EMF Exposure

The meters arrived today and our house is a mess, much worse than I had expected. The Trifield readings are OK for the most part, or at least as expected, but some of the Greenwave EMI readings are bad news. The worst was a couple of LED ceiling (can) lights in my housemate's bedroom, on a dimmer -- 900 mv! The magnetic reading from the Trifield is high there as well. Another hot spot (EMI + electric field) was an electronic air cleaner. There are Greenwave readings of 200-300 throughout the house. It looks like filters will take care of it, though. I bought one for testing, and I expect we will be buying more, soon.

The sound from the Greenwave meter is similar to the "non-hum" sound I was hearing from my toner probe at the church. I will be making a trip over there within the next few days.

I would say to readers here in general that if you live in a "modern" house with electronically controlled appliances, fluorescent and/or LED lights, electronic gadgets, computers, wall dimmers, air cleaners, etc., etc., you really ought to be installing dirty electricity filters even if you don't buy measuring equipment. At the very least, place filters in the rooms where you spend the most time.

MB said:

The meters arrived today and our house is a mess, much worse than I had expected. The Trifield readings are OK for the most part, or at least as expected, but some of the Greenwave EMI readings are bad news. The worst was a couple of LED ceiling (can) lights in my housemate's bedroom, on a dimmer -- 900 mv! The magnetic reading from the Trifield is high there as well. Another hot spot (EMI + electric field) was an electronic air cleaner. There are Greenwave readings of 200-300 throughout the house. It looks like filters will take care of it, though. I bought one for testing, and I expect we will be buying more, soon.

The sound from the Greenwave meter is similar to the "non-hum" sound I was hearing from my toner probe at the church. I will be making a trip over there within the next few days.

I would say to readers here in general that if you live in a "modern" house with electronically controlled appliances, fluorescent and/or LED lights, electronic gadgets, computers, wall dimmers, air cleaners, etc., etc., you really ought to be installing dirty electricity filters even if you don't buy measuring equipment. At the very least, place filters in the rooms where you spend the most time.

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Dimmers are notorious noise generators. Use your trifield and see if you can track the wiring in the wall associated with all dimmers and 3-way switches (with lights on). Dimmers and 3-ways are often mis-wired with grounds crossing neutrals resulting in net current and high mag fields.

All fluorescent lights should be removed from the home since they result in both high mag fields and high grid noise. Ionic air cleaners also produce huge grid noise.

And yes, I think everyone should measure their home grid noise and apply a few filters if called for. Peeps can chip in on the meter and pass it around locally or even nationally by mail. The filters just plug in to sockets, so you can just take them with you if you move.

I am mainly looking at hidden sources of dirty power at the moment. To deal with all sources, I will probably need to move out, and to test the new place before signing anything.

I think that people can assume that they have dirty power issues if they have the devices and appliances that generate it, and that it would be better to go ahead and install some filters than to hesitate about buying meters and end up doing nothing about it -- the way I did nothing for two years.

Many of the sources of EMF and microwaves that we have discussed in this topic are fairly obvious, and I didn't find anything using the meters, other than dirty power, that I didn't already know about and that I hadn't already done something about. There was one magnetic field issue that I suspected was still a problem (one that I can't resolve without moving out), and the Trifield confirmed that, but it was certainly no surprise. It's the dirty power that surprised me -- the extent of it.

I'm taking the meters along with me to work today. Not looking forward to what I might find.

LQB said:

And yes, I think everyone should measure their home grid noise and apply a few filters if called for. Peeps can chip in on the meter and pass it around locally or even nationally by mail. The filters just plug in to sockets, so you can just take them with you if you move.

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What filters do you recommend?

I am obviously ignorant of EMF and the house, having previously suggested using powerline adapters.

hlat said:

LQB said:

And yes, I think everyone should measure their home grid noise and apply a few filters if called for. Peeps can chip in on the meter and pass it around locally or even nationally by mail. The filters just plug in to sockets, so you can just take them with you if you move.

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What filters do you recommend?

I am obviously ignorant of EMF and the house, having previously suggested using powerline adapters.

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LQB can answer that better than me, but there is quite a bit of information contained in this topic -- we went through a lot back in mid-2012. The two brands of filters that I know about are Stetzer and Greenwave. A search of this topic should bring up quite a bit of information about either.

I don't know for sure, but I suspect that installing filters around the house serves to shunt the electrical noise to ground near its various sources, for the best results. I think probably what I am seeing right now at home is that when there are no filters, the noise travels all over the place through the wiring, and quite possibly converges on the service panel which, of course, is located near the bedrooms. Ugh.

MB said:

hlat said:

LQB said:

And yes, I think everyone should measure their home grid noise and apply a few filters if called for. Peeps can chip in on the meter and pass it around locally or even nationally by mail. The filters just plug in to sockets, so you can just take them with you if you move.

Click to expand...

What filters do you recommend?

I am obviously ignorant of EMF and the house, having previously suggested using powerline adapters.

Click to expand...

LQB can answer that better than me, but there is quite a bit of information contained in this topic -- we went through a lot back in mid-2012. The two brands of filters that I know about are Stetzer and Greenwave. A search of this topic should bring up quite a bit of information about either.

I don't know for sure, but I suspect that installing filters around the house serves to shunt the electrical noise to ground near its various sources, for the best results. I think probably what I am seeing right now at home is that when there are no filters, the noise travels all over the place through the wiring, and quite possibly converges on the service panel which, of course, is located near the bedrooms. Ugh.

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Yes there is much material above in this thread. You can also go to the Stetzer and Greenwave sites for more info and papers describing the health effects and related studies.

Work turned out to be the worst in terms of dirty power, with Greenwave readings over 1100mv. With all the PCs and monitors we have on each circuit it's no surprise. My single filter wasn't up to the task, either, and there's not really a good place to plug filters in. I will have to figure something out. The Trifield readings were OK.

The meter readings seem to have left a visual impression on my coworkers even though words normally have no effect at all. I have no illusions that they are likely to suddenly see the light about EMF, food, or anything else, but it was nevertheless interesting to observe. The Greenwave has audio as well, which enhances the effect.

Readings at the church weren't as bad as I was expecting. The Greenwave reading up in the balcony was comparable to that at work, when I first plugged the meter in, but went down after less than an hour, later into the evening. The filter brought it down to only 85mv at first, but later brought it quite low. I would guess that the level of dirty power is proportional to the amount of cell phone traffic being handled. It's in a residential area (with a school across the street -- you can't have a residential cell tower without a school across the street, can you?) and the traffic drops off at night.

I know that because I could see the traffic on the Trifield. It doesn't pick up much on the radio/microwave range unless I lay my phone down beside the meter (that sometimes pins it!), but it does pick it up on the more sensitive magnetic range. When I stood on the chancel (the raised front platform), I could see the bursts from the antenna array. They make the meter jump around, in ragged steps, depending on how many channels are active at one time. The peaks were around 2.5 mg. I was familiar with the pattern -- short bursts -- from hearing interference at times when a cell phone was picked up by audio equipment, and I recognized that in the meter movements.

The strongest field in the whole place, ironically, came from behind the altar -- a very large cross on the wall backlit with fluorescent tubes. On the electric field range, the Trifield was still registering when I stood six feet back. Up close it pinned (> 1000v/m²).

The Trifield is not sensitive to whatever my toner probe and my phone's magnetometer had been receiving. Most of the time the toner probe sounded very much like what comes out of the Greenwave, though, so I guess they may be picking up radiation from the dirty power. It will be interesting to see if the toner probe and phone readings go down at home once we install filters.

MB said:

Work turned out to be the worst in terms of dirty power, with Greenwave readings over 1100mv. With all the PCs and monitors we have on each circuit it's no surprise. My single filter wasn't up to the task, either, and there's not really a good place to plug filters in. I will have to figure something out. The Trifield readings were OK.

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Yes, tough environment - but what you can do is try to create a "clean" environment around you by using powers strips and multiple filters strategically placed around you and coworkers. Another area that tends to be overlooked is fluorescent lights mounted on the ceiling of the floor below you - if they exist (and are on), then the mag field below you will be high. You can test for this by running the trifield along the floor.

The filter brought it down to only 85mv at first, but later brought it quite low. I would guess that the level of dirty power is proportional to the amount of cell phone traffic being handled.

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Yes, because the DC power draw will depend on the traffic.

I know that because I could see the traffic on the Trifield. It doesn't pick up much on the radio/microwave range unless I lay my phone down beside the meter (that sometimes pins it!), but it does pick it up on the more sensitive magnetic range.

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Yes, as an RF meter, the trifield stinks.


Mod's note: fixed quote tag

Thanks Everyone for the information here. I've been studying the affects of EMF for years and how to reduce exposure etc. I'll be looking into the filters today. I am fairly new here and it takes time reading through these long threads so please excuse if the following information has already been linked.

Here is a site that will tell you antennae and towers in your area http://www.antennasearch.com/sitestart.asp?sourcepagename=&getpagename=hopgsitemain&cmdrequest=getpage

Also last night while reading here at my desk top computer I decided to put a silk scarf on my head. Its a rather large scarf, wide and long that covered my entire head and part of my chest and back. I immediately noticed a difference in the way my head felt. A sense of calm ensued. The power of suggestion or the real deal? I thought it an inspiration for the benefits of wearing silk scarfs more through out the day and also aesthetically pleasing :)

I live in a building built in 1910 and I definitely feel there isn't as much electrical pollution as the modern building I moved from which was very disturbing. The landlord (don't care much for that term) just added a dimmer to my kitchen light though. It hums when I turn it on I also need to do something with my computer desk. My tower sets at my knees and at one side I have a surge protecter that is full of plugs. One thing about an old building, like this, there aren't many outlets so surge protectors are used with multiple plugs for all electrical devises. I thought perhaps just draping a big piece of silk over the whole affair might be helpful for short term help.

Also I know I have a lot of wi fi running through my apartment from the neighbors (I don't use it). I came back from a trip recently and definitely felt like I was in a frequency soup here in my apartment. My mood went blank and all inspiration was lacking, very bla and depressing. I didn't eat all that well on my trip so perhaps the bad diet made me more susceptible.

A good day to all.

I don't think the age of the building will make much difference. That surge protector full of plugs will, however, and if there are a lot of others like it nearby in other units, so will that, as will fluorescent lighting.

I haven't had a chance to experiment very much with microwaves from cordless phones and Wi-Fi. They might show up on the high-sensitivity magnetic field range of the Tri-field meter, just as the cell tower radiation did. Otherwise they may be more or less invisible.

I have used antennasearch.com in the past.What I just noticed, though, is that the cell tower in the church is not listed. I wonder what else is missing.

Thanks MB, Glad you mentioned the antenna search. I see its likely not being kept up to date.

Came across a fwd link today on EMF exposures. There are a number of references to pluming on this and other threads, so thought to add this video that seems to explain it well, along with fixes should your systems be like this. Perhaps others here can help verify this persons results, yet it seems evident with simple fixes.

Oh, the guy in the video owns a store that sells EMF products, so keep that in mind, yet he is forthcoming about it and he is just giving the nuts and bolts of it all.

Another thing of interest to me was the amperage he discusses. Once an electrical inspector was telling me that he had investigated a fatality at a hotel. A woman had stepped into the shower and suddenly died due to electrical shock. It took some time for the evidence to finely point to a fluctuating ground fault in a separate wing of the hotel to the event - that's scary. New houses today often run just PEX, while industrial places might alternate between steel, cooper and PEX or some type of polyethylene tubing (that older grey stuff that is not good). So perhaps have a look at your pluming setup if you can - test it if you think this might apply. Also, as said, the fix is relatively simple for anyone who has monkeyed with pluming before. It would not be expensive to have someone do it - shouldn't be anyway.

Electrical Current on Plumbing Pipes

_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2iejrZsXkM

voyageur said:

Electrical Current on Plumbing Pipes

_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2iejrZsXkM

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As far as I know, current NEC code disallows use of home pipes for ground connections to the service panel box. These connections, if you have them, should be disconnected and re-routed to a properly installed ground rod away from any metal pipes servicing the home. In an urban (or even suburban) environment, ground current from neighboring homes and industry can travel on your home's metal pipes - so the fix described is a good one - just make sure you do it on the house side of any grounding connections so that ground current still has the path to ground (errors here are probably responsible for many cases of shock). This should be done for all metal pipes servicing the home (including gas).

The mag field due to net current on home pipes will be high and fairly long range due to the fact that it looks like a line source of current. If this were just a pure 60/50Hz signal, the health effects would probably be minimal to none. The problem is the high frequency grid noise that the mag field carries. This high frequency noise is difficult (and costly) to measure on the mag field. To measure this noise on the home grid, use the Stetzer or Greenwave meters.

Sirius said:

Regarding Trifield 100XE, here is its specification: _http://www.trifield.com/content/trifield-meter/
It doesn't seem to be that useful.

Frequency Range: 40 Hz – 100 KHz (see frequency weighting)

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Does not register traction current at least in several countries if that feature is needed. But it's suitable for measuring dirty electricity and normal electricity, or at least detecting it.

AC Electric Fields: […] Range/Resolution: 1000 V/m / 5 V/m (Original Version: 100 KV/m / 0.5 KV/m)

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This is actually not enough.

Radio Microwave: […] Range/Resolution: 1 mW/cm2 / 0.01 mW/cm2

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This is useless. Its amplification towards the lower bound needs to be 100-10,000 times greater in order to be of any relevance. Its accuracy is actually below acceptable.

Radio/microwave covers 10 to 1000 microwatts/square cm which includes the maximum permissible public exposure levels in all countries.

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This is false by all means.
The only thing one could measure with this model is presumably AC magnetic fields. But for this purpose solely, there are cheaper and better alternatives out there. Forget its RF component.

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I was thinking about getting the Technology Alternatives Cell Sensor instead of the Trifield 100XE because it cost almost $100 less. Do I need the Trifield if I have the Cell Sensor? Is it true that the Cell Sensor just 1 axis instead of 3 axis? If it is just 1 axis, then I might as well pay more for the Trifield.

LQB said:

In areas of heavy digital use (including stereo/TV/etc) I like to use a GS power strip (I don't think GW has one available yet). The GS powerstrip has 2 internal filters attached to 2 rows of outlets that will take care of much of the noise before it ever gets to the main socket. You can plug a GW filter into the GS powerstrip to take care of the ground circuit.

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Is this a GS power strip?
_http://www.stetzerizer-us.com/Power-Managed-8-Outlet-Energy-Controlled-Surge-Protector-with-Noise-Reduction_p_54.html

In looking at the Greenwave filters, it comes in 2 varieties, Spectrum 2400G Filters and Broadband 1500 Filters, that covers a wider spectrum than the Stetzerizer filter, so I'm going to get Greenwave filters. I like how the Broadband 1500 Filter has a built in outlet. But I'm not understanding if I can mix and match Greenwave filters in a room or if they need to be matched pairs in a room, eg 2400 must be paired with 2400 and 1500 paired with 1500?

How is the Stetzerizer Microsurge Meter compared with the Greenwave EMI Meter? I was going to get the Stetzerizer Microsurge Meter because it costs less.

hlat said:

I was thinking about getting the Technology Alternatives Cell Sensor instead of the Trifield 100XE because it cost almost $100 less. Do I need the Trifield if I have the Cell Sensor? Is it true that the Cell Sensor just 1 axis instead of 3 axis? If it is just 1 axis, then I might as well pay more for the Trifield.

LQB said:

In areas of heavy digital use (including stereo/TV/etc) I like to use a GS power strip (I don't think GW has one available yet). The GS powerstrip has 2 internal filters attached to 2 rows of outlets that will take care of much of the noise before it ever gets to the main socket. You can plug a GW filter into the GS powerstrip to take care of the ground circuit.

Click to expand...

Is this a GS power strip?
_http://www.stetzerizer-us.com/Power-Managed-8-Outlet-Energy-Controlled-Surge-Protector-with-Noise-Reduction_p_54.html

In looking at the Greenwave filters, it comes in 2 varieties, Spectrum 2400G Filters and Broadband 1500 Filters, that covers a wider spectrum than the Stetzerizer filter, so I'm going to get Greenwave filters. I like how the Broadband 1500 Filter has a built in outlet. But I'm not understanding if I can mix and match Greenwave filters in a room or if they need to be matched pairs in a room, eg 2400 must be paired with 2400 and 1500 paired with 1500?

How is the Stetzerizer Microsurge Meter compared with the Greenwave EMI Meter? I was going to get the Stetzerizer Microsurge Meter because it costs less.

Click to expand...

The cell sensor will do fine for the mag field - you just need to rotate the probe around until you get the max reading. The cell RF sensor is useless (just like the trifield). But you will lose the electric field measurement that the trifield has. The author of the video that voyageur posted above is wrong about the E-field sensor of the trifield. It is actually quite good and has many uses.

Yes on the GS powerstrip. It has 2 filters installed in there.

You can mix/match the filters however you want - use the meter in the sockets to measure your success in reducing the noise.

On the meters, David Stetzer would say that there is very little noise above about 300KHz - so his H/W does not operate much above this. But RF can couple to the home grid resulting in much higher frequency noise - very unpredictable. I use both meters and both filters, but if I had to choose, I would go Greenwave for both.