EMF Exposure

Shijing said:
This is a good video on the topic of smart meters. These were recently installed in my neighborhood, and while I was able to opt out, I'm still surrounded by them. As discussed in the video, they are magnitudes more powerful than cell phones or WiFi modems. I'm EMF-sensitive, and there are few things that have made me feel more violated than this installation.

While Natural News is kind of iffy sometimes, this article seems to be pretty accurate:..

Iffy? What did you see in the article that you would consider accurate? Looking just at what you quoted, I see a series of exaggerated, unverifiable statements, written to serve as a "hook" for drawing uninformed people into their "Talk Hour." While there really are serious issues to be concerned about, I don't find presenting them in this manner to be helpful. I guess I have spent too much of my life believing "plausible lies" and paying the price to want anything to do with that.

NaturalNews is WAY beyond "iffy."
 
MB said:
What did you see in the article that you would consider accurate?

In my present understanding, nearly all of it -- with the exception of the reference to chemtrails.

MB said:
NaturalNews is WAY beyond "iffy."

Perhaps so, and maybe it wasn't the best choice of source material. Some of the material on the Natural News site may be as you describe, but I don't think this particular information was exaggerated or unverifiable per se -- I chose it because it happened to be a fairly concise summary of some smart meter-related issues that I've been trying to learn more about. To give a bit more background, I've learned recently that I'm carrying a fairly heavy toxic metal burden that is probably exacerbating my EMF sensitivity -- a couple of good sources for anyone interested in the topic are Dirty Electricity by Samuel Milham and Cross Currents by Robert Becker. Regarding the part about information capture, that's discussed somewhat in the video that I embedded. So sorry about the sensationalist tone of the article -- I'll hopefully be posting some more in-depth information on this topic in the future when I have a chance to get it consolidated.
 
Shijing said:
...Perhaps so, and maybe it wasn't the best choice of source material. Some of the material on the Natural News site may be as you describe, but I don't think this particular information was exaggerated or unverifiable per se -- I chose it because it happened to be a fairly concise summary of some smart meter-related issues that I've been trying to learn more about. To give a bit more background, I've learned recently that I'm carrying a fairly heavy toxic metal burden that is probably exacerbating my EMF sensitivity -- a couple of good sources for anyone interested in the topic are Dirty Electricity by Samuel Milham and Cross Currents by Robert Becker. Regarding the part about information capture, that's discussed somewhat in the video that I embedded. So sorry about the sensationalist tone of the article -- I'll hopefully be posting some more in-depth information on this topic in the future when I have a chance to get it consolidated.

I will offer a point of reference: If I set my Trifield meter down beside my cell phone, set to the microwave scale, the needle slams against the stop every time the phone transmits. If I bring the meter near either of my "smart" utility meters -- nothing. The utilities claim that the meters are only active about once per hour, and transmit (if I remember correctly) at 1/2 watt of power. What I observe corroborates what they say.

If your smart meters are "bathing you with cancer-causing radiation" the way NaturalNews would like you to think then you are already dead from from cell phone radiation, whether or not you even own a cell phone yourself.

And by the way, the sun bathes you with cancer-causing radiation as well.
 
From what I have read quickly on smart meters, its usually how MB explains it, with infrequent transmissions.

However, some use a mesh type network. A mesh is like a decentralized wifi where wifi nodes talk to eachother to be able to transmit further distances hopping over and over (not like your home wifi which is central and handles all data as a central point).
In that case, depending on how it was set up (refresh interval) or how much interference causes retransmissions, it can be noisy.

But smart meters have an advantage over wifi and cellphones, they are usually located outdoors. Brick/concrete do a decent job of blocking weak signals, along with the distance.
The indoor meters are usually away from normal living/sleeping spaces. But, if they are near your bed or other living space, you can make simple shielding from foil or screen (screen from a window) that allows the smart meter to talk outside but block the signals in the direction of the inside of the house.
 
I was assuming a mesh network. That can be a good thing. The data I obtained from the local utilities (I think it can be found in this topic, a couple of years back) takes into account network-related activity.

Where things really start to get out of control is when an apartment complex has banks of smart power meters all located on an outside wall next to somebody's living space, so that the occupant is exposed to both the EMF from the meter wiring itself (discussed earlier) and the microwave radiation from the transmitters and their mesh network activity. I have foil shielding on my inside wall where each smart meter is located but faced with a bank of meters like that I think I would have to move. And that is not even considering the Wi-Fi coming through the walls from the other apartments, and the DECT phones.

Buying a Tri-Field meter and taking measurements helps to put things into perspective. I have yet to catch either of our smart meters actually transmitting, since it happens so infrequently. I can set the meter for microwaves, however, and stand anywhere in the house and watch the needle quiver about the zero point. That is mainly from the constant bombardment that the houses receive from nearby cell phone towers, and this is a residential neighborhood with few towers. If I switch to the higher-sensitivity magnetic field range, the effect is a little more pronounced.

If I do the same test standing up front in my cell-tower church, about 100 feet from the base of the antenna array, the effect is much more pronounced and the magnetic field readings are quite strong -- much more than a "quiver." But none of that compares with the strength of the signal when I simply place the meter next to a cell phone. When you consider that countless people are carrying these things around, pressing them up to their heads, and sticking them in their pockets, and exposing you at close range as well as them, that would seem to be a much bigger potential problem.

Personally, I keep my cell phone in airplane mode most of the time. But then I am receiving a fairly heavy dose of EMF from dirty power when I am at work. Smart meters would seem to be a small part of a very big mess.
 
MB said:
I will offer a point of reference: If I set my Trifield meter down beside my cell phone, set to the microwave scale, the needle slams against the stop every time the phone transmits. If I bring the meter near either of my "smart" utility meters -- nothing. The utilities claim that the meters are only active about once per hour, and transmit (if I remember correctly) at 1/2 watt of power. What I observe corroborates what they say.

From what I understand based on a couple of posts earlier in this thread, the Trifield meter isn't the best one to use if you want to measure the kind of RF radiation emitted by smart meters -- it's better for measuring cell phones (like you mention) and dirty electricity within the home. I think you'd also want to take the information you get from your power company with a grain of salt, since they have a vested interest in not alarming their customers over the dangers of smart meters. There are some Q&A at the link below related to this:

http://stopsmartmeters.org/frequently-asked-questions/radio-frequency-radiation-issues/

MB said:
And by the way, the sun bathes you with cancer-causing radiation as well.

I think that's comparing apples and oranges.

Divide By Zero said:
However, some use a mesh type network. A mesh is like a decentralized wifi where wifi nodes talk to eachother to be able to transmit further distances hopping over and over (not like your home wifi which is central and handles all data as a central point).
In that case, depending on how it was set up (refresh interval) or how much interference causes retransmissions, it can be noisy.

I think we've got a mesh network in my neighborhood -- from what I understand, there's a master meter installed somewhere in the subdivision that is more powerful than the other meters, and it controls the cross-talk between them.

The indoor meters are usually away from normal living/sleeping spaces. But, if they are near your bed or other living space, you can make simple shielding from foil or screen (screen from a window) that allows the smart meter to talk outside but block the signals in the direction of the inside of the house.

That would be less daunting if there was a specific meter/direction to shield from -- I was really glad I was able to opt out for my own property, but I'm assuming I've still got radiation coming in from three sides (there are no houses behind me). I did do an experiment the second week after installation, where I made one of these and asked my neighbor's permission to put it over their meter for a week:


https://youtu.be/CwzeMOH-Jl4

I didn't have anything to measure with, so the results were purely subjective, but it seemed to help a bit while it was up (in the part of my house that it was facing).

MB said:
Personally, I keep my cell phone in airplane mode most of the time. But then I am receiving a fairly heavy dose of EMF from dirty power when I am at work. Smart meters would seem to be a small part of a very big mess.

I read about your work environment earlier in the thread, and I'm sorry you have to be exposed to that -- it is a huge mess when taken altogether, and it takes quite awhile to absorb all the information. All I know at this point (besides the information posted throughout this thread) is that I have definite symptoms that seem to line up with what other people have described. After opting out, I didn't actually expect to feel anything, although I was still worried about the background radiation coming from the other meters around me. However, on the third day or so, I definitely began to notice something -- primarily a constant metallic taste in my mouth, a throbbing in my head with occasional headaches, and sleep disturbance (this was really bad until I shut the power off in my bedroom, which seemed to alleviate that to a certain extent). As mentioned above, I've found that I've got a problem with heavy metal toxicity and am currently on a long-term detox protocol -- I've only done one round so far, but I noticed that my symptoms seem worse when I'm in the chelation phase vs when I'm in the resupplementation phase, so I think that is part of the problem.

I'd like to know for sure that smart meters aren't that bad for us, but the timing seems too coincidental. In the meantime, I'm going to post some more videos that I found a couple months ago (when this all started) just in case they're able to help anyone else (especially if they have an option to opt out of the installation):


https://youtu.be/FLeCTaSG2-U


https://youtu.be/z2Mt00xY8eU


https://youtu.be/Eun38zLuA4o


https://youtu.be/6m8Cp80SbJs


https://youtu.be/8qrl1KSMr5M
 
Sirius said:
Schools often have solar panels installed on their roofs. This is a typical source of dirty electricity. The La Quinta school doesn't seem to have ones if you look it up with Google Earth.
See: _http://www.aimtolive.com/radiation_solar_panels.htm

Solar Voltaic Panels don't themselves generate noise in AC power-systems. However, everything electronic emits noise however tiny it may be. Most of that noise isn't easily measurable even with the most expensive laboratory equipment and operated by talented qualified laboratory personnel. Its known as "Boltzmann noise". In fact it is the same noise that is amplified and is used as the interface between the physical world and the Astral dimensions, aka "EVP". Pink noise with 12 dB roll-off.

Good quality properly designed AC inverter power-modules don't leak multi-spectral power-density noise into AC power-mains, so its somewhat unlikely that a GSA supplied public school would likely use cheap Oriental AC inverters that do.

plutronus
ET Investigator
 
MB said:
I was assuming a mesh network. That can be a good thing. The data I obtained from the local utilities (I think it can be found in this topic, a couple of years back) takes into account network-related activity.

Where things really start to get out of control is when an apartment complex has banks of smart power meters all located on an outside wall next to somebody's living space, so that the occupant is exposed to both the EMF from the meter wiring itself (discussed earlier) and the microwave radiation from the transmitters and their mesh network activity. I have foil shielding on my inside wall where each smart meter is located but faced with a bank of meters like that I think I would have to move. And that is not even considering the Wi-Fi coming through the walls from the other apartments, and the DECT phones.

Buying a Tri-Field meter and taking measurements helps to put things into perspective. I have yet to catch either of our smart meters actually transmitting, since it happens so infrequently. I can set the meter for microwaves, however, and stand anywhere in the house and watch the needle quiver about the zero point. That is mainly from the constant bombardment that the houses receive from nearby cell phone towers, and this is a residential neighborhood with few towers. If I switch to the higher-sensitivity magnetic field range, the effect is a little more pronounced.

If I do the same test standing up front in my cell-tower church, about 100 feet from the base of the antenna array, the effect is much more pronounced and the magnetic field readings are quite strong -- much more than a "quiver." But none of that compares with the strength of the signal when I simply place the meter next to a cell phone. When you consider that countless people are carrying these things around, pressing them up to their heads, and sticking them in their pockets, and exposing you at close range as well as them, that would seem to be a much bigger potential problem.

Personally, I keep my cell phone in airplane mode most of the time. But then I am receiving a fairly heavy dose of EMF from dirty power when I am at work. Smart meters would seem to be a small part of a very big mess.

Hi,

The Tri-Field meter although an excellent relative-measurement instrument, as I recall doesn't measure up into the higher ISM microwave bands which many of the new wireless-utility-(service)-meters are transmitting. Most of those WUMs are battery operated and are designed for infrequent battery change-outs, on the order of five or more years so battery life is a major design concern, that's why they shock-burst their data. Its possible that a Tri-Field meter movement may not actually be fast enough to register the 10s of milisecond transmission duration period. Although if you are interested in more details, you might consider subscribing to 'Microwave Wireless Design' or 'Wireless Engineering' magazines, as recently there have been included in nearly every release some article describing the various design elements of these service utility meters. There are also many other relevant high-frequency EMF articles regarding all sorts of gadgets one finds in the Westernized World. Such as the police-car transciever repeater power. Those poor cops, they carry around, typically on their chest, high-power microwave transmitters, two inches from their hearts, but I guess its better than in their front pockets next to their jewels! There was a microwave engineer at a company where I worked that wouldn't carry his cell-phone in his pockets for that reason. 2 GHz at 15Watts next to the genitals? Heh heh. Talk about fried eggs. People don't think a thing about wireless these days. What isn't wireless in the average home today? Residential phones, wireless router, cell-phones, and then there's the high-power microwave oven (most leak microwaves at some level). Unfortunately, if yar really worried, then I suggest ya pack up and move to Alaska, out into the woods. Built yourself a log-cabin, outfit it with oil-laterns, and put out into the shed your AC generator to power those things ya gotta have, and keep all the rest of the wires away from ya.

Or ya could build yourself a 'screen-room', put your bed in there or just live inside of that! A Faraday Cage.

plutronus
ET Investigator

plutronus
ET Investigator
 
plutronus said:
SNIP

Most of those WUMs are battery operated and are designed for infrequent battery change-outs, on the order of five or more years so battery life is a major design concern, that's why they shock-burst their data. Its possible that a Tri-Field meter movement may not actually be fast enough to register the 10s of milisecond transmission duration period.

If they are indeed battery operated (and not being recharged internally) then I would say the radiation energy that it could put out is almost nothing in order to last 5 years. Figure that meter readings are usually done monthly, so it may be only a day or two per month when the meters start talking and tabulating data for the utility to collect.

I use that analogy with cellphones to explain how little power can be used at idle. Figure the typical strong cellphone battery is 3.7v and 2000 mah. It's an ideal rating because the battery is best not to be fully drained down as it kills rechargeability.

That is 7.4 Wh (watt hour).
The phone not being used (no internet always on), but on the network (to receive calls) and idle will last pretty much 2 days on a full charge (which is what my older 3g phone does as I barely use it). If ALL of the energy, full efficiency of those 7.4 Wh were converted to radio energy, then that divided into 2 days, that is 0.15 w per hour. This is assuming ALL of the battery is being used up and no energy was used for the processor. So it would be a bit lower.

Now looking at the smart meters, if they are designed to last 5 years with the small space available, I would say that it is much less radio energy put out than a cellphone on standby even! It's also using some of the battery power to do basic measurements and calculations, like a watch does.

But again, that's assuming the batteries are not being charged inside the meter.
 
plutronus said:
Good quality properly designed AC inverter power-modules don't leak multi-spectral power-density noise into AC power-mains, so its somewhat unlikely that a GSA supplied public school would likely use cheap Oriental AC inverters that do.

Not true. Even the more expensive "pure sine wave" inverters are very noisy compared to the generator/motors at the power plant. And this high frequency noise is easily measured. Only the analog motor/generators are truly pure sine wave - the solid state inverters are only approximate sine wave, and this results in high frequency noise that couples into any grid connected to it.
 
MB said:
...
Even though SMUD is very concerned about their ‘reputational risk’ ... the directors make fun of people who don’t want utility smart meters on their property.

One director says, “The $166 upfront will convince them they can really afford a lot of tin foil hats” [laughter]…Another director says, “But they are already wearing them!”

In closing Director Posner says, The less that’s said about this, the better off we are.” The last thing they want is a social media campaign that exposes them as unfriendly to their customers.

Nice, huh?

They claim that the transmission interval is four hours, that the duration is 50ms, and that the transmitter power is 1 watt. Should I believe that?

The numbers above would seem to be generally consistent with what I have observed. 50ms is the active time in the mesh network, per transmission. Other utilities may use different equipment and parameters, of course.

While the Trifield meter isn't extremely sensitive in its RF/microwave range, it has no trouble detecting microwaves at short range in the bands used by cell phones and smart meters. It is not as useful for, say, measuring cell tower radiation levels (from distant towers) within a home, because those readings come out near zero. The rated frequency range in that band is 50 Mhz to 3 Ghz, which sounds more than adequate to me.

A reporting interval of four hours would be sufficient to spy on people, determining when they are home and when they are away -- particularly when the question is whether they are away on vacation -- although such data might be difficult to use if not combined with direct observation. I've read that the data is encrypted and does not include the service address -- so why do I still not feel safe? Maybe because security is as good as the weakest link?

Four hours actually seems a bit long to me. It would make sense if the transmissions were matched to the "peak" intervals in use. That might allow me to actually get a reading, by predicting when a transmission will occur. I suspect that shorter intervals might be more common, based on what I have seen while searching. Gas meters are more likely to have a battery life issue, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them go much longer between transmissions.
 
Shijing said:
That would be less daunting if there was a specific meter/direction to shield from -- I was really glad I was able to opt out for my own property, but I'm assuming I've still got radiation coming in from three sides (there are no houses behind me). I did do an experiment the second week after installation, where I made one of these and asked my neighbor's permission to put it over their meter for a week:


https://youtu.be/CwzeMOH-Jl4

I didn't have anything to measure with, so the results were purely subjective, but it seemed to help a bit while it was up (in the part of my house that it was facing).

Seems like an interesting video and then noticed this from one of the smart meter groups:

email said:
This youtube is making the rounds, offering people an idea about shielding the $meter which in fact could make things worse.

_https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CwzeMOH-Jl4

According to an electrical engineer, putting such a cover on a smeter could cause it to overheat, which is a serious problem already, as you know. Such a shielding as well will prevent signals from going out or being received which could result in the meter increasing its power as well as Hydro getting an error message, believing the meter is being tampered with. As better shielding is aluminum screening, like that used for windows. The signal can still get through, but it will be weakened, and air can pass through to the $meter.

I'm not so sure about the overheating aspect, and if so, that is another reason these meters are dangerous in the first place.
 
LQB said:
plutronus said:
Good quality properly designed AC inverter power-modules don't leak multi-spectral power-density noise into AC power-mains, so its somewhat unlikely that a GSA supplied public school would likely use cheap Oriental AC inverters that do.

Not true. Even the more expensive "pure sine wave" inverters are very noisy compared to the generator/motors at the power plant. And this high frequency noise is easily measured. Only the analog motor/generators are truly pure sine wave - the solid state inverters are only approximate sine wave, and this results in high frequency noise that couples into any grid connected to it.

Hi,

I'm trying to be patient about this subject, as its obvious that there is a lot confusion regarding it.

>Not true. Even the more expensive "pure sine wave" inverters are very noisy...

Not intending to be rude or argumentative, but you've been misinformed by someone.

In the context of this discussion, there are essentially three types of electrical/electronic power-supplies:
1) batteries, (chemical current production), typically least noisy of the three types presented in this list,
2) switch-mode power-supplies, --DC to DC, DC to AC, AC to DC, AC to AC, --small, efficient, typically inexpensive, and if there is little or no filtering used, they can be noisy or not depending on design,
3) linear-mode power-supplies, -- AC to DC, DC to AC, large, typically not too efficient, typically expensive. Inherently least noisy of the active component power-supplies. It was this class I cited.

Re; Noise, there's lots of different types of noise, exactly what it is in the minds of laymen, well its a guess. Noise to me is anything that causes interference or systems degradation.

>..compared to the generator/motors..

In the mid-1800s generators were replaced by Nikola Tesla's invention of the alternating-current AC alternator. Municipal power production facilities do not use generators to produce mains power. But I know what you meant although you named oranges to describe apples, and you are being specific.

>...the solid state inverters are only approximate sine wave...

Not all sine-wave inverters, solid-state or otherwise are switch mode or use synthesized sine-waves. Take a sine-wave oscillator (one [solid-state] transistor, analog, such as a Wien Bridge arrangement), put its output into an analog (linear) power-amplifier, drive a step-up transformer and you've got a linear, sinusoidal wave form DC to AC inverter with no high-frequency ringing...no switching noise and no need for filters. Clean AC power. Linear is typically more expensive than switching.

So, yes, there are commercially available, specifically and authentic, 'full sine wave', not synthesized, not digital, not DSP, not switched, not stepped, not pulse-width-modulated, but are genuine sinusoidal linear waveform DC to AC inverters. As I said before, these are generally more expensive, and they are generally a little more difficult to locate, amidst all the marketing lies being proferred by some unscrupulous manufacturers. And they are not noisy in the sense that the 'dirty' power folks think of as being noisy.

>And this high frequency noise is easily measured.

I suspect that you misunderstood my point. I did not say that switch-mode power-supplies were high-frequency un-measurable. I said, that Boltzmann noise is difficult to measure, and I mentioned it simply because its in everything and there is nothing anyone can do about it but the yakkers are yakking about the little things too.

>and this results in high frequency noise that couples into any grid connected to it.

For some switched-mode, poorly designed power-supplies this is true.

Merry Holy-Days to everyone and family..

plutronus
ET Investigator
 
voyageur said:
Shijing said:
That would be less daunting if there was a specific meter/direction to shield from -- I was really glad I was able to opt out for my own property, but I'm assuming I've still got radiation coming in from three sides (there are no houses behind me). I did do an experiment the second week after installation, where I made one of these and asked my neighbor's permission to put it over their meter for a week:


https://youtu.be/CwzeMOH-Jl4

I didn't have anything to measure with, so the results were purely subjective, but it seemed to help a bit while it was up (in the part of my house that it was facing).

Seems like an interesting video and then noticed this from one of the smart meter groups:

email said:
This youtube is making the rounds, offering people an idea about shielding the $meter which in fact could make things worse.

_https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CwzeMOH-Jl4

According to an electrical engineer, putting such a cover on a smeter could cause it to overheat, which is a serious problem already, as you know. Such a shielding as well will prevent signals from going out or being received which could result in the meter increasing its power as well as Hydro getting an error message, believing the meter is being tampered with. As better shielding is aluminum screening, like that used for windows. The signal can still get through, but it will be weakened, and air can pass through to the $meter.

I'm not so sure about the overheating aspect, and if so, that is another reason these meters are dangerous in the first place.

There's so little RF power squirting out of these gadgets and they are so far removed physically from where Humans are, that technically there is no known health risks. The energy diminishes by the square of the distance. A few feet distance at milli-Watt power into the antenna, is so small that it requires a very sensitive instrument to see the signal let alone cook some remote biology.

I wouldn't worry about it too much. I also would not do anything to impair the transmission of the signal, its a felony offense in the US to interfere with an FCC licensed, un-attended radio-station that doesn't belong to you. Technically that also describes 'smart-meters'. In any case, turning off the signal, interfering with the signal, or blocking the signal, will eventually elicit a service technician visit to determine the cause of no signal. Your house or in the case above, somebody else's house, hah hah.. Then the nasty letters arrive, and then the court summons (maybe a Sheriff or two with the summons etc). Generally the FCC doesn't throw people in jail, they fine'm. Its always about the money. Is it worth it?

(But if you wanna be slick, decode the encryption, decypher the telemetry values and then transmit a clone signal with your own values, but I suspect that'll be illegal also, if not already?)

I don't recommend it.

plutronus
ET Investigator
 
hlat said:
Wow. The readings for the outlets in my house were around 600mV, and the filters got most of them down around 40-60mV. The two outlets in the kitchen near the outside circuit box and the refrigerator were higher at 107mV and 143mV. There are also 2 bedroom outlets higher at 85mV and 74 mV. I wanted to buy one of these adapters so I can plug two filters into those bedroom outlets. Will these adapters also help convert open ground outlets into grounded outlets?

_http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-Grounded-6-Outlet-Tap-with-Resettable-Circuit-Breaker-White-56575/203744652
_http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-6-Outlet-Grounded-In-Wall-Adapter-White-54947/203742151
_http://www.homedepot.com/p/Defiant-GFCI-5-Outlet-Adapter-30339037/203741442

Here's a few tips...

600mV is a fairly small voltage, and 40 mV ~ 60 mV is so small (its the 'noise-floor' in most consumer gadgets), that I suspect that its either an instrumentation alias or its an AC field that inductively coupled into (likely) long leads of the measuring instrument, in other words, its not really there. So how did you see those readings? 120.04VAC? or 115.07VAC? Most cheap DVMs don't read low voltages well on high Voltage settings. The LSB digits move around by themselves (sortof) its called 'uncertainty' in digital logic speak.

When measuring small voltages in a high-Voltage AC environment, one need be careful how one configures the measuring tools for they can lie to you, giving false readings about things. Ultimately this can lead one on wild-ghost hunts and eventually reducing the size of the wad in one's wallet unnecessarily and for no particularly good reason.

How did you make those measurements? What tool did you use? How long were the leads (in inches) to the point of measurement with-relation-to the display unit? (in AC lingual that's called an "antenna") Where were the measurements made? Was the circuit under load? Voltage without current is power-less.

++++++++++
Follow these tips at your own risk. AC can kill you or someone else if you screw-up. Home wiring should be worked on by a qualified licensed electrician and problems are covered by insurance.
++++++++++

Re; the ground situation, are all your house sockets three hole sockets? How many wires are connected to the AC sockets in your house...two or three? If two, are the colors white & black? If only two wires is the wire gauge #14 or #16? (pre-1950s wiring), and do the wires exit out of a metal pipe or flexable tubing? Is that tubing affixed to a metal J-Box (junction box) on which the AC sockets are mounted on the wall? If so, there is a neutral break somewhere or the metal tubing does not originate at the fuse box.

If three wires, --are the colors white, black and green/bare copper? If there are three wires, and one is bare copper, then its likely that your house is in some portion wired using NM12-2/w ground Romex, which is a neoprene(sp?) insulated wiring solution. Since some time around 1970s its not considered code these days, as the Romex is likely blindly routed or stapled to studs inside (typically drywall) sheet covered walls, through which a home-owner may accidentally drive a 10 penny nail through, thereby either causing a power-short or making contact with a resultant bare un-insulated hot power circuit. But the sockets should be grounded, if not then either the ground wire isn't connected properly to each un-grounded socket (this was commonly done by electricians at one time, they just peeled the copper wire back leaving it unconnected) or the ground wire screw connection has become resistive, thereby effectively opening the circuit.

If there are three or more loose wires exiting from 'thin-wall' tubing, either the sockets are mounted with non-metalic screws or the sockets aren't three-pin grounded sockets, or there could be an electrical open or a mechanical interruption somewhere in the electrical plumbing going back to the fuse box. Of course its possible that the original home construction electrician did not wire the fuse bus for ground, you need have an electrician to diagnose the matter for you if so.

In any case, if the power wires are hanging loose inside the walls without being routed in Romex or metal conduit, you need to hire a licensed electrician to remedy the situation. Don't do it yourself, you are very likely unqualified to do a good job in wiring your home for safe electrical operation.

Those small Voltages are suspiciously small. I wouldn't trust those readings without using an oscilloscope and current probe.

In any case, **please**, be careful when working with home AC wiring, --lots of people survive electrocution but suffer from ancillary medical problems for years.

Good luck.

plutronus
ET Investigator
 
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