Ill in new house but nothing showing on my meters

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Ill in new house but nothing showing on my meters

Sally
Hi, everyone. I'm in the unfortunate situation of being ill in my new house, with symptoms clearing up after a few hours when I leave. I checked it with Acousticom 2 and PF5 meters before purchase, and have continued to check it with those and an EMI line meter. Magnetic, RF and EMI levels are low.  (I chose a detached fixer-upper in a quiet area for this reason.) Electrical levels vary but I can choose where to spend time and look into kill switches etc.

I have symptoms there (head pressure / twisting, insomnia, glands up, generally feeling dreadful) that I've had in only a couple of houses before and it was relieved by turning the electricity off. The levels I measured were never any different from other houses, so I didn't know the cause. Here, it doesn't seem to help to turn the electric off. I'm quite near a railway (about 20/30 metres), but it's a local third-rail line and electrical / magnetic readings towards the railway are low.

Assuming this is an electromagnetic issue (it feels like it), what can I do to pick up anything I've missed? Thanks so much for any help you can give me. My background health had been the best in years before I moved in here and I want to go back to that.
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Re: Ill in new house but nothing showing on my meters

Marc Martin
Administrator
Have you tried measuring with a small/portable AM radio, listening for interference sounds coming from the speakers? That's usually a better indicator of something that will cause me symptoms than some EMF/RF meters.
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Re: Ill in new house but nothing showing on my meters

Sally
Thank you - yes I did, but it was hard to make sense of it so I switched to an EMI line meter (since I was mainly using the radio to check for electromagnetic interference). How do you use it, please?
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Re: Ill in new house but nothing showing on my meters

Marc Martin
Administrator
Well you are just listening for inteference... static, noise, buzzing that is not a radio station. Sometimes that noise affects the entire spectrum of the dial, in other cases it only affects some parts of the dial. For example, I would expect it to produce noise when near a computer monitor or most LED light bulbs.
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Re: Ill in new house but nothing showing on my meters

Sally
Thank you. I'm fine around sources like that in general, so I need to find out what's different in this property.
Thank you again.
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Re: Ill in new house but nothing showing on my meters

Catherine
In reply to this post by Sally
I find that my symptoms get a lot worse when other factors are in play:

Noise - many people with ES are sensitive to noise.  I moved into a new house and had to move out 4 weeks later because I was experiencing symptoms that felt like ES but were caused by traffic noise.

VOCs - lots of new houses have high levels of VOCs from floor coverings, paint etc.  I have to put all new furniture etc in the attic for 3 months to outgas before using it.

Mould - may be visible or out of sight.  It exacerbates symptoms for many people.
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Re: Ill in new house but nothing showing on my meters

Sally
Thank you. Sorry to hear you've experienced that. It's very quiet here, and the house hasn't been refurbished in years and meters show low VOCs / formaldehyde. No indication of mould or damp but I'm going to do preliminary tests to get a better idea anyway.
Thanks again!