When was the last time that you had a dream?  When you went to sleep last night did you have a good night sleep? I am sure that almost everyone has heard of REM (rapid eye movement) when it comes to sleeping as well as the steps that are associated with it.  Not getting enough sleep, or more importantly, getting enough quality sleep, can lead to a list of ailments.  But the real question is–why are you not sleeping, or sleeping poorly?  One possible answer is your electromagnetic surroundings.

Melatonin is a hormone that is made from serotonin by the pineal gland that is located in the brain.  Melatonin helps regulate sleep patterns through control of your circadian cycle.  It is also associated with your ability to learn, fends off free radicals and other forms of aging, and other key immune-system functions, including your body’s ability to defend against cancer.   Melatonin levels in your body correlate with serotonin levels, which are related to human diet, metabolism, and even depression.  By 2000 there were already 15 different studies demonstrating that extremely low frequency, radio frequency, and microwave radiation suppress your body’s ability to produce melatonin¹.  Melatonin is produced at night while you sleep.  Because of the dirty electricity and wireless pollution in or around your room, your body may interpret these signals as from the sun and thus does not function correctly at night because your body thinks that it is day.  Up until the last 150 years, all of the electromagnetic radiation that was experienced on Earth was natural in that it was created by the sun or was naturally present on Earth.  However, with more and more advancements comes more and more forms of electromagnetic pollution.  This can result in poor sleep, which in turn means that you will not recover as fast and could feel more tired.   In the end you don’t go through REM sleep, and thus you don’t dream.  Dreaming is good, dreaming, although they can be disturbing, is healthy and a sign to look for.  If you are not dreaming on a consistent basis, then it could mean something is wrong.  Being tired during the day is not normal.  Needing a 5-hour energy in the middle of the day all the time is not normal nor is taking naps all the time.  This is the way your body is telling you something is wrong.  Will you take the time to listen?

There are really two main sources of EMF’s that can cause the disturbances that can interfere with the production of melatonin. One is the dirty electricity found in the wires of your home which are also called high frequency voltage transients.  The high frequency is created by harmonics which are made by your electronics that you have in your home.  Depending on the area you live and the amount of electronics, this will determine the amount of harmonics that are coming from your wiring in your home.  There are two ways to deal with this.  One is to kill the power to the circuit at night.  Go to your circuit board and shut off the power to the room that you are sleeping in.  You could really turn off all of the items that are not needed, leaving only the essentials like furnace, fridge, or AC on.  The other solution is to install filters to reduce your exposure, both at night and during the day when your power is on.

Another source is wireless or smart tech that you may own or depending on your proximity to neighbors, their tech as well.  This would include but not limited to Wi-Fi (yours or your neighbors), your smart phones, Fitbits or other wireless devices you wear, cell towers or other broadcasting towers in your area, DECT phones, and smart meters.   Two ways to deal with these items is either by shutting of the offending device or with shielding.   If you need shielding, have it measured first before and after to make sure that the shielding material you bought is actually shielding you.   

If you do sleep poorly at night, or feel the need to take something in order to fall asleep, then I would suggest having your sleeping area looked at.  This way at the end of the day, when you lay down to sleep you may get restful sleep filled with dreams.

 

Blank, Martin (2014) Overpowered. New York, NY: Seven Stories Press. Pages 86-7

 

This  workshop is free to attend.  Please call the number listed below if you plan to attend.

At this workshop you will learn:

• What the real cost of energy efficiency is
• What to look for when buying electronics and simply things that you can do to limit your exposure
• What you can do to help safeguard yourself and your family
• Why children are most at risk today

DATE: Monday, February 29th TIME: 6:30 PM LOCATION: M.Y. Life Health Center (Hallie Chiropractic) 1650 Hallie Road | Chippewa Falls, WI 715-831-6052

In this post I will look at compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL, or curly-Q light bulbs), light emitting diodes (LED), incandescent light bulbs, and a halogen light bulb.  Light bulbs like anything else will either use a linear or non-linear load.  In doing so you will be able to see what linear and non-linear means and how this all relates to the dirty electricity in your home.

For each of the bulbs that I have mentioned I tested with the following set up.  The graphs were obtained with a Fluke 190-202 Scopemeter.  To test the light bulbs, I used a standard desk lamp plugged into a surge protector.  Also plugged into that surge protector was a Stetzerizer Microsurge Meter (this will measure the amount of high frequency voltage transients (dirty electricity) in GS units, as well as a Graham Ubiquitous Filter.  Each time that I changed a light bulb (which only took one person) I turned on the light 3 times and so the before and after GS numbers are an average of those three attempts.   The blue line that you see in all of the graphs will be the voltage and the red will be the current.

The first light bulb that I tested was a 60W incandescent light bulb made by Sylvania.  The result is shown in figure 1.

This is what is known as a linear load.  As you can see from the graph the voltage and current are rising and falling at the same rate.  In regards to the creation of dirty electricity, the before and after reading on the microsurge meter were the same at 12.3 GS units.   Unlike some of the bulbs to come all incandescent bulbs will be good bulbs to have in your house.

The next light bulb to look at is a halogen.  Incandescent and halogen are very similar and really a halogen light is a more efficient version of an incandescent.  The halogen light bulb that I used for figure 2 was a Westinghouse 40W Eco-halogen.

As you can see this is also a linear load.   As you would except then the microsurge reading was the same before and after I turned on the light at 12.3 GS units.

Now enter the non-linear loads.  The first light bulb to look at is the CFL.  The CFL in this case used in Figure 3 was an 18W Westinghouse.

Non-linear is when the voltage and current use are not proportional as they are in this case.  You can see this because there are many places where the current (red line) is flat.  This is also how you create something that is energy efficient, in most cases.  The downside is often you add dirty electricity to your environment.  In this case the before GS reading was 12.6 however when you turned on the light the average GS reading was 56.  This was just one light bulb, now think of what a home filled with these will do to your readings.  In addition, CFL light bulbs will also emit a radio frequency (RF) which also adds to the EMF pollution in your home.  This bulb and really all CFL bulbs are something to stay away from.

Another CFL light bulb tested was the 30W Full Spectrum Bulb.  This bulb also emits an RF as well as creates dirty electricity.  The graph in Figure 4 shows how it uses current.

The average GS reading before was 12 and when this light was turned on, the average GS reading was 87.6.  Once again, keep in mind this was just one light bulb and you don’t want to be above 50 GS units anywhere in your house.

The next type of bulbs to look at are the dimmable and non-dimmable LED light bulbs.  The light bulb in figure 5 is an 8.5W Sylvania non-dimmable LED.

As you can tell from the graph this is also a non-linear load.  The average beginning GS value was 11.3 and when the light was turned on the average GS reading was 19.  This also creates dirty electricity, however it is better than the CFL in that is doesn’t create an RF signal and produces less dirty    electricity.**

The next bulb is also by Sylvania and is a 9W Ultra LED dimmable.  This is also a non-linear load and its graph is shown in figure 6.

I did not test the dimmable qualities of this bulb because I don’t have any dimmers in the house, nor use any because they create power quality issues in your home.  The before and after GS reading in this case were the same at 13.6.  In this case, and this case only, this would be an acceptable bulb to have.

In summary, incandescent and halogen light bulbs will always be your best option if you are trying to avoid creating dirty electricity in your home.  I would never recommend any type of CFL lighting system.  LED can or can’t be good when it comes to dirty electricity.  Know that not all LED’s are the same and can vary from brand to brand.  The best way to determine if a light bulb creates dirty electricity is do what I did here and plug a lamp (with the bulb you are testing) into a surge protector along with a Stetzerizer Microsurge Meter.  The microsurge will initially go up, because of the arc created when making a connection.  However, if the readings stay higher than what you started at, don’t use that light bulb because it is bad.  If it goes back to your initial reading, then you have something usable.  This is something that you are going to have to test with every LED light bulb, because they are not all made the same.  You would not need to test every incandescent or halogen though because these are considered linear loads.

 

**It should also be noted that as you continued to turn on and off the 8.5W LED the GS reading did not change after a while after having the light on.  The before and after reading were the same.  The averages listed above are what could be considered a cold reading.  Meaning the light bulb and lamp sat off for a couple minutes and then were turned on.   Once I discovered this I repeated it for each bulb and this was the only one that had different readings.

The picture above is a waveform that was taken from the sink to the floor in a house in Eau Claire, WI.  What this can tell you is the amount of ground current present in a home.   Whether we are referring to this as ground current, stray voltage, or contact current, know that we are talking about the same thing.   Stray voltage is voltage that is not contained in a wire.  It runs unchecked through the ground.  In a perfect world, there would be no stray voltage and it all would be contained in the wires.  In the most extreme cases ground would be used as a last resort.  Our ground really would be ground with zero potential.  This is not the case because of the increased use of non-linear loads by consumers.

The easiest way to explain this is to relate it to something that is more understandable for most people.   In this case it would be driving to and from work every day.    You will leave your home and go to work and then come back home.  Under normal circumstances, traveling along the roads we have will be the fastest way to get to and from work.   However, if there is a traffic jam, then you will more than likely need to take a different route home.  If you had off-road capabilities with your vehicle, then cutting across the fields or off-roading might be the fastest route back home.  In the end, you are going to end up where you started, which is home.  As long as you end up at home it doesn’t matter if you travelled on the roads provided, or made your own roads.

Electricity works in the same way that you go to work.  It will go out and come back to where it originally came from (Kirchhoff’s Laws). As long as traveling on the wires is the easiest path, electricity will continue to travel the wires.  If this is not the easiest path, electricity will find other paths that are easier to make it back “home”.    With the use of more and more non-linear loads, our wires have more things riding on them (examples would be harmonics, transients, and other communications).  All of these added things to the power supply make it harder and harder for it to move through wire, especially when the wire is too small.  There is a “traffic jam”.

Also, if the wire is too small to allow the electricity to pass through, it can create heat.  Enough heat will cause the wire to burn out.  In order to stop burn outs, the neutral wires are connected to the ground wires so instead of traveling along the neutral wire, the electricity will flow into the ground and back “home”, essentially “off-roading” through the easiest pathway, the ground. The end result is what we have now, contact current in our homes.

Ground current/stray voltage/ contact current can cause a list of problems for animals and people.  During a home inspection we look at the amount of contact current that you have in a house.  If your contact current is above 18 µA biological effects relevant to cancer start to take place.  That level has been accepted by the NIEHS (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences).  You can read more research on this here.  It is important to have this tested to make sure that you are under this limit.   Know that based on the demands for power in your area, your contact current will also vary; meaning the more demand there is, the more current that you will have traveling through your home and vice versa.  If you are worried about this in your home, you can look at the following things in your house.

One is to look at your plumbing, which is a very common way for ground current to travel into your home.  Recall electricity will take the path of least resistance and copper is a great conductor, that is why they use it for electric wire.  You can easily test to see if there is current traveling along your pipes by checking to see if the metal pipe is giving off a magnetic field.  Anything that has current traveling through it will create a magnetic field.  That is a property of physics.  A relatively inexpensive item to test this with is a TriField Meter Model 100XE which is easy enough to find.  If you have current traveling in your pipes, you will be able to measure a magnetic field there.  If you do have a magnetic field, look at replacing 2-3 ft of the copper piping with plastic piping by the main in-take, (this is only for homes that have all copper piping for water).   This would go for the sewer lines as well.  If you are going to be remodeling or building in the future, look at using materials that are very low conductors, especially in your foam underlayment for flooring.  Both of these things are simple things.  However, doing all the simple things over time can add up to make a big difference.

Harmonics have been around since the first AC generator was used to create electricity.  They are something that anyone with an electrical background has heard of.  A harmonic is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency. Harmonics are created when the voltage and current are not used proportionately.  Because of the disproportionate use, harmonics are created and added to the 60 Hz wave.  Devices that do this are said to use a nonlinear load. The 60 Hz is the fundamental frequency that will be discussed today and so the harmonics created from this frequency would be as follows:  the 1^st harmonic is 60, the 2^nd is 120, the 3^rd is 180, and so on.

Most of the electronics in your home use nonlinear loads, as well as most all items marketed as energy efficient.   Harmonics are a cost of having something that is energy efficient.  The following is what happens when you have multiple items of these in your home.  Below in Figure 1 is the waveform that is in my house when I remove all of the filters.

Figure 1

 

 

The red wave is the 60 Hz cycle. If I had no harmonics present or rather a clean 60 Hz cycle in my house the blue line would be flat.  The higher density of blue represents higher frequency harmonics that are present on the wires in my house.  Below in Figure 2 is a spectrum analysis of the harmonics of the blue wave in Figure 1.  In short it tells you what harmonics are present and how much.

Figure 2

 

The red X is on the frequency of 1740 Hz for a reason.  1740 Hz is the 29^th harmonic of the 60 Hz cycle.  This is significant because all of the blue that you see to the right of the red X are frequencies that are going to penetrate the skin and will dissipate internally to the human body.  This happens at the 1.7 KHz mark on the graph above.

After installing the 20 filters in my home, the waveform in my home is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3

 

If you compare Figure 1 to Figure 3 you will see that the blue areas are much less concentrated.  The Stetzerizer Filters have filtered out many of the harmonics as well as some of the voltage transients that were present on the wires in my home.   In figure 4 you will see the spectrum analysis of the blue line from Figure 3.

Figure 4

 

In Figure 4 the red X is also placed on the 29^th harmonic (1740 Hz).  Everything to the right of the cursor is what is being absorbed internally.  If you compare the Figure 2 and Figure 4 you will see a large number of the harmonics that have been filtered out.  Stetzerizer Filters are designed to filter out the frequencies from 4 KHz to 100 KHz because these are the most biologically active frequencies.   Both Figure 2 and Figure 4 are shown with the same scaling applied.

All of this information that is shown above is included in your report when you have your home tested.  You will be able to see the beginning and the afterward.  Every house is unique so everyone’s results will look a bit different.  The only constant theme is that you will see a reduction in the harmonics in your home.