have to a whole lot cheaper than building a ginormous Faraday cage, which probably wouldn't be anywhere as effective, especially with utilities (gas, electric, phone/cable, water) penetrating the homes exterior walls.

No, I dont think an aluminum trailer will help you out. B52 bombers were hardened to a degree against EMP. The skin of the aircraft provides no protection, the individual electronic systems are shielded. One of the posters suggested makeing a faraday cage from chicken wire, use copper screen instead. I wouldnt worry to much about EMP unless you have a pacemaker or require some other electronic medical device to keep you alive. Anything you are able to save probably wont do you any good anyway. You cant call anybody their phone will be fried, cant watch tv or listen to the radio their transmitters are cooked, cant get on ATS the internet got melted. If I were you I would spend my money on something more practical like alcohol, tobacco, drugs, firearms, ammo, and food.

reply to post by proob4


It certainly would depend on the type of EMP event you are trying to shield against and how far away you are from the event.

If you are worried about a nuclear EMP blast, than here is a link to a PDF that offers a fairly easy calculation on the various frequencies involved when dealing with said blast. The paper is dealing with the threat to military aircraft, by the principals are the same.

If you are worried about a solar EMP event, there has not appeared to ever have been (and most scientists say it isn't possible) for the sun to create a E1 or E2 event at ground level.

This is a very round about way to say, no, an aluminum trailer could not be turned into an effective Faraday cage without substantial cost and effort.

Good question.
But where I live,for $10,000 you can reserve a space here,in the louisville mega cavern,just a few short miles from me.

www.louisvillemegacavern.com...