Shocking News! I was being electrified in my own bed and did not know it. I was surprised to hear it, but it certainly explained why we had problems getting up in the morning. This we recently found out, thanks to an investigation by a building biologist. I had asked him to look into the air quality of our Amsterdam home from the twenties, because we regularly woke up sneezing and still tired. Could our indoor climate be the cause of that, we wondered?
Well, it definitely is affecting our health. At the express advice of the building biologist, he checked the radiation levels in and around our house as well as the air quality. It led to quite a discovery with the result that we can finally unwind and sleep. What do you know about your indoor climate? How healthy is it? If you want to know what we have discovered, read on.
Being flashlight at night?
Until recently, an electrical charge of 3 volts, similar to that of two AA batteries, coursed through my body in bed. Had I been a flashlight, I would have enlightened our bedroom :), but my partner did not complain about that. My body did complain, though, and that is not surprising when you consider that our muscles also react to small electrical impulses. Put a muscle under an electrical charge and it contracts, without it it can relax again. In addition to the 3 volts on the bed, I got an extra charge of 1.5 volts whenever my feet touched the radiator. So my sleep was anything but relaxed while every body needs those hours of relaxation to recover and be fit for a new day. I am very happy I followed the advice of the building biologist and also had the radiation levels measured. Because you can neither see nor smell radiation while the impact is substantial.
Indoor climate tested for radiation
The report of the building biologist was rather shocking. Measurements in the house and in the garden showed that everything was exposed to an electrical charge of at least 1.5 volts. The follow-up questions are: How is that possible? Where does that charge come from? I understood that the culprit probably was the electrical installation, because wires are running everywhere in every home for sockets, lights, switches and other electrical items. We shut down all the different electrical distribution groups in our meter cupboard. This had no effect. Then we went a step further and disconnected the main supply from the utility company. Then all electrical charge in the house and garden was gone! The days after I monitored what happened while sleeping with the main switch off at night. The downside is that the freezer defrosts and all lights and heating cease to work. And of course my cell phone as an alarm clock close to my head also creates undesirable radiation.
The cause of all charges
With the main power off, we slept a lot more relaxed. So it really worked and stressed the importance of knowing how to keep your bed from getting electrically charged. And my partner suddenly stopped having the allergic sneezing responses every morning… How come the voltage in our bedroom was so high anyway? Far higher than in other rooms in the house? The explanation is quite simple. Your electrical installation generates an electromagnetic field and that field causes large metal objects to become charged, as our Auping bedsprings and radiator. This creates a difference in voltage with the environment which was discharged through our bodies!
Therefore, proper grounding of your heating system and electrical installation in your home is extremely important so that the voltage is drained into the soil and not in your body. Even more important is that installations cannot conduct an electrical charge to radiators and certainly not to bedsprings. The building biologist also told us that heating coils of electric blankets or waterbeds have the same effect if you leave them on at night, far more so than a mobile phone. Surprising new knowledge that did not directly present the solution for our problem, though.
Voltage discharged
What about the impact of our new smart energy meter? Could that be a cause? But the new meter does the same as old one, it displays and controls our energy consumption. Maybe the earth switches are the problem? We had them replaced by the officially certified ones, but no, nothing.
Could the high voltage have something to do with the new pipeline, I wondered? Along the whole street the copper gas lines were recently replaced by plastic pipes. And in our home the grounding had been attached to that same pipeline. A measurement showed the grounding was reasonable, it met the requirements, but could definitely be better. Therefore, we had the installer connect a steel grounding prong in the ground to our installations. That made a big difference. The voltage in the garden was gone, the house fell to 0.4 V (75 % less), the bed fell to 0.5 V (85 % less) and when I touched the radiator from the bed the voltage fell even further.
What still caused an electrical charge in the house was the first group in the meter cupboard. We are going to adjust that so vital devices like the freezer, the fridge and our central heating are no longer fed by that group. Then we can always choose to switch the first group off overnight. So, if I am not sleeping well now, at least I know my indoor climate is not the cause. I am very happy the climate is so much better now.
Become a master of your own indoor climate!
Intervening in your indoor climate starts with realizing and discovering how it is negatively affecting your health. You will detect the causes, search for solutions and take action. At least if you are the owner of the property, as we are. But if you are renting a property, the landlord owns everything that is connected to the home or premises, including the installations. Does that make him responsible for your health as a tenant? As far as radiation is concerned it is not recorded anywhere. So how do you realize a healthy indoor climate? I am curious about your experiences and ideas.
I think the solution is simple, although current rules and regulations offer to little room to maneuver. Give the user the responsibility and authority for the total fit out and with that his own indoor climate. Ensure that the indoor climate is properly monitored, for example by the utility company. Then the owner need only invest in value fixed and unmovable components like the foundation, the skeleton, the roof and facade. As the user you can arrange for own living and working environment according to your own needs, time and time again. That is how you become master of your own indoor climate.
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To your health and wellbeing,
Remko Zuidema
