Protecting against EMPs and radio waves is a vital emergency preparation step to shield delicate devices. Likewise, getting a safe to lock your valuables inside is also crucial, but can your secure do both jobs? There are plenty of similarities between a cage and a safe. For example, they both tend to lock things in or out to keep them secured. Moreover, each is made of metal. Plus, a safe is almost always made from a much thicker metal, so in many ways, it’s safer, no pun intended. Naturally, it makes sense to assume that two such similar items are interchangeable. However, that is not always the case. Often, things that resemble each other are vastly different. I’ll explain how safes and faraday cages work, and whether they can do one another’s jobs reliably. The answers may surprise you.
Will a safe work as a faraday cage? A safe will not work as a Faraday cage because the solid surface conducts electricity inside. A mesh with open spaces keeps the charge moving along the surface; hence the Faraday cage keeps out EMPs. However, your safe may help shield against some radio waves by refusing to allow them to pass through the solid sides.
Safes Vs. Faraday Cages
On a fundamental level, safes and faraday cages may seem similar, but they’re not. A safe has thick, solid walls that block out a large percentage of wave energy, such as radio waves. Meanwhile, the best Faraday cages are made from wire mesh. The open spaces help conduct electricity around the exterior.
Intriguingly, while a Faraday cage blocks most electronic impulses from either entering or exiting, some radio can get through. Depending on the frequency, and the cage’s proximity to a transmitter, a radio inside a Faraday cage might work fine. In short, you can’t swap a safe for a Faraday cage or vice versa. Instead, put a safe inside your faraday cage for added protection.
Adding to the confusion, RFID blockers are similar to both Faraday cages and safes in some ways. Proper RFID shielding blocks out any radio signals that could read your cards or devices. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean it would make a suitable faraday cage or a decent safe. In fact, RFID is typically thin aluminum sheets, like tinfoil.
The Tacklife Digital Safe from Amazon is a superb example of a safe that could help with radio signals. The two-inch thick, heavy-duty carbon steel will certainly keep physical intruders out as well. With both keys and a digital lock, you’ll always have access to your valuables, but no one else can get inside. Click here to get a Tacklife safe for inside your Faraday cage.
Does a Faraday Cage Block WiFi
An adequately built Faraday cage could block out the WiFi. Although the signals inside, and those from outside would still exist, they couldn’t connect to one another properly. Hence no WiFi would get through.
All WiFi becomes useless inside a faraday cage unless your cage is enormous, and you only want local signals to pass around within its confines. For example, if you built a faraday cage around an entire building, you could use WiFi inside. However, the signals would only work to send data from one device inside the cage to another in a different part of the building.
It’s important to note that energy is neither created nor destroyed. Resultantly, any energy outside a Faraday cage gets channeled around the outside surface, transmitted from one wire to the next. Meanwhile, anything inside it would discharge around the interior surface.
Are Faraday Cages Legal
We all know it’s perfectly legal to have a safe, but jamming radio and cell phone signals is illegal. Does that mean Faraday cages or even RFID blocking wallets are unlawful? For that matter, is it okay to put a backup cell phone inside your safe? The answer is complicated, but if you’re on your own private property, it’s probably alright.
Anything that causes interference in the signal is against the law. However, unlike jammers, none of these items are actually ‘messing with’ the signal itself. It’s just like going through a tunnel, or walking through a building with unusually thick walls can dampen your signal strength.
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Does a Faraday Cage Have to be Grounded
Faraday cages, regardless of whether you have a safe inside or not, may need to be grounded. Depending on your Faraday cage’s size and function, you may have wires running out from the inside. However, I strongly recommend against this practice.
Unless you are a professional electrician or employ one, then you probably don’t have the necessary experience to ground for an electromagnetic pulse level event. Instead of trying to DIY something dangerous for an experienced professional with years of training, skip it. Alternately, if you genuinely need a grounded Faraday cage, then hire a professional.
Generally speaking, a standard Faraday cage doesn’t need this extra step. Most are fine as they are. What matters most is getting complete enclosed coverage with no gaps or openings other than those in your mesh.
Choosing the Best Safe for Your Faraday Cage
Selecting the right safe for your Faraday cage requires a little forethought. If you have a flat-based safe, and you intend to set it on a chicken wire or other metal Faraday cage bottom, you could create a conductive ingress. Instead, make sure you set that safe on a rubber mat.
Alternatively, you can choose a safe with feet. Make sure the feet are not plastic or metal. It’s essential to set your rubber safe-feet on a table or another surface rather than through any gaps in your faraday cage floor.
In general, if you plan to place a safe inside a faraday cage, it’s a good idea to set it on top of a non-conductive material. A simple rubber mat, cut to size, makes an ideal base. Even Faraday Cages inside aluminum trash cans need a liner between the safe and the exterior to prevent conducting electricity through the metal walls.
A Stalwart Electronic Steel Safe will sit inside any Faraday cage and keep your private documents, small guns, or other vital equipment secure. The LED-lit keypad guarantees easy access for anyone who knows the code. Meanwhile, backup keys let you in even if the power runs out, so you can always access your emergency supplies. Learn more about Stalwart on Amazon by clicking here.
Can a Refridgerator or Microwave be a Faraday Cage
While a safe doesn’t make an appropriate Faraday cage, you’ll often find allusions to refrigerators or microwaves as Faraday cages, especially on the internet. This is another case of ‘don’t believe everything you read.’ Unfortunately, the truth lies somewhere between yes and no.
First, a microwave will not work as a Faraday cage at all. Because it lacks the necessary metal mesh exterior, you cannot count upon your snack-warmer to block out an EMP. Likewise, a metal woodstove and a standard kitchen oven also make inadequate Faraday cages.
Refrigerators are more complicated. Since many fridges do have a metal lining that could work similarly to a Faraday cage, they might make a good substitute. Sadly, I could not find evidence of anyone having tested this theory.
Additionally, the fridge would need one heck of a good seal. The rubber around the doors could assist in creating a sealed cage effect, but any gaps could become detrimental to the process. Thus, I’m going to call it plausible, but unproven and suggest you don’t try this at home.
Test Your Faraday Cage & Safe
Speaking of a lack of testing, you should always test your Faraday cage. Furthermore, if you want to know if your safe can block out radio signals, then you’ll need to check it as well. Fortunately, you only need one simple piece of equipment to do both tests.
First, get yourself a small, battery-powered radio. Put brand new batteries inside, and tune it to a station that has a powerful signal. It helps if the broadcast is perpetual. A music radio station is the best since the DJs and commercials never seem to stop.
Set your radio inside the Faraday cage and seal it up. If the signal turns to static, then you have a functional faraday cage. Then do the same thing with your safe, making sure to turn the volume up nice and loud so you can hear it.
Since your safe typically lacks any holes, and your faraday cage is usually mesh, you may not be able to hear as clearly without substantial volume. If you hear white noise inside, then your safe will double as a moderate RFID and other radio transmission dampener.
Final Thoughts
Don’t try to use a safe in place of a Faraday cage. Instead, use both. Build or purchase a larger faraday cage and place a smaller safe inside.
Also, keep in mind that merely wrapping a safe in the chicken wire would not work. Because the wire is in contact with the surface of your safe, it becomes one larger conductor. Unfortunately, that defeats the purpose of your Faraday cage.
Finally, remember that anytime you have a breach, a wire that runs from the outside to the inside of your Faraday cage, it creates a path of conductivity. However, you can certainly run a wire into a safe if you need power within.
