When the breaker box causes EMF problems in your home

 

 

If the electrical breaker box is in a place where it causes you trouble due to the radiation, here are the options for fixing it.

 

Keywords:    breaker box, breaker panel, electrical panel, EMF, magnetic field, mitigation, moving, shielding, rewiring

 

 

All electricity consumed in a house is routed through the main breaker box. That means the highest electromagnetic fields (EMFs) are likely found there. If the breaker box is located in an important room, such as the kitchen or the only bathroom, it may be necessary to make changes.

 

EMF basics

You can skip this section, if you want. You don’t need to understand this part to follow the rest of this article.

 

When electricity runs along a wire, such as to a lamp, the wire will radiate a magnetic field. This can be measured by a gaussmeter.

 

If there is no lamp or other electrical device turned on, there is no magnetic field from that wire (there are occasional exceptions called “stray electricity”).

 

The electricity runs out on one wire and back on another wire. When those two wires are right next to each other, they radiate less than if they are separated. Inside an electrical breaker box, the wires have to be separated (see above picture), which is why it radiates more than the wires connected to it.

 

Whenever electricity is available on a wire (it is energized), there will be an electric field. This is regardless whether anything is using the electricity or not. You’ll need a fancier gaussmeter to measure this. Apparently, the electric field is much less of a problem to most people with electrical sensitivities.

 

Five options

There are five options for handling a breaker box in a bad location:

 

They all have their drawbacks, but one may work for your situation.

 

Dealing with it

This is the simplest and most used method. It is mostly just common sense, tailored to the situation. It may be all you need.

 

Look at the label for each breaker to familiarize yourself with what they are for. Try to turn some off to find out if they are really needed. If not, leave them off.

 

Some breakers may only need to be on now and then, and otherwise can be left off.

 

An electric water heater can be left off most of the time, and just be turned on once a day to heat up water before bathing.

 

Some people turn off nearly all the breakers when they need to use the room where the breaker box is located.

 

Some people use a wooden spoon to operate the breakers. That gives a little distance, is a soft material that won’t wear the breaker handle, and is also not conducting any electricity.

 

Be aware that breakers are not intended for daily use. They may only last a few years. Consider having special switches installed, such as for the water heater.

 

If there is an outbuilding or garage that is not fed electricity through the problematic breaker box, you could route electricity from there using heavy-duty contractor’s extension cords. Don’t use regular cords, and make sure not to overload the cords as that can cause a fire.

 

Shielding

It may work to cover the breaker box, and parts of the wall, with a shield that blocks the EMF. You need to cover both the box and the wires hidden inside the wall. Find out where the hidden wires are. They usually all go up to the ceiling, but may also go down to a basement, crawlspace or buried line.

 

Steel is the shielding material of choice, as it works well and is relatively cheap (copper and silver work for radio waves, but not here). You may find a recycled steel plate somewhere. A galvanized steel plate is nicer to look at and doesn’t rust or have the metallic smell of raw steel.

 

There is a special alloy made for this purpose. It is called mumetal, but is costly. You’ll probably not need it.

 

If the steel plate is thick enough to stand on its own against a wall, that is thick enough.

 

It is usually best not to ground the shield, unless there is any chance it could somehow touch an energized wire. If you do ground it, make sure it is connected to the ground in just one point (that limits possible stray electricity), and preferably using a separate ground rather than an electrical outlet’s grounding prong (which may carry a low voltage and dirty electricity).

 

You can lean the plate up against the wall, mount it with screws or hang it using rope.

 

It can be decorated with refrigerator magnets, or photos held in place by tape or magnets. You can also paint it if you wish. It doesn’t have to be ugly.

 

Partial rewiring

A partial rewiring entails installing a second breaker box in some room you don’t use much. This is typically a utility room or an attached garage.

 

The idea here is to remove most of the electricity that otherwise runs through the existing breaker box. That will reduce the magnetic field there, and limit the parts of the house where the really radiant wires run.

 

Say, the existing breaker box is in the center of the house, on the wall between the kitchen and the only bathroom. If a new breaker box could be placed on the outer wall of the utility room, it could be wired to be the master breaker and have the breakers for all the heavy users of electricity (stove, water heater, washer, dryer, airconditioner).

 

The drawings show a house with a breaker box in the middle, which is fed electricity from the outside through the corner of the kitchen. The utility room with washer, dryer, and water heater is in the lower right corner.

 

When a new breaker box is installed (second drawing), the radiant electrical wires are much shorter and kept in one end of the house. The old breaker box is still used for other circuits, but now it carries a lot less current, so it radiates much less.

 

The routing of the most radiant wires before and after installing a new breaker box.

 

Make sure the old breaker box, which now is technically a “sub-panel,” has the “bonding” removed. It is against the building code (NEC) to leave the bonding in place in a sub-panel and it can cause problems with stray electricity. (It is against the building code as it causes electricity to run on parallel wires between the two breaker boxes, and also because electricity will run on the ground wire.)

 

Some older boxes have only one single bus bar, like the one pictured at the top. To make it a sub-panel, you’ll need to add an insulated bus bar to hold the neutral wires separate from the ground wires.

 

The old breaker box must now be grounded through the cable coming from the new breaker box. Cut any connection directly from the old breaker box to a ground rod, as it is no longer needed and could generate ground currents and stray electricity.

 

The electrician will understand what “bonding” and the ground wire is, but make sure to ask specifically for their removal. Electricians commonly make the mistake of leaving them in place. To them, it works and does not pose a danger of electrocution.

 

You may need to re-route the outdoor electrical line to go to the new breaker box. The line way even need to make a semi-circle around the outside of the house, which is best done as a buried cable.

 

Consider installing all the new wires as twisted or shielded in metal conduit, so they radiate less.

 

While you are at it, consider moving the electrical meter away from the house. It could be placed on a garage, garden shed or free-standing pedestal. It should face away from the house, since any wireless meter transmits mostly out the front.

 

It is best if the new master breaker box, the electrical meter, any transformer, and any well are on the same side of the house to minimize ground currents (electricity running in the soil itself).

 

This website has detailed information on how to install wiring in a house to minimize EMF. See link at the bottom.

 

Full rewiring

With a full rewiring, the existing electrical box is fully replaced by a new one. That means every circuit in the house has to be redone. This is essentially a more involved (and costly) version of the partial rewiring.

 

The benefit is that every electrical cable can be routed for the lowest EMF, and can be twisted or shielded.

 

This is a serious undertaking. It requires a lot of skilled work, so it is very costly. It may make more sense to find a better house.

 

Alternate source of electricity

People have left all breakers off in their houses, except for temporary needs, such as running a washing machine. Otherwise they rely on flashlights, small 12 volt DC-only solar systems for electricity, and cook with propane gas (outdoors).

 

What to do about heating and cooling the house has to be thought through. Some make do with little or nothing if in a milder climate.

 

Extensive coverage of low-EMF off-grid housing is available elsewhere on this website. But it is not for everyone. It can be limiting, and it requires some skill to maintain.

 

 

More information

How to install low-EMF wiring in your house: www.eiwellspring.org/emc/WiringHousePart1.htm.

 

Using low-EMF solar: www.eiwellspring.org/offgrid.htm.

 

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