We are surrounded by electrical devices, including refrigerators, computers, lamps, and other appliances required for living a convenient life. Although these devices are necessary, they carry an invisible, dirty secret that negatively impacts human health: dirty electricity.
What is dirty electricity?
In simple terms, dirty electricity is the by-product of manipulated electrical current that flows through our electrical lines. More specifically, dirty electricity consists of high-frequency voltage transients (+60 Hz in the U.S. and +50 Hz in Europe) that radiate out from the wiring in your walls, into your home or office, and into your body.
Although you may not feel the effects directly, high-frequency transients are harmful to your health.
EMF-sensitive people are often debilitated by dirty electricity
Are you sensitive to electromagnetic fields (EMFs)? If so, you probably feel the high-frequency transients radiating out from the wiring in your walls, appliances, and power cords. To some, the effects are debilitating. To others, it’s merely a slight annoyance. Either way, it’s important to reduce or eliminate your exposure to dirty electricity as much as possible.
Whether you have an EMF sensitivity, you suspect you might be sensitive, or you simply want to reduce your exposure, keep reading because by the end of this article you’ll have affordable solutions that work.
First, let’s talk about how dirty electricity impacts the human body and the symptoms EMF-sensitive people feel when exposed to these high-frequency transients. Please note that many people experience the following symptoms without realizing EMFs are the cause, and not everyone experiences all of these symptoms.
How dirty electricity impacts EMF-sensitive people
Those who are sensitive to electromagnetic fields (EMFs), including dirty electricity, report some or all of the following symptoms:
- Feeling electricity zapping their body, often in the forehead, face, or tailbone
- Headaches and/or migraines
- Fatigue, often extreme
- Heart arrhythmia
- Loss of sense of smell and/or taste
- Insomnia/sleep deprivation
- Difficulty breathing
- Low blood oxygen levels
- Dizziness
- Ringing in the ears (this isn’t tinnitus – they’re hearing real frequencies)
- Smelling Sulphur (some people can smell voltage spikes)
- Loss of consciousness
- Mood swings
- Digestive problems
- Memory problems
Many people experience these symptoms without knowing they’re caused by EMFs. However, after installing dirty electricity filters throughout their home or office, their symptoms lessen or disappear and they realize EMFs were the cause.
Installing dirty electricity filters relieves symptoms
For many people, dirty electricity filters are all they need to get relief. There are many documented examples of how filtering the electrical lines throughout a building has reduced or eliminated the symptoms associated with exposure to electromagnetic fields.
For example, for years, students and teachers from the Melrose-Mindoro school district in Wisconsin experienced a high rate of migraines, allergies, and fatigue. Many students were dependent on inhalers and daily nebulizer treatments administered by the school nurse. Char Sbraggia, the district nurse, lost her sense of smell for three years.
As soon as Sbraggia installed Stetzer dirty electricity filters throughout the schools in her district, students and teachers experienced a dramatic reduction in symptoms. Migraines and allergies were reduced or eliminated, students needed fewer nebulizer treatments during the day, teachers and students reported feeling less fatigue, and Sbraggia regained her sense of smell.
“Several staff who doctored regularly for allergies have not had to take medication or see their doctor because they are having less problems.Students whom have been diagnosed with migraine headaches have had their headaches reduced no headaches at all.I feel that our faculty and students have had improved health overall since the filters have been installed.”-Char Sbraggia R.N.District Nurse
Dirty electricity isn’t new; it’s just been misunderstood
So, what’s going on? Why is dirty electricity suddenly a problem? The truth is, it’s always been a problem, it just wasn’t understood until now.
What causes dirty electricity?
Dirty electricity exists because our electrical infrastructure doesn’t support the demands of our current technology. Today’s electrical devices don’t use the constant flow of current made available through the power lines – our devices require more power and actually manipulate the current in different ways in order to operate on higher frequencies.
The result of this current manipulation is transient frequencies. Transient frequencies are a bit like how a computer’s hard drive becomes fragmented over time. As the current is manipulated, “fragments” of current outside the standard range (+50Hz or +60Hz) are generated and sent through the electrical lines and then those transients radiate into our homes, rooms, and our bodies.
Electrical wiring no longer meets the needs of our appliances
In the United States, electrical power lines are designed to carry a frequency of 60 Hz (that’s 60 cycles per second) and appliances run on 110-120 volts. In Europe, electrical power lines are designed to carry a frequency of 50 Hz (50 cycles per second) and appliances run on 220-240 volts. If you’re curious about why electrical frequencies and voltage differ between nations, read this article from WorldStandards.eu.
You might be surprised to learn that today’s electrical devices don’t operate with a consistent flow of 50 Hz or 60 Hz, nor do they operate on 110v or 220v. Instead, individual devices have a range of voltage and frequency requirements, often exceeding 50-or-60 Hz.
To function outside of the grid’s designated frequency and voltage, devices have internal mechanisms that alter the flow of current and voltage. For example, electrical devices can:
- Convert alternating current (AC) into low-voltage direct current (DC) with a built-in transformer. This means that simply operating a DC device generates dirty electricity. For example, LED lights, inverters, and anything battery-powered automatically generate dirty electricity. Unfortunately, solar inverters produce the highest amount of dirty electricity, which cannot be remedied using inline filters. If you use inline DE filters with a solar inverter, you’ll actually increase the amount of dirty electricity it produces. Read this document from EMFAnalysis.com to learn more about this.
- Use higher voltage AC.
- Interrupt the normal flow of current by drawing power in frequent, short bursts (thousands of times per second).
Although altering the current makes a device functional, it also generates those high frequency transients known as dirty electricity.
No appliances? Dirty electricity can still enter your home
Using a device or appliance that interrupts an electrical current is just one way to end up with dirty electricity. There are additional sources beyond your control:
- Dirty electricity can come directly from the power company into your home. This means that any high-frequency transients generated at the source can travel through the electrical lines into your home.
- Your neighbors’ smart meters can send dirty electricity through the wiring into your home and throughout the entire neighborhood.
- The dirty electricity produced by your neighbors’ appliances and devices can come through the wiring into your home.
- Your copper electrical lines act as an antenna and can pick up frequencies from cell towers and other sources that broadcast frequencies into the ether.
All sources of dirty electricity can harm you, but DC devices produce an extraordinarily high amount of dirty electricity.
15 common devices that produce dirty electricity
- Laptop computers
- Desktop computers
- Televisions
- Cordless phones
- Refrigerators
- Microwave ovens
- Smart meters
- Smart appliances
- Hair dryers
- Routers (Wi-Fi)
- Modems
- Battery chargers
- Light dimmers
- Light emitting diode (LED) light bulbs
- Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) light bulbs
6 Easy ways to eliminate the effects of dirty electricity
You may not be able to eliminate dirty electricity in spaces you don’t own, like your office, but you can do something about the dirty electricity in your home.
- Use dirty electricity filters
Dirty electricity filters remove high frequency transients from your electrical lines. All you do is plug them into various outlets throughout your home.
For a studio apartment, you’ll probably only need one filter. However, it’s recommended to have two to three filters for a one-bedroom apartment and five to eight filters for a three-bedroom house.
There are many types of dirty electricity filters on the market and not all are of high quality. Some are outrageously expensive and it can be hard to find filters in the EU.
To find the best filter at a good price regardless of your country, read my dirty electricity filter review.
- Replace LED lightbulbs with incandescent light bulbs
LED lightbulbs have been promoted as an energy-efficient, superior alternative to incandescent light bulbs, but they are far from superior. They may last longer, but they don’t emit as much light and they produce a massive amount of dirty electricity. Not only that, but they are equipped to function as Li-Fi devices. Light Fidelity is yet another manmade electromagnetic technology that wreaks havoc on the body.
Li-Fi equipped LED bulbs contain a chip that inflicts light for optical data transmission in order to share data with nearby devices, like a router or laptop. This transmission happens on the visible light spectrum and can transmit data much faster than even the fastest Wi-Fi.
Many people don’t realize their headaches are coming from LED light bulbs. If you experience headaches in the day and find that your head feels better at night when the lights are out, you’re probably feeling the effects of LED bulbs. Change them out as fast as possible for relief.
Find some incandescent light bulbs on Amazon or eBay and stock up now because while they’re legal to possess, they’re illegal to manufacture, which means there won’t be any new supplies entering the market.
- Use faraday cages for your router, modem, and smart meter
An excellent way to prevent dirty electricity from being drawn into your body is to use faraday cages with your devices that produce high frequency transients.
To find the right product for your needs, check out my guide to faraday cages for routers, modems, and smart meters.
You don’t need a true faraday cage
Technically, a true faraday cage requires complete enclosure. There cannot be any holes bigger than the wavelength of the frequency you want to keep out of the cage. All of the devices you’ll want to put in a cage have power cords, which necessitates large holes.
This means that metal boxes advertised as “faraday cages” for routers, modems, and smart meters aren’t true faraday cages. However, they don’t need to be true faraday cages in order to work. In fact, a true faraday cage would render these items useless.
When you place your router, modem, or smart meter into a faraday cage, you don’t want it to be completely enclosed because then you won’t be able to use your device. For instance, say you sealed your router completely inside a faraday cage and used a power bank for a power source. You’d get 100% protection from your router, but the Wi-Fi signal wouldn’t leave the box.
On the other hand, when you place your router in a faraday cage that isn’t completely sealed, you can still pick up the Wi-Fi signal, although it will be weakened through attenuation. Even with cords sticking out of a large hole, these metal boxes drastically reduce EMFs through attenuation, which reduces EMF strength and lessens the impact.
Even better, when you ground the metal box, the EMFs will take the path of least resistance through the ground cord and won’t impact you at all.
How to ground a modem, router, or smart meter faraday cage
You can ground your faraday cage with a simple cord containing only the ground wire and an alligator clip on the other end.
If you live anywhere in Europe, like the UK or the EU, ground cords made for your outlet are hard to find, and as a specialty item, they can be quite expensive. However, you can use the single-post US-fitted grounding cords with a grounded plug adapter.
If you use a US-fitted grounding cord, make sure your plug adapter is actually grounded and has metal contacts inside. You don’t need a voltage converter – an adapter is all you need. You don’t need to worry about voltage because there are no live wires carrying current from a power source.
Get your neighbors to shield their smart meters
If you can get your neighbors on board with shielding their smart meters, you’ll reduce your exposure even more since all of your electrical lines are connected. In fact, smart meters are often installed to be connected in small groups where only one out of the bunch collects data from all the other meters and sends all the data back to the power company through the power lines using data-over-power technology.
- Shield yourself with a conductive, grounded bed canopy
One of the best ways to eliminate your exposure to dirty electricity is to get a grounded bed canopy. When set up correctly, and grounded, the fabric acts as a faraday cage and grounds all EMFs through your electrical outlet, moving them away from you before they have a chance to enter your body.
When you get a canopy, make sure you ground it properly with a mat under your bed. If left ungrounded, it will continually conduct EMFs without sending them away. Although they’ll be less intense, some of these EMFs will travel through the fabric wherever it’s not perfectly fitted together. Also, when you touch ungrounded conductive fabric, you’ll sometimes get a little shock similar to what you feel with static electricity. The shock won’t be too intense, but it will be enough to make you feel uncomfortable.
- Ground your laptop while in use
Is your laptop cord grounded? Does it have three prongs? If so, your laptop is grounded and you can skip this solution. However, if your laptop cord only has two prongs, you’ll want to plug it into a grounded surge protector rather than directly into your electrical outlet.
Your laptop produces plenty of dirty electricity when it’s drawing power from an electrical outlet. Unless your laptop has a grounded cable with 3 prongs, it’s producing high frequency transients (dirty electricity), and those transients are being conducted through your body.
Grounding your laptop through a grounded surge protector will send the dirty electricity through your outlet to the ground and not your body.
- Turn off your router’s Wi-Fi capabilities
Your router automatically uses more power when it’s broadcasting Wi-Fi, which creates significant amounts of dirty electricity. This is in addition to the harmful frequencies of Wi-Fi itself.
Check this guide to learn how to turn off your router’s Wi-Fi capabilities. Note that when you do this, you’ll need to connect to the internet using an Ethernet cable.
Alternatively, you can get a low powered router that will emit far less EMFs than standard routers.
Shielding is the first step toward healing
If you suffer from EMF sensitivity, shielding will help you reduce the impact of the frequencies that are causing you pain. However, shielding is only the first step. There is always an underlying cause, and shielding will help you get relief while you figure out and heal the root cause.
EMF sensitivity is grossly misunderstood by a large part of the medical community, with some even saying it’s a made-up disease. People who believe this just don’t feel the onslaught of frequency, so they assume it can’t be real. It is, however, more real than they want to believe. And it can be debilitating.
While there isn’t a single, definitive, verified cause for EMF sensitivity, many people also suffer from Lyme disease, often undiagnosed. Whether you think this might apply to you or not, it’s worth getting tested. However, the tests offered by standard physicians are inaccurate. Use the ILADS provider search portal to find a Lyme-literate physician near you.
Need fast solutions to EMF sensitivity?
The best way to get relief is to shield as much as possible, placing a priority of importance on the following:
- Shielding your router or switching to a modem
- Installing dirty electricity filters (as long as you don’t have a solar inverter)
- Replace all LED light bulbs with incandescent bulbs
- Installing a smart meter guard
- Sleep in a grounded canopy if you’re extremely sensitive
Keep in mind that there are many different ways to approach dissolving EMF sensitivity, and not every method will work for everyone. However, it’s important to try what you feel drawn to, because it doesn’t have to be a permanent state.
I suffered from debilitating EMF sensitivity for decades, and have recently made a near-full recovery. I will share my experience in another article soon and link it here. I did just about everything discussed in this article, and it took a little bit of time, but eventually I made it to the other side. If I did it, anyone can!
If you’re sensitive to EMFs, there are ways you can reduce your exposure and heal your sensitivity. To learn about these methods, visit our solutions page.