How to tell if you have Dirty Electricity and what to do if you have

What is Dirty Electricity?

Dirty electricity (DE), also known as dirty mains, dirty power, or electrical pollution, is a term that describes the problem of electromagnetic noise being on the mains wiring of a house, when it isn't supposed to be. Basically, your electrical supply is supposed to have just a 50 Hz sine wave on it, but this is rarely the case. There are almost always significant 2nd and 3rd harmonics (100 and 150 Hz in Europe, 120 and 180 Hz in USA), but these are not thought to be any more harmful than the pure sine wave.

DE occupies a part of the spectrum in-between the power frequency fields created by powerlines and substations, and the microwaves produced by mobile phone masts and other wireless devices.

DE consists of high frequency "electrical noise" of 1000 Hz (1 kHz) and upwards that has become superimposed on your wires. It includes transient spikes from inductive loads like motors being switched on and off. Most of the published work on this uses the Stetzer Microsurge meter which measures noise between about 2 kHz and 120 kHz.

dLAN network adapters also put RF signals on your mains wiring and it is good to switch them off at night. The levels are vanishingly tiny when compared with wLAN / WiFi signals, however they may affect electrosensitive people. dLANs use frequencies above 150 kHz that extend up to several MHz and are not detected by the Dirty Electricity meter.

Dirty Electricity can travel into your house on the local electricity supply, or it can be generated by devices in your home. In the UK, the incoming supply is normally quite clean, so the majority of DE is generated by internal devices, though large blocks of flats and similar multi-occupancy living spaces can have a lot of shared DE sources.

Common large contributors to DE include dimmer switches, televisions, fluorescent light bulbs (including the relatively new CFLs, or energy efficient bulbs) and computers. Any device that has a "switched mode power supply" will naturally create a lot of noise, but it's hard to tell exactly which devices do have them and which ones don't. It's fairly new technology, so most modern, energy efficient, electronic devices now have them. Older, non-electronic devices such as lamps, ovens, or devices that run on motors, don't normally create much DE.

Many links have been made associating Dirty Electricity with a wide variety of negative health effects, including cancer, asthma, chronic fatigue syndrome, diabetes, ADD, autism and a number of neurological disorders.

We must note that whilst large amounts of DE noise is undoubtedly placed on the mains cable, the electromagnetic fields it causes the wiring in your house to emit are extremely low. However, despite our lack of understanding of the mechanisms, there is a significant body of anecdotal and scientific evidence to support the correlation between DE and various negative health effects.

Dirty Electricity Meters

The Dirty Electricity (DE) Meter is designed to help you assess the level of DE present within your home. When plugged in, it will measure the amount of high frequency noise (Dirty Electricity) in the frequency range 2 kHz to about 120 kHz on your mains circuit, and give you a reading.

How to tell if you have DE in your house

Generally levels on a DE meter are between 100 to 1500 without filters. The readings are generally higher in towns, especially in densely populated areas and terraced housing. Flats, especially in high-rise blocks, are usually worst.

The local DNO (electricity company that is responsible for the supply cables in that area) don't take any notice of DE. The first step in assessing the DE within your house is to measure how much dirty electricity is currently in your house. You can hire a Dirty Electricity meter from us by calling our office during our working hours. The cost for this is £32.00 (plus delivery) for a two week hire, which includes use of 2 dirty electricity filters (electropulse filters), which you return to us when you send back the meter, or which you can buy (at a discount while you have the meter on hire).

We believe that a sensible, achievable goal is to try to keep readings well under 200. Plug the DE meter in and take note of the readings at several points around the house to give you a clear idea of what you currently have. If you have readings over 100, you may need to make some changes to get the reading lower. Some of the published material suggest readings below 50 GS units are required - this is difficult to achieve and we are not convinced of the extra benefit of doing so.

Inside or outside source?

The next step is work out how much of the dirty electricity is created by devices within your home, and how much is coming in directly from your electricity supplier. To do this, unplug all of the electrical and electronic devices in your house, so that they can't put dirty electricity onto your wiring (many modern devices use power even when they appear to be "off"). This includes things such as chargers, alarm clocks, etc - basically, if you can unplug it, then do so. Also switch off all lights. Once this is done, take measurements in the same places as before, and you're measuring just the electricity being supplied to you by the local suppliers. Any differences are due to devices in your own home.

If the differences are large, then some of the devices in your home are creating a lot of dirty electricity. Leave the DE meter plugged in, and try plugging in devices one-by-one, to work out how much each device is creating. Typically high devices include PCs, sounds systems, TFT/Plasma TVs, and other power-hungry electronic devices. Switch lights on and off. Compact fluorescents bulbs (CFLs) and low-voltage halogen downlighters (with hidden switched-mode voltage converters) can be significant sources of DE.

Dealing with sources of DE generated within the house

If you find that a large proportion of the DE is being produced by a handful of internal devices, then the best solution for these (e.g. computer equipment or TV and video equipment) is to put them on a proper mains filter socket strip (that contains proper filters, not just surge protectors), which prevents the DE from spreading onto the house wiring, confining it to a very small area. For devices creating a lot of DE, one of these will often be much more effective than a number of Electropulse filters, especially if you can group many of the high-DE producing devices onto a few filtered mains socket strips. Where this is not practical, an Electropulse filter should be fitted as close as possible to the device producing the DE. You shouldn't need more than a few of these for the entire house, especially if you have used mains filter strips thoughtfully.

Dealing with sources of DE generated outside the house

For any background DE which is coming in from the electricity provider, an Electropulse filter is probably more effective. This should be fitted as close as possible to your electricity meter or consumer unit (fuse box). The filters plug in (and occupy) a standard 13A mains power socket. We suggest a maximum of one-per-room and, in the first instance, probably just starting with two for the whole house. Please note that they don't lower the power frequency electric fields created by house wiring, only the high-frequency noise on the line itself.

Please note that the filters we supply are fitted with a UK style plug, and will require a socket adapter to be used in many other countries. You do not require an earth pin on your system for the filter to work correctly.

The first step in assessing the dirty electricity levels within your house is to measure them. We believe that a sensible, achievable goal is to try to keep readings well under 200. For more information about what to do if you find high readings, please see our dirty electricity page.

Caution

A dLAN broadband access system will not work if you use one of the mains filters in your system, as the filter is intended to screen the wiring from the RF that the dLAN needs to connect to the internet.

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