hlat said:
My understanding is BX cable is armored cable that is known in the industry as Type AC? If so, then I'm going to ask for Type AC cable for a new room.
Are there any other things I should be asking for, and to whom do I ask (eg architect, electrician)?
Hi hlat, to my current knowledge, the wiring in your apartment should be checked to ensure that all the circuits are balanced. Lets say a lightbulb connected to your mains box with 3 wires has a live and neutral. This is one circuit. The current in the live and neutral wires should match, which then cancels out the magnetic field that forms around the wires when current flows through it. Miswired neutrals, neutrals shared between different circuits, etc cause the return current (the neutral wire carries this return current, the 'used' current that flows back to the mains) to NOT flow back through the correct neutral wire, hence creating a 'net current' between live and neutral wires due to the difference in current. The mains box wiring and ground terminations also should be checked, although I currently do not understand the idea behind this. There is more info in the videos below.
Check out this video with Karl Riley who wrote a book on proper wiring:
Also check out this web-site for more descriptive videos:
_http://www.emfwise.com/powerline.php
You may also want to look into "dirty electricity" which is another type of EMF pollution, also known as high frequency transients. This is caused by electrical equipment that sort of mutilates the waveform your line voltage -- these mainly comprise of the modern electronics such as computers, chargers, TVs, CFLs, and almost anything that needs to convert AC to DC. You can buy meters that measure the severity of the dirty electricity problem, and buy filters to correct said problem. The filters are very convenient but generate electric and magnetic fields of their own, thus the need for placing them 50-100 cm away from humans. I however have no experience with them and their are not readily available in my country at the moment. I have however sent a request to a supplier to check for availability and shipping details. Please see Larry Bower's articles for some more good information on the models available and general details. I HIGHLY encourage you to read this one (http://www.sott.net/article/297840-EMF-pollution-What-you-can-do-to-reduce-your-EMF-exposure) to know a little more about the dirty electricity issue and the products that are in the market to rectify this issue.
Personally, I am embarking on a major renovation of my family house. I'm actually typing this from at my parent's place which is north of the family house as mentioned. I drove down discuss with my parents on the plans and get them finalised so I could proceed with preparing a bill of quantities, electrical diagrams, etc. Anyhow, coming back to my parent's house is usually a nightmare, I would have racing negative thoughts, terrible concentration, shortness of breath, crippling anxiety, and a general return of bad habits after spending a few hours here. I'd normally attribute this to a combination of my old habits from the past rearing their heads and the EMF radiation from the WiFi router upstairs.
However, I woke up this morning and decided that I would do a test to see if the wiring was the culprit. I shut off the main breaker, where the power enters the building. I subjectively felt a lot lighter, and it felt like a real burden was just lifted. This feeling of relief was accentuated as I re-entered the bedroom I slept in -- I had the distinct feeling that the room felt much lighter than before. My mother had many times told me about how the electrician who originally wired the house did a terrible job of it. I decided to go up to the attic to check some of the wiring. It was terrible, neutrals criss-crossing the rafters, switched live and neutral wires, chaos! So now, armed with some first-hand experience, I'm keener than ever to work on the renovation of the family house, to EMF proof it for good. I also hope that I'd be able to fix up the wiring here in my parent's house as well. I think it would be a wonderful improvement all-round for everyone involved.
I thought it interesting also that turning off the WiFi did not give me the same feeling of relief as shutting off all power. In fact, I didn't notice much of a difference with it off. So, at least for this house, the devil was ... in the wiring
! Dirty electricity could also be a big part, but how big, I'm still not sure. In this case, my bet goes to the magnetic fields generated from the bad wiring. However, WiFi is still in my list of things to cut out from my living environment. I'm thinking of buying one of those meters and doing a proper test -- that would be fun and interesting. I could bring my little cousins and we could have a science experiment.
Currently doing a lot of reading because the whole affair personally affects me - I feel that I'm at least mildly electro-hypersensitive - thus the interest and concentration comes much more easily, oh the joys of learning are back - reminds me of the times we were looking into the various diets on the forum. Now I'm on my own little adventure into EHS land. The knowledge really does protect - my symptoms are much less now -- knowing is half the battle!
