Do Electrical Wires Give Off Radiation? Answered!

Most people don’t think of the house’s electrical wiring as a source of radiation; they are usually concerned about the radiation from satellites, TV, phones, and other appliances. If you are trying to reduce radiation exposure, you should consider electrical wires’ radiation.

Do Electrical Wires Give Off Radiation?

A basic house’s electrical wiring is considered a source of radiation, specifically EMF radiation. The radiation will be minimal if your house’s electrical wiring is done correctly. However, the radiation levels are higher and can be dangerous if your house’s electrical wiring is constructed poorly.

Any house wiring is the network of electrical wires for everything from TVs and lights to heating systems and other electrical appliances. The electrical network consists of od wires connecting from breakers to power outlets. Each wire in the network consists of three wires, neutral, phase (live), and ground.

The neutral and phase (live) are responsible for conducting electricity to and from appliances. The ground is a protective barrier between you and excess charges that can cause electrical shocks and fires, and it has no current flowing through. There are three different types of radiation emitting from electrical wires.

What Are the Types of Electrical Wires Radiation?

Magnetic Field

The magnetic field is determined by the amount of current running through a wire; in a regular house wiring system, the range of a magnetic field is between 0.1 milligauss to 1.0 milligauss. The amount of standard magnetic field due to recent technologies is below 0.3 milligauss.

The magnetic field can be measured in two units Milligauss (mG) and nanotesla (nT); the tools used to measure the magnetic field are the tesla meter and the gauss meter. A magnetic field is related to the presence of an electric current; if there is no electric current, there will be no magnetic field.

When you turn an appliance on like a lamp, the current will start flowing through the wire, and thus there will be a magnetic field. The more devices you have powered on, the more current flows and the more magnetic field are produced.

Electric Field

The electric field differs from the magnetic field because it doesn’t depend on the current flowing through the wire. The electric field is always present as long as the wire is a live wire because the electric field depends on the wire’s voltage of the electric current.

As a result, if you turn off the appliance, there will be an electric current around the wire. The amount of electric field in your house depends on the standard voltage in your country; for example, in the US, the voltage range in a regular house is between 10 to 50 V/m.

The unit for measuring the electric field is volts/meter or V/m, and the tool used to measure the electric field is the electric field meter. The electric field can’t be stopped unless you turn off your circuit breaker; if you even have turned off your TV, there will still be an electric field in the wires inside your walls.

The electric field can’t be fully eliminated; however, it can be reduced by removing the plugs or turning off the circuit breakers. It’s advised to reduce the electric field as much as possible for your health and safety.

Dirty Electricity

The dirty electricity is produced through electrical appliances as they function; it’s unusable electromagnetic energy. Dirty electricity is produced due to interruptions during electrical current flow in the electrical appliances, which is considered a type of pollution.

The interruptions that happen during the flowing of electrical current cause frequency transients and voltage spikes. As a result, dangerous EMF radiation is produced. Most electrical devices and appliances around you produce dirty electricity, for example, dimmers, lights, computers, and chargers.

Why is Electric Wires Radiation Dangerous?

The tradition emitted from electrical wires in a house is ignored by most people because the amount of radiation is low. However, poorly constructed houses’ wiring and dirty electricity can elevate house writing radiations. Once the radiation levels are elevated, they can be dangerous.

The electrical wires’ radiation can elevate the radiation levels of EMF you are exposed to high levels of EMF radiation, it can have dangerous effects on your health. There are some spots in your house where the EMF radiation levels are at their highest.

What Are the EMF Radiation Hotspots?

The EMF radiation hotspots are the points in your house where the EMF radiation is at its highest levels; they can be found near many areas. For example, the EMF hotspots will be near electric systems, electronics, electricity meters, fuse boxes, inverters, battery chargers, and backup supplies.

The range of a hotspot area is up to six feet from the source; the more you get far from the source, the lower the radiation levels. The hotspots can be around other equipment like light switches, dimmer switches, fluorescent lights, heating panels, air conditioning units, and intercom stations.

What Are The Sources of EMF Radiation?

Poor House Wiring

The EMF can be enhanced or increased by poorly constructed house wiring; poor house wiring is not like EMF hotspots; it can be avoided by getting your house properly wired. The house wiring regulations are very important because if you fail to comply with them, your house will be unsafe.

There are many poorly constructed house wiring examples, for example, if a circuit’s neutral wire is connected to another circuit’s neutral. As a result, this will increase the EMF radiation in your circuits, even if they are working properly; in addition, incorrect connection and inaccurate wired circuits can increase EMF radiation.

Poor House Wiring Vs. Normal House Wiring

Normal house wiring doesn’t have the same levels of EMF radiation as poor house wiring because of the wires connection. For example, each wire is responsible for a certain task, the hot wire carries the current to the appliance from the source, and the neutral carries the current to the source from the appliance.

Therefore, the EMF of the hot wire cancels the EMF of the neutral wire, and the resulting EMF is nearly zero. The EMF is canceled when the wires are close to each other, and this is not the case in poor house wiring; the wires can sometimes be not close enough to cancel each other EMF.

As a result, the EMF produced is very high because both wires produce EMF without any cancellation. The main problem is that you wouldn’t notice that because the electrical circuit would work properly without any problems, but the EMF is very high.

How To Check EMF in Your House?

The EMF can be either high or low in your house and will have no signs because everything will work properly. To measure it, you will need an EMF meter; there are several types in the market; you can use any type you like all of them will do fine.

After checking the EMF in your house, the next step is to act according to the level of EMF; if the levels are low, then you are safe. If the levels are high, you will need to hire an electrician to check your wiring because if you have poor wiring, it will be difficult to solve it yourself.

How to Avoid Radiation from House Wiring?

The radiation from your house wiring can have multiple sources like EMF hotspots, poor wiring, and normal wiring. Each source has its procedures for avoiding it, for example, EMF hotspots; first, you will need to identify the hotspots in your house and try to avoid them.

You can avoid the EMF hotspots, but you can eliminate them by reducing the amount of time you are exposed to them. Next, try to increase the distance between you and the hotspots; as discussed earlier, the range of an EMF hotspot is six feet.

Avoiding Radiation from Poor House Wiring

The main problem with radiation from poor house wiring is locating the problem source since everything will be working properly. An EMF meter will be very useful in detecting the source with the highest radiation level; you will need to use a low-frequency EMF meter.

After locating the problem source, you can hire a professional electrician to solve it and ensure that your wiring is proper. You should pay attention to some areas when fixing your house wiring, for example, if you have a wall box providing more than one circuit.

Suppose a box receives wires from two circuits or more because there are many switches in this area. The neutral wires will be connected; electricity-wise, this works fine, but it will increase the magnetic field produced, increasing the radiation levels. It’s not advised that you have crosslinked neutral wires in your electrical circuits.

The main breaker box contains ground and neutral wires; you will need to ensure they are separated. If your electrician confuses a ground wire with a neutral wire, this will create unbalanced circuits, thus increasing the EMF radiation levels.

The distance between you and the EMF source is very important; therefore, when upgrading your wiring system, you should try routing the wires. The wires should be installed at the top of the walls instead of under the floor or in the ceiling; this will increase the distance between you and the wires.

If possible, you can try twisting the wires as it reduces the EMF produced; you can see this in telephone and computer wires. The twisting of wires can be done manually when installing your wires, or you can buy twisted wires from the market; this will reduce the magnetic field by 90 percent.

Avoiding Radiation from Normal House Wiring

Normal house wiring produces lower radiation levels; however, some people can suffer from electrical sensitivity or electromagnetic field hypersensitivity. There are several ways to avoid radiation from normal house wiring, and some of them can be applied when upgrading your wiring.

Using Aluminum Foil

The aluminum foil can reduce the effect of radiation from the house wiring; you can use the foil to cover the walls. The materials used in building houses don’t block the electric or magnetic fields, and covering the walls with aluminum will serve as a protection layer.

The aluminum foil will not completely block the electric field, but it will block the magnetic field; if you can’t cover your walls with foil, there is another option. You can twist your electrical wires and coat them with aluminum foil; this will increase the efficiency of the foil and don’t ruin your decoration.

Using Steel Conduit

The steel conduit can block electric and magnetic fields; you can use it to encase the wires; however, you will need to ground the conduit since it’s made of steel. You can use a plastic pipe or a garden hose to ground the steel conduit; you will also need to insulate from the mounting studs.

This process can be expensive and takes a lot of effort, but it will be very efficient in blocking EMF radiation; therefore, if you can afford it, it’s the best option.

Switching off Circuit Breakers

Switching the circuit breakers off can seem extreme, but people with electrical sensitivity or electromagnetic field hypersensitivity tend to use this option to reduce the electric and magnetic field. The fields cannot be fully eliminated, but this measure will reduce them in a certain area.

You can buy switches from the market that can automatically toggle off the breakers when you want and then toggle them on as you require. These switches must be installed in the breaker box; if you live in a rental apartment, you can check the owner’s first before installing these switches.

Using a Kil Switch

The kill switch is a switch that is used to disconnect the neutral and hot wires at the point they enter the room; a kill switch is similar to a normal switch, but it’s double-poled. When you use the kill switch, you separate the area or the room from the grid; it can be used for the entire house.

People usually use the killer switch at sleep time, they use a killer switch for the entire house, and it disconnects wires from the grid. As a result, they avoid magnetic and electric fields during their sleeping time and sometimes in the daytime if they don’t need electricity.

Conclusion

To summarize, electrical wires are like any electrical device or appliance; they produce radiation, and even if their radiation levels are low, you should pay attention to them. When the electrical wires’ radiation increases, they can elevate the EMF radiation level in your house, which can be dangerous.

Poor and faulty house wiring can be the main source of electric and magnetic radiation; you can use an EMF meter to determine the source of the problem in your wiring. A professional electrician can help you upgrade your wiring system and reduce the radiation levels.

There are several ways to avoid house wiring radiation, whether poor or normal. In addition, you should try your best to avoid radiation hotspots in your house by reducing the exposure time and keeping more than six feet between you and them.

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