Walls have huge electric fields (thousands of V/m)

Rossana

4 years ago
updated 4 years ago
Under review

I live in an old apartment complex in Minnesota. I measured the EMF in my walls and in the walls of a neighbor whose unit is very far from mine. In both cases, even with no appliances plugged in at all (other than the refrigerator) the EFs range from hundreds to thousands of V/m. Even setting all the circuit breakers to Off only partly lowers them. They are still hundreds of V/m even with all circuit breakers off. The magnetic fields are also much higher than 1 mG when I place the meter on the walls.

The Stetzerizer Microsurge meter shows every outlet is from several hundred to two thousand. I bought 14 Stetzerizer filters and placed them all over my apartment, including in the many outlets where nothing is plugged. While I can get the Stetzerizer meter value down considerably, the electric and magnetic fields at the walls are unchanged, even without a single appliance plugged in.

I don't know what to do, the managers of my apartment complex ignored every request to send a competent electrician. I even tried making a video of the meters but they dismiss the problem, ignoring my messages. Do these EMF values mean wiring errors? Do I have any legal power to have the apartment complex fix those? I had a young cat drop dead without apparent reason in my apartment and my neighbor had a young rabbit. At night we sometimes hear a sizzling noise like standing under power lines, however the power lines are not close to the apartment complex. Something seems very wrong with the walls. I measured the EMF at work and at my gym and the walls are only few V/m at most.

Thank you so much in advance for any suggestions!

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4 years ago

BTW I forgot to mention, I have no lights on when I measure the EMFs, no dimmers, no smart appliances, no wireless devices of any type.

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Shaun A Kranish Principal

4 years ago
Under review

I don't think there is any law that could compel them to do something about it. Only if the tenants made a stink about it - they might do something about it. I would try having neighbors shutoff their breakers too to see if that lowers the fields. What meter are you using to measure?

Quote from Shaun A Kranish

Thank you! I am using as a EMF meter the GQ EMF-390 and as a microsurge meter the Stetzerizer that I bought from this website. I am trying now to make a stink about it and another resident too. Since the other resident, very far from me, is having the same issue, it suggests widespread wiring errors. There are hundreds of units in the building, so having everyone shut off the breakers would have to be coordinated by the manager and would not really be feasible on a nightly basis

The voltage readings seem erroneus, as AC wires in the home shouldn't be able to produce such high readings. I suspect your meter is inaccurate. Although, you may have high voltage lines nearby outside. I would still prefer to take readings with a Gigahertz Solutions meter or alternatively with a "body voltage" meter.

This kind of thing can be shielded against with the YShield paint - having properly grounded the paint. Many people prefer to ground the paint to an earth versus to the electrical power system. There are risks doing this. But there are also risks to electric fields being so high. You can "mock" shield the room with standard aluminum foil and grounding the foil. You can connect sheets of foil with conductive tape (we have this in stock - call to order). Then you can "test" what it's like with the shield in place and grounded. You can test with the meters and also with how you feel. If you feel better - then paint the wall :)

I thought the values are too high to be realistic too. However I brought the meter to other places (work, gym, outside here) and there is absolutely nothing like the readings in my apartment building. The highest I got was 30 V/m near power sockets. Outside my apartment it is near zero, as the power lines are pretty far.

I called a building biologist and will have a consultation. The apartment manager said they are willing to remediate if it is the electrical in the building. Since I am not sure I will be here for long I am reluctant to invest in paint.

Does grounding to the earth require access to the ground outside? I was wondering also for bed canopies. I am on the third floor BTW so I do not have access to the earth outside.

Thank you so much for all the help!! Really appreciate!!