Wiring errors

Thank you!  I have the Trifield meter.  So just use the magnetic one, right?

Here's another attempt to extract wiring error info from Bruce McCreary's article "How to Avoid or Cope with Electromagnetic Sensitivity" and hopefully provide a workable link to it below.

..."In 1989 after becoming MCS disabled from a sick building, I built a custom home with an interior of well tolerated and well-tested unpainted Portland cement plaster.  Nonetheless, after moving in I had a serious health crash.  I consulted with the top names in Environmental Medicine.  Not one suggested that I check the home for elevated magnetic fields.

Later I found out that my home had a wiring error, the most simple and common type of error. Two different circuits’ neutral (white) wires were connected together at a ceiling light electrical box and caused magnetic field levels around 6-8 milligauss in the living room when lights were on in that room. So the first winter when lights were on more I went downhill badly, and developed viral encephalitis, epilepsy, and multple sclerosis. The next winter brought similar declines.  I still didn’t know anything about magnetic fields and without a clue concerning the cause of my problems, developed more and more brain lesions (holes). I had been struggling with constant complex partial seizures, triggered by vertigo. Even simple walking or bending tasks around the house had become extremely difficult. I was in extreme pain, and there were no medical options left.

MCS/ES disability activist Susan Molloy came to visit the following fall and stuck a meter in my face out in my shop.  At the height of my head it showed 30 milligauss, from a low hanging fluorescent light. Even knowing that I’d never been able to “test” for provocation/neutralization allergy shots under fluorescent lights, I’d installed them in my shop.  “No wonder you’re sick, you dummy!” she said.

Still clinging to my denial that magnetic fields could be a problem, the next day I went out to my shop and didn’t turn on the fluorescent lights.  I had previously only been able to work with my hands only with great difficulty for 30 minutes a day then would have to go back to bed in pain.  With the fluorescents off, I forgot the time and when I looked up 3 hours later, I felt as good or better than when I’d started. This set me on a path of EMF reduction throughout my home.

This soon stopped my decline and I was relatively stable for a change. My severe headaches slowly lessened. The more I lowered my home EMFs, slowly but surely, the better I became.  If she had not shown me the meter it would have been only a couple years until I would have been in a nursing home or worse. So let me say it clearly and without exaggeration: Susie saved my life by showing me a meter and puncturing my denial.  With this chapter on ES I hope to do the same for some others.

....The first step is to determine the “background” level of magnetic fields around your home, caused by the power lines, and by the neutral current through the earth produced by our country’s unfortunate Wye power distribution system. ...You should be able to achieve your home site’s ambient level within the whole house, (except for hot spots listed below)(my insert - some of these are water heaters, refrigerators, dishwashers, HVAC units, power panels - stay about 10 feet away when measuring") 

...Turn on lights in every room and all other commonly used circuits and then take some readings in the living areas of each room. Measure wherever you spend the most time, and especially the bed, and head of the bed.  If you see elevated readings in part of a room or a whole room, you have wiring errors that you can locate and fix at the cost of a wire nut (20 cents) and maybe 3 hours of your time.

Fixing Wiring Errors in Your Home

According to EPRI published data, the average home has 2-3 wiring errors, which generate significantly elevated power line frequency magnetic fields. This means that it's quite likely that you can reduce your magnetic field exposure by finding and correcting these simple errors.

How difficult is it to fix wiring errors? It is time consuming, but does not involve any expensive wiring changes. The only tools required are a 4-cell battery box, two alligator clip leads and a Volt-Ohm-Meter (VOM) from Radio Shack. These errors are most commonly the accidental connection of two different circuits’ white wires (neutrals) together. This is indicated on the magnetic field meter as abnormally high readings in certain rooms when the lights or other electrical loads are on.

If you understand basic house wiring, you can do this yourself. If you don’t, and don’t feel that you can learn it, find a competent electrician or technician, or a handyperson who knows house wiring.  I will now walk you through the process so you or your helper can understand it.

It is easiest to locate the source of the problem by using an Ohm meter (VOM) with a continuity test beeper at the power panel. This type of meter is $5-$25. Each neutral wire is continuity tested (beeps if low resistance) to each other neutral, after removing them all from the neutral buss (bare copper wires in a long bar with screws). The offending wires will beep when tested. Label each pair of white wires that beeped, because they are mistakenly connected together somewhere in the house. Then, trace each neutral (white) wire back in the panel to its black mate, and to the corresponding labeled circuit breaker.  By reading the labels on the circuit breaker, we now know which two circuits’ neutrals (white wires) are accidentally connected.  We’ll call this accidental connection of two circuits neutrals the “neutral short,” and pretend that we’ve only got one to find, even though some homes will have 2 or 3 pairs of these “two neutral circuits connected” wiring errors. Turn off the circuit breakers to these two circuits.

Now for the time consuming part.  Look for walls in common with the two circuits.  Now open up every box in the common wall, and look for boxes with at least 3 (usually 4 or more) Romex cables - that would be 3 or more white wires in a plastic wire nut. Take off the wire nut and separate the neutrals. Now do a continuity check for your pair of neutrals back at the power panel. If you don’t get a beep, you’ve found it! To identify which white wire is which, I hook a 4-cell battery pack from Radio Shack to one of the suspect neutrals (white wires) back at the power panel, connecting the negative lead to the ground buss. Using the VOM meter set to DC Volts, I can then identify the white wire with 6 Volts DC. I then move the battery connection to the other wire, and confirm it in the box.  It is then easy to study how the two circuits go through the box, and separate their neutrals with an extra wire nut.

There! Now we’ve found and fixed your wiring error, and the large magnetic fields in that area of the house will be gone. This “all neutrals in one big wire nut” type of problem is the most common wiring error."

----Bruce told us to use a Radio Shack 12-586 AM cheap portable radio instead of an Ohm meter. Put the radio on AM off-station and try listening for "dirty electricity" going from the upper to lower band seeing where you can hear it the loudest.  If you should hire an electrician to fix wiring errors they may not know what you're talking.  A friend hired an electrician to check for and fix wiring errors and he didn't know what she was talking about because the electrical in her house appeared in good working order, so she referred him to Bruce's instructions.

 Bruce_McCreary_ES_doc.doc

Thanks Fog Top :)

I'm so symptomatic when I'm on the computer and this information is kinda over  my head, but I'll reread it later and try to make sense of it.  Thanks for all the effort in posting this :)

I don't have a printer :/

And thanks for the alphasmart rec....I had no idea that existed!  :)