House Electrical Meter proximity to sleeping child
- Thread starter comittina
- Start date
- Status
- Location
- Chapel Hill, NC
- Occupation
- Retired Electrical Contractor
If the house is properly wired I would not work about the electrical field. Of course, I wouldn't have the panel or meter near a bed anyway.
House Electrical Meter proximity to sleeping child
The house is correctly wired but by bad luck there is a small bedroom on the other side of the wall from the meter. We need to determine if the meter should be moved to mitigate any hazard to child's brain development. Even if there is a remote chance of damage. Are there any codes that dictate minimum distances from stationary people as when they are sleeping?
The house is correctly wired but by bad luck there is a small bedroom on the other side of the wall from the meter. We need to determine if the meter should be moved to mitigate any hazard to child's brain development. Even if there is a remote chance of damage. Are there any codes that dictate minimum distances from stationary people as when they are sleeping?
- Location
- Chapel Hill, NC
- Occupation
- Retired Electrical Contractor
House Electrical Meter proximity to sleeping child
No Gauss meter but I am searching for a local electrician with one.
I read that is the way to determine field strength. We can then search medical info for max exposure levels. Comon sense tells me the meter should not have been mounted outside a bedroom. Of course the amount of load in the middle of the night goes way down so sleeping nearby is probably better than sitting nearby at a desk in the daytime when more load is occurring.
No Gauss meter but I am searching for a local electrician with one.
I read that is the way to determine field strength. We can then search medical info for max exposure levels. Comon sense tells me the meter should not have been mounted outside a bedroom. Of course the amount of load in the middle of the night goes way down so sleeping nearby is probably better than sitting nearby at a desk in the daytime when more load is occurring.
petersonra
Senior Member
- Location
- Northern illinois
- Occupation
- engineer
I am curious how this even came up. There are some entrepreneurs out there selling all kinds of snake oil to mitigate this mostly non-existent problem. A Google search will find them for you.
House Electrical Meter proximity to sleeping child
I was rearranging my daughters room furniture with her and looking out the window at the meter on the wall outside where her bed is now positioned inside. It struck me that the meter was really close to her when asleep. No snake oil here..just a concerned parent. An electrician friend recommended I look at this forum.
I was rearranging my daughters room furniture with her and looking out the window at the meter on the wall outside where her bed is now positioned inside. It struck me that the meter was really close to her when asleep. No snake oil here..just a concerned parent. An electrician friend recommended I look at this forum.
As already suggested, having someone check your home with a guass meter is what you need to have done. You may be surprised as to where heavy EMF levels are coming from and the meter location (assuming a properly wired home) will probably not be one of the heavier ones.
Roger
Roger
Would be highly suspicious of any sales effort by anyone in regard to "protecting the children". People not properly schooled, or having a profit driven motive, get caught up in a lot of "buzzword" technology.
Fukushimi Daichi in Japan has a major radiation spill. I live in Alaska. I'm still going to eat the salmon I catch in the Cook inlet water system that is ultimately attached to the Pacific Ocean. There is a reason for my signature....
Fukushimi Daichi in Japan has a major radiation spill. I live in Alaska. I'm still going to eat the salmon I catch in the Cook inlet water system that is ultimately attached to the Pacific Ocean. There is a reason for my signature....
- Location
- Chapel Hill, NC
- Occupation
- Retired Electrical Contractor
There have been studies that have linked, to some degree, high levels of emf to childhood lukemia. Perhaps it's bogus I don't know but if you can avoid emf's I would.
I would agree with Roger and I would be surprised if the meter was an issue.
To the OP-- I doubt many electricians would have a gaussmeter and most would not know what to do.
I would agree with Roger and I would be surprised if the meter was an issue.
To the OP-- I doubt many electricians would have a gaussmeter and most would not know what to do.
- Location
- Wisconsin
- Occupation
- PE (Retired) - Power Systems
I live in line with an airport runway. I was more concerned with things falling from the sky, than I was with electromagnetic fields around my children's bedrooms. But, I was able to rationalize the risk, when I considered the most danger I regularly placed them in was a ride in an automobile.
Get a gaussmeter, and find what EMF is there, so you can make a 'reasoned' decision.
Get a gaussmeter, and find what EMF is there, so you can make a 'reasoned' decision.
hillbilly1
Senior Member
- Location
- North Georgia mountains
- Occupation
- Owner/electrical contractor
If your really concerned with it, install a sheet metal plate behind the sheetrock, it would be a lot cheaper than moving the meter.
hurk27
Senior Member
- Location
- Portage, Indiana NEC: 2008
EMF is mostly produced when conductors of the same circuit are not run together, placing a metal shield between the source and subject also will do little to nothing to stop the magnetic field generated by wrongly run circuits, Circuits that are run together such as the hots and neutral run all in the same raceway, and cabinet like a meter cabinet will produce very little to no field outside of that raceway or cabinet.
While I have my reservations on this subject, and as was pointed out the saying "Don't let fear be your guide" I will add let the truth be your guide, be careful of where you get your information, there are to many out there that pray on fear of others to make money, do not take everything you hear that flows by on the wind to be the truth.
In my own experience of being an electrician for over 37 years, and many time being around very large EMF fields in industrial and in other places, I would have expected to have something wrong with me a long time ago, I used to work with very high powered radio equipment that produces fields so large no electrical system could ever match, some industrial heating systems that use RF to heat with over a few million watts of power, while it would give us a warm and fuzzy feeling, never seem to harm us or any of the operators, and are still in use as of today.
So in perspective, I suggest to search diligently for the truth in all things, and up most let the truth be your guide, not fear.
While I have my reservations on this subject, and as was pointed out the saying "Don't let fear be your guide" I will add let the truth be your guide, be careful of where you get your information, there are to many out there that pray on fear of others to make money, do not take everything you hear that flows by on the wind to be the truth.
In my own experience of being an electrician for over 37 years, and many time being around very large EMF fields in industrial and in other places, I would have expected to have something wrong with me a long time ago, I used to work with very high powered radio equipment that produces fields so large no electrical system could ever match, some industrial heating systems that use RF to heat with over a few million watts of power, while it would give us a warm and fuzzy feeling, never seem to harm us or any of the operators, and are still in use as of today.
So in perspective, I suggest to search diligently for the truth in all things, and up most let the truth be your guide, not fear.
I have come across this concern one time. We were called to a house where a (European) lady had a Gauss meter and had gone all through her house with it and arranged furniture according to readings on her meter. The highest reading though came from a dimmer in the living room. That's where we came in. The dimmer was a (very old) incandescent dimmer and the lights were LV trac lights. Replaced it with a snap switch and the meter reading went way down.
- Occupation
- Licensed Electrician
I'm working on a new house that is to be occupied by an EMF sensitive owner.
All of the advice and consulting came down to two basic ideas concerning the electrical- make sure there are no improperly wired circuits and if the water pipe is to be used as a grounding electrode isolate it ten feet outside of the house.
All of the advice and consulting came down to two basic ideas concerning the electrical- make sure there are no improperly wired circuits and if the water pipe is to be used as a grounding electrode isolate it ten feet outside of the house.
- Location
- Chapel Hill, NC
- Occupation
- Retired Electrical Contractor
The OP is concerned with proximity to the meter not incorrectly wired circuits. There should be little to no emf's emitted from a meter base, IMO.
Electric-Light
Senior Member
You might have an issue with the picture dancing around if you have a CRT monitor right next to it. CRTs are VERY sensitive and will do this if you have a UPS(standby transformer), wallwart, or a wire in the wall that doesn't cancel out magnetic field (neutral and hot not run together).
Living a life is a hazardous thing and among all the hazards, this is the least of my concern.
Living a life is a hazardous thing and among all the hazards, this is the least of my concern.
- Location
- Illinois
- Occupation
- retired electrician
That would depend on the grounding electrode system. The better the grounding electrode system, the more EMF around the meter and the service conductors as the grounding electrode system is a remote parallel path for the grounded conductor currents. Remote current paths are a major cause of EMF.
That is why a previous post says to have an insulating fitting in the water pipe 10' from the building. That lets you still use the water pipe as a grounding electrode, but limits the parallel path the earth and not the metal water pipe that is electrically connected to the grounded conductor at the other houses in the area.
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