What are common causes of dirty electricity in a home? – The EMF Guide Question of the Day
Dirty electricity is produced when by the intentional manipulation of electricity on power lines and internal building wiring.
It’s most commonly caused by the following three sources:
01 – Dimmer Switches
Modern dimmer switches work by turning the light bulb circuit on and off 120 times a second. Unfortunately, each time it does this it produces a spike in its magnetic field, harmonic distortions and radio frequency bursts. This is the “dirty electricity.”
These are best removed and replaced by regular light switches.
02 – Compact fluorescent lights (CFL) and LED lights
These lights achieve their energy savings in a similar fashion to dimmer switches. by refreshing (turning on and off) themselves at rates too quick for the eye to notice.
Here’s a quote from an article in Scientific American:
However, modern, electronically ballasted CFLs refresh themselves at between 10,000 and 40,000 cycles per second, rates too fast for the human eye or brain to detect.
Incandescent bulbs, although hard to get now, are a better choice for lightbulbs.
03 – Tech Devices
These can include the plugged-in chargers for laptops and other tech devices, solar or wind inverters, smart meter communications and over-the-wire ethernet connections.
See our website for solutions to each.
We go over dirty electricity more thoroughly in our chapter, “What is Dirty Electricity and Is it Dangerous?”
If you’d like to measure the dirty electricity in your home, check out our “Best EMF Meters” page or find an EMF consultant near you.
