Please help design an EMF-safe off grid home...

Hey everyone,

I've wanted to go off-grid for some time now. Financially, it's still out of reach, but I will do it some day, hopefully within a couple of years; I don't see much point in sticking around in the suburbs in a larger than necessary house, relying on an AC power supply of questionable cleanliness andreliability. Besides, off grid implies, for me, rural, and with enough scouting around, better RF-wise.

So - I want to build (with help of course!) a small, year-round, sustainable off-grid home, on wheels. I'm one person, single (not forever, I hope!),and don't take up a lot of space, so I'm probably looking at 150 to 200 square feet, with a loft upstairs for sleeping in, thus freeing up room downstairs. A design will probably be loosely based on the models of the Tumbleweed house company, you can see an example at: http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/houses/fencl/
(Those prices, BTW, are for them to build it, not build-it-yourself).

Now, going off grid means no constant AC current running through the house - awesome. But from an EMF standpoint, I imagine the design and implementation offers its own unique considerations and challenges, which I hope you all can help me with.

The first which I think should be addressed is solar power. Obviously, my electricity is going to have to come from somewhere, and that primary source will be solar panels and a battery bank. The first thing I'm confused about is placement of the panels. Many houses mount them on the roof - however, in house designs like this, the roof is directly above the loft, and therefore above the sleeping area. Do the solar panels or the wires which run to the batteries emit anything to be concerned about so close to where you spend your time sleeping? And is there a way to address this?

The second part of solar which I'm unclear about is inverters: Someone (Bill Bruno, I think) may have said that solar panels don't necessarily use inverters, but current controllers, and the problem with them is that many controllers use PWM (pulse width modulation) - though, Bill pointed a popular model out which is PWM-free. However, all the off-grid designs I've seen specifically mention inverters. Why? Do I understand that an inverter is used to change the DC to AC? Or is it something else?

And would I need an inverter if all I'm running are DC powered things: a DCpowered computer, LED light bulbs, a pump for running water and a small motor to push hot air from a small propane marine heater as a furnace, and perhaps a small venting fan for a composting toilet?

If an inverter is necessary for these things, how does one go about filtering it (because if I understand correctly, the problem with inverters is thedirty frequencies they produce). On that note, I did see one inverter which claimed to produce a "pure sine wave" of AC power: http://www.realgoods.com/product/id/1008161.do

But again, this seems like something only to convert DC to AC (I guess if people want to run AC powered appliances in an off grid home?) Do you think such an inverter would be a good option to install in order to allow for ACpowered things to be run as a possibility?

Gah, the whole inverter thing really confuses me.

Oh - are there any unique considerations if I were to implement a small wind turbine, too? And would the wattage of the solar setup make a difference?
_____________________________________

Moving on from that, comes the question of wiring. If I'm talking about everything using DC, are there any considerations for wiring to take into account? Shielded, magnetically, electrically, or anything?

As for motors: Bill, you explained why DC motors may not be good because they convert DC to AC using brushes or chips, if they're brushless, but both can produce dirty AC. What about the kind of motors I'm talking about using - for an in house water pump/on demand propane based hot water heater, possibly forced air furnace, and maybe a small motor for a composting toilet's venting system - are these all going to convert DC to AC, or is it designdependent? And if they do convert, either by brushes or chips, can they befiltered, or is it not something to worry about for occasional use, or if I'm far away from them?

Should I try to have each motor on a separate circuit? (If there is such a thing as separate circuits with a DC system?)

One thing I've noticed in my mobile home (trailer) is that the water pump and the fan for the furnace is that when the water pump runs, there's a strong magnetic field a few feet away from it, in the floor of the trailer, andperhaps another spot, too. With the furnace, there's, unsurprisingly a magnetic field in close proximity to it, but also a few hotspots in walls farther away - I simply avoid these areas when it's running, but I wonder why that happens - is it simply from so much electricity, even DC, being used to drive the motors? How can one avoid this: by shielding the motors with mumetal, or shielding the wires, or what?

Also - if the house had copper pipes for running water - could a jumping ofa magnetic field from a pump motor onto the pipes be prevented by installing a dielectric coupler between the motor and the piping, and encasing the motor in mu metal (or could that pose an overheating risk)?

Regarding lights: I think LEDs are the good choice (not CFLs, of course!) for low energy and long life. Do we know which LEDs have a good design? I thought I read that some may have a ballast, or something like that?
_____________________________________

Now, onto another biggie: Building materials. Obviously, I want to make this thing as green as possible, ie, safe and healthy. No faux wood, formaldehyde, harsh plastics and things I have to wait two decades for to outgas! The designs I've looked at are all made of wood. I like wood. It's warm, it's natural. However, it offers little in the way of RF protection. Of course, I'm planning to go where the least RF is, but I want to be prepared for my living space not to let any in, regardless of that fact. My currenttrailer is, like all trailers, clad in aluminum. It's great for not letting RF in, and I can't say it bothered me much, but for a new structure, I don't really think I want to live in a metal box. Which if the following options do you think would be best to incorporate into a wooden structure?:

-Aluminum mesh
-"Dragon Board"
-Carbon paint
-Any other ideas?

The aluminum mesh would be reflective. The dragon board (what is it, magnesium oxide, or something like that?) and the carbon paint may absorb, rather than reflect - is that correct? Regarding absorbing RF - is there a "saturation point", where the material fails to absorb any more and begins to let it in? I'm still puzzled about this...

Do you forsee a problem with a metal roof, however? Some of the designs usethis, maybe for simplicity, durability and to keep down the cost. What ifsolar panels were mounted on it?

If there is some metal incorporated into the walls, in the form of mesh, oranything else conductive, I would assume that it'd be wise to attach a good grounding cable to the structure and drive it deep into the ground to drain away any electrical fields, yes?
_____________________________________

Well folks, that's all I can think of for now. I know this is a rather long message, but I need to know the best way to go about this. I think it can be done, I'm just not clear on how, yet. Thanks for all your help, and if there's anything I may have overlooked, please let me know. Many thanks!

R.

In a message dated 4/4/2009 8:07:28 P.M. GMT Daylight Time,
[hidden email] writes:

Well folks, that's all I can think of for now. I know this is a rather long
message, but I need to know the best way to go about this. I think it can be
done, I'm just not clear on how, yet. Thanks for all your help, and if
there's anything I may have overlooked, please let me know. Many thanks!

R.



Richard looks like you could write a book on the subject I am going to print
this one off, - May you wheels run clean and free.

pAUL uk


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Cheers,

And I hope my wheels run clean and free (though my name isn't Richard, ha ha).

It may look like I can write a book on this topic, but so far I've got a cover and a lot of blank pages! That's why I still need a lot of advice on how to do this...

R.

--- In [hidden email], paulpjc@... wrote:

Hi, Rticle,
 
It took me awhile to remember where I had seen some of the info you are looking for.  3 years ago I was looking into renovating an airstream and TadTaylor, a fellow MCSer, who renovated rvs had some info online about how to use solar panels so as not to react if you had es.  Tad died in 2006, just after I had looked into this, but some of his info might live on, online (the sites of his that I formerly had, tho, have been closed).  This is a site his son now has: 
 
http://www.healthy-homes.com/index.htm 
 
This site has a fraction of the info I had regarding renovating rvs 3 yearsago.  If I remember correctly,  Tad said to attach the solar energy inverter (?I forget the terminology--the part that converts and stores solar power) to the OUTSIDE bumper of the rv on one of the ends, as far away from the living space as possible.  He liked to put it on the front bedroom end, because he said he could further shield the closet, which he thenput on the front end.  (But I had at the time some reservations about it still being so close to the bed; which is why I remember this.)  Sorry, that is very sketchy info--can't remember more, tho you might find this info floating around on an mcs or rv forum site somewhere if you do an indepth search of it online.
 
I would ask around mcs forums and rv forums if anyone has a copy of his rv renovation book (as it is now sold for a whopping $250 on his son's online site!  If I recall correctly you could buy it 3 years ago for about $70, but I could be wrong.)  He was the rv guy to go to when he was alive--knew them inside and out--and knew all the best ways to design the systems.  Dr Rae's patient assistant from Dallas Environmental Health clinic was the one who gave me his name and phone number.  I have read reviews online where other MCSers used the book to renovate rvs--they all had good things to say about it. 
 
Also it is not necessarily the case that the country is better es-wise.  Cell and microwave towers proliferate here in the country too.  Unless you are in a sheltered area (surrounded by either land or evergreen trees), the towers are more powerful in the country and you have to live alot further away from them, imo.  There are many places here where I can see a halfdozen and often more cell/microwave towers from standing at one spot--all on mountain ridges off in a distance--surrounding me.  The combined effect of these can be quite bad, even tho they are miles away.  So, remember that in the country you might need to be much further away than you'd need to be in a town.  The best place I found here was actually on the highest point in Pa--Mt Davis.  But you had to go thru horrible emfs to get there.  Conventional wisdom was this was not going to be a good area, but when I got there I found that all the cell towers ringed Mt Davis, pointing
down and to the outside surrounding areas! 
 
This is probably not info you are looking for, but I offer it more for others who are wondering if rving might be a way to go.  If you wanted to go really light and small at first, my hubby and I thought of trying just a "tear-drop" camper--to see how we liked rving (we were thinking of living full time in a 30-36 ft rv, but didn't know whether we wanted to commit). We thought rving might give us an opportunity to try out other areas locally and nationally, es-wise.  You can buy kits for these for under $5000or a new one already built for $11,000:
 
http://www.campingearth.com/teardrop/
 
http://www.tab-rv.com/   (I like the one with the kitchen outside--don't think I'd personally want the cooking smells confined in such a small space.)
 
Good luck; hope it works out for you,
Diane
 


--- On Sat, 4/4/09, rticleone <[hidden email]> wrote:

From: rticleone <[hidden email]>
Subject: [eSens] Please help design an EMF-safe off grid home...
To: [hidden email]
Date: Saturday, April 4, 2009, 3:00 PM






Hey everyone,

I've wanted to go off-grid for some time now. Financially, it's still out of reach, but I will do it some day, hopefully within a couple of years; I don't see much point in sticking around in the suburbs in a larger than necessary house, relying on an AC power supply of questionable cleanliness and reliability. Besides, off grid implies, for me, rural, and with enough scouting around, better RF-wise.

So - I want to build (with help of course!) a small, year-round, sustainable off-grid home, on wheels. I'm one person, single (not forever, I hope!), and don't take up a lot of space, so I'm probably looking at 150 to 200 square feet, with a loft upstairs for sleeping in, thus freeing up room downstairs. A design will probably be loosely based on the models of the Tumbleweed house company, you can see an example at: http://www.tumblewe edhouses. com/houses/ fencl/
(Those prices, BTW, are for them to build it, not build-it-yourself) .

Now, going off grid means no constant AC current running through the house - awesome. But from an EMF standpoint, I imagine the design and implementation offers its own unique considerations and challenges, which I hope you all can help me with.

The first which I think should be addressed is solar power. Obviously, my electricity is going to have to come from somewhere, and that primary sourcewill be solar panels and a battery bank. The first thing I'm confused about is placement of the panels. Many houses mount them on the roof - however,in house designs like this, the roof is directly above the loft, and therefore above the sleeping area. Do the solar panels or the wires which run tothe batteries emit anything to be concerned about so close to where you spend your time sleeping? And is there a way to address this?

The second part of solar which I'm unclear about is inverters: Someone (Bill Bruno, I think) may have said that solar panels don't necessarily use inverters, but current controllers, and the problem with them is that many controllers use PWM (pulse width modulation) - though, Bill pointed a popular model out which is PWM-free. However, all the off-grid designs I've seen specifically mention inverters. Why? Do I understand that an inverter is usedto change the DC to AC? Or is it something else?

And would I need an inverter if all I'm running are DC powered things: a DCpowered computer, LED light bulbs, a pump for running water and a small motor to push hot air from a small propane marine heater as a furnace, and perhaps a small venting fan for a composting toilet?

If an inverter is necessary for these things, how does one go about filtering it (because if I understand correctly, the problem with inverters is thedirty frequencies they produce). On that note, I did see one inverter which claimed to produce a "pure sine wave" of AC power: http://www.realgood s.com/product/ id/1008161. do

But again, this seems like something only to convert DC to AC (I guess if people want to run AC powered appliances in an off grid home?) Do you think such an inverter would be a good option to install in order to allow for ACpowered things to be run as a possibility?

Gah, the whole inverter thing really confuses me.

Oh - are there any unique considerations if I were to implement a small wind turbine, too? And would the wattage of the solar setup make a difference?
____________ _________ _________ _______

Moving on from that, comes the question of wiring. If I'm talking about everything using DC, are there any considerations for wiring to take into account? Shielded, magnetically, electrically, or anything?

As for motors: Bill, you explained why DC motors may not be good because they convert DC to AC using brushes or chips, if they're brushless, but both can produce dirty AC. What about the kind of motors I'm talking about using- for an in house water pump/on demand propane based hot water heater, possibly forced air furnace, and maybe a small motor for a composting toilet'sventing system - are these all going to convert DC to AC, or is it design dependent? And if they do convert, either by brushes or chips, can they be filtered, or is it not something to worry about for occasional use, or if I'm far away from them?

Should I try to have each motor on a separate circuit? (If there is such a thing as separate circuits with a DC system?)

One thing I've noticed in my mobile home (trailer) is that the water pump and the fan for the furnace is that when the water pump runs, there's a strong magnetic field a few feet away from it, in the floor of the trailer, andperhaps another spot, too. With the furnace, there's, unsurprisingly a magnetic field in close proximity to it, but also a few hotspots in walls farther away - I simply avoid these areas when it's running, but I wonder why that happens - is it simply from so much electricity, even DC, being used todrive the motors? How can one avoid this: by shielding the motors with mu metal, or shielding the wires, or what?

Also - if the house had copper pipes for running water - could a jumping ofa magnetic field from a pump motor onto the pipes be prevented by installing a dielectric coupler between the motor and the piping, and encasing the motor in mu metal (or could that pose an overheating risk)?

Regarding lights: I think LEDs are the good choice (not CFLs, of course!) for low energy and long life. Do we know which LEDs have a good design? I thought I read that some may have a ballast, or something like that?
____________ _________ _________ _______

Now, onto another biggie: Building materials. Obviously, I want to make this thing as green as possible, ie, safe and healthy. No faux wood, formaldehyde, harsh plastics and things I have to wait two decades for to outgas! The designs I've looked at are all made of wood. I like wood. It's warm, it'snatural. However, it offers little in the way of RF protection. Of course,I'm planning to go where the least RF is, but I want to be prepared for myliving space not to let any in, regardless of that fact. My current trailer is, like all trailers, clad in aluminum. It's great for not letting RF in, and I can't say it bothered me much, but for a new structure, I don't really think I want to live in a metal box. Which if the following options do you think would be best to incorporate into a wooden structure?:

-Aluminum mesh
-"Dragon Board"
-Carbon paint
-Any other ideas?

The aluminum mesh would be reflective. The dragon board (what is it, magnesium oxide, or something like that?) and the carbon paint may absorb, ratherthan reflect - is that correct? Regarding absorbing RF - is there a "saturation point", where the material fails to absorb any more and begins to letit in? I'm still puzzled about this...

Do you forsee a problem with a metal roof, however? Some of the designs usethis, maybe for simplicity, durability and to keep down the cost. What if solar panels were mounted on it?

If there is some metal incorporated into the walls, in the form of mesh, oranything else conductive, I would assume that it'd be wise to attach a good grounding cable to the structure and drive it deep into the ground to drain away any electrical fields, yes?
____________ _________ _________ _______

Well folks, that's all I can think of for now. I know this is a rather longmessage, but I need to know the best way to go about this. I think it can be done, I'm just not clear on how, yet. Thanks for all your help, and if there's anything I may have overlooked, please let me know. Many thanks!

R.

















     

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

In a message dated 4/7/2009 10:22:45 P.M. GMT Daylight Time,
[hidden email] writes:

I like the one with the kitchen outside--don'I like the one with the
kitchen outside--don'<WBR>t think I'd personally want t

Good luck; hope it works out for you,
Diane



You need a raw food diet !

PUK


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Lol, Paul,
 
You don't need an oven or stove, Paul???  Give me an example of your daily diet--one day--breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, please.  (Just want to know what I'd be in for.)  I don't think I could give up my dairy and grains.  I am gf, but I mean the grains which are not gf.
 
Thanks,
Diane

--- On Wed, 4/8/09, [hidden email] <[hidden email]> wrote:

From: [hidden email] <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [eSens] Please help design an EMF-safe off grid home...
To: [hidden email]
Date: Wednesday, April 8, 2009, 4:49 AM







In a message dated 4/7/2009 10:22:45 P.M. GMT Daylight Time,
evie15422@yahoo. com writes:

I like the one with the kitchen outside--don' I like the one with the
kitchen outside--don' <WBR>t think I'd personally want t

Good luck; hope it works out for you,
Diane

You need a raw food diet !

PUK

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

















     

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]