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Energy-Wise Lighting Tips CONSIDER FLUORESCENTS Fluorescent lighting is now available in over 200 colors, ranging from the warm white tones of incandescent light to cool white tones similar to daylight. Energy-efficient fluorescents use one-fifth to one-third the electricity of a comparably bright incandescent bulb and last 10-20 times longer. SWITCH YOUR SWITCHES Dimmers allow you to reduce lighting when you don't need it, which saves both energy and light bulbs. Occupancy sensors turn lights off after you leave the room or shut the closet door -- even if you forget. MOVE TO MOTION DETECTORS These are great for outside lighting. The light shuts off when not needed.
LIGHT IN LAYERS Those lighting new homes for the first time might consider a less is more approach. Think of lighting in layers. Start with the spots where lights are most important -- where tasks are performed, like reading. Don't accent everything in the living room, just the important stuff. This allows a thinning of lights without the house looking dark and will save energy.
ADD CEILING FANS They are economical and energy efficient, utilizing about the same energy as a 100 watt light bulb. Ceiling fans don't actually lower the temperature of a room like an air conditioner. But by spinning the air, they create a wind chill effect that makes you feel up to eight degrees cooler. Running a ceiling fan costs about one cent per hour, or pennies/day, vs. the several dollars/day to run an air conditioner. Fans can be used alone or in conjunction with an air conditioner. When used with an air conditioner, the thermostat setting can then be raised, resulting in reduced cooling costs of 40% or more. Simply raising a thermostat setting two degrees will save about 14% on energy consumption. Studies show that setting ceiling fans to spin in a counter-clockwise pattern, will save as much as 40% off summer cooling bills -- without sweltering. Simply set the thermostat a few degrees higher and flip on the fan. In the winter, ceiling fans move warm air back to the center of the room, pushing it down from the ceiling and helping homeowners save as much as 10% on their heating bills. Simply switch the direction of the blades to spin clockwise and turn on the fan.
GET EXPERT ADVICE The lighting specialists at JXT Company can help you compare light sources, choose bulbs and cut your energy costs.
Top Tips for Lighting Dining Rooms
FIRST STEP: A chandelier in the middle of the room defines the space. Choose that fixture first, then work out with accent lights.
HANGING AROUND: Choose a chandelier with a diameter 12" less than width of table. The bottom of chandelier should be 30" above table.
TALL ORDERS: For ceilings nine feet or higher, consider a two-tier style chandelier to fill the space from the fixture's top to the ceiling.
DIMMER SHIMMER: Always use a dimmer on dining room lights. Light becomes warmer as it is dimmed.
HOME WORK: For those who use the dining room as a study area, consider bringing in a portable study lamp to brighten up the workspace. Overhead lighting may work well for general studies, but in depth or close work demands more light.
GET SMART: So-called "smart" dimmers, driven by microprocessors offer convenience. When you have several layers of light, smart dimmers can be set to various ambiences. Press one button for dining, another for lighting up homework, another for party-time.
THE LAYERED LOOK: Use multiple layers of light in the dining room. Chandeliers provide the central focus. Accent lights on either side of the chandelier and at the room's perimeter brighten things up. Accessory lights on and/or over other furniture pieces fill in the background.
TABLE THIS: Table lamps add a soft, humanizing touch to a dining room. Display them on a buffet or breakfront. ****************************************************************** | Electrical Pollution Solutions | People exposed to excessive "dirty" power may develop radio wave sickness. Clean power enters the home at 60 Hz. Electrical pollution is 60 Hz electricity polluted with high frequency signals or "dirty" power flowing on the wires and through the earth. | Symptoms of Radio Wave Sickness Neurological: headaches, dizziness, nausea, difficulty concentrating, memory loss, irritability, depression, anxiety, insomnia, fatigue, weakness, tremors, muscle spasms, numbness, tingling, altered reflexes, muscle and joint paint, leg/foot pain, "Flu-like" symptoms, fever. More severe reactions can include seizures, paralysis, psychosis and stroke. - Cardiac: palpitations, arrhythmias, pain or pressure in the chest, low or high blood pressure, slow or fast heart rate, shortness of breath.
- Respiratory: sinusitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma.
- Dermatological: skin rash, itching, burning, facial flushing.
- Ophthalmologic: pain or burning in the eyes, pressure in/behind the eyes, deteriorating vision, floaters, cataracts.
- Others: digestive problems; abdominal pain; enlarged thyroid, testicular/ovarian pain; dryness of lips, tongue, mouth, eyes; great thirst; dehydration; nosebleeds; internal bleeding; altered sugar metabolism; immune abnormalities; redistribution of metals within the body; hair loss; pain in the teeth; deteriorating fillings; impaired sense of smell; ringing in the ears.
Please follow the initial steps in both the electrical pollution section and the transmitted radiofrequency radiation section in order since they are arranged from most to least important. Many of the later steps will not work if the first steps are not taken first. Good luck! Steps to reduce your exposure to high frequencies at home from Electrical Pollution - Turn off or unplug all devices that repel or kill deer, rodents, mosquitos, or anything else by emitting frequencies. (We often test devices on animals to see if they are good for humans. The very effects these devices are designed for are telling you that they are not safe for people.)
- Unplug or turn off any other devices that claim to generate frequencies. (People with radiofrequency sickness need less exposure not more. Individual response to individual frequencies varies widely and there is far more likelihood of a negative effect than a positive one, in spite of claims to the contrary. Artificial sources claiming to generate the earth's magnetic field can also be dangerous and unnecessary- the earth's field is still there. Read Dr. Neil Cherry's paper "Cardiac Effects of Natural and Artificial EMR" for information about the profound effect the earth's natural electromagnetic environment can have on cardiac function.)
- Have an electrician remove dimmer switches and halogen lights. If you want mood lighting, use three-way lights. Unlike with dimmer switches, you will save electricity on the low settings.
- Have an electrician bypass or remove variable speed frequency drives (VSFD) where possible. Without appropriate filters they are very bad sources of high frequencies. If you have a VSFD on your motors in your heating and/or cooling system, it can easily be bypassed by the service person. The motor would then just run at high speed. Little efficiency is lost when this is done on a heating or cooling system. Energy efficient washing machines often have variable speed motors and thus require at least one filter.
- Touch lamps, plasma TVs, most compact fluorescent bulbs, fluorescent lights with electronic ballasts, some full-spectrum lights, and wireless plug-in telephone jacks are very bad sources of high frequencies and are best removed.
- Remove flashers from decorative lighting. Each on or off event results in a high frequency transient.
- Check if you have the new or old style microwave. The old style turned the microwave signal on and off in order to reduce the power. The new style essentially has a dimmer switch on the microwave beam turning the power down. It causes tremendously dirty power. If you have a new style microwave, getting rid of it is the best solution. Next best is to get a number of filters to be used right at the microwave and in outlets on that circuit, so the high frequencies do not get onto the wiring all over the house.
- Only use laptops on battery. Recharge them when you are not around. They generate a large amount of "dirty" power and the transformer on the charging cord generates a very large field.
- Eliminate exposure to transmitted radiofrequencies. See "Non-Grid Sources of Exposure to High Frequencies" below.
- Use a Microsurge Meter to check for other polluting or malfunctioning electrical devices. (While checking readings, keep in mind that readings which change quickly are worse than steady readings. The faster and greater the change, the worse they are.)
- Be sure to check high speed internet routers. (A handful of malfunctioning routers have been found that caused incredibly bad electrical pollution levels.)
- If one or more consumer products are responsible for making you ill, please report them to the Consumer Product Safety Commission at 1-800-638-2772 or a href="http://www.cpsc.gov">http://www.cpsc.gov. Be prepared with the product name, model and/or serial number, and the symptoms it causes. These dangerous consumer products will not be either removed from shelves or re-engineered unless complaints are filed.
- Eliminate sources of arcing (a source of very high frequencies):
- Have an electrician inspect for and eliminate loose or poor connections;
- Have the utility or a professional trim branches bumping or touching overhead wires (Alliant Energy even states in their leaflet entitled "Energy Basics: Power Surges" that "An external power surge, stemming from outside your home, is most commonly caused by a tree limb touching a power line...");
- Have your electrician replace poorly made switches, fixtures, and appliances.
- Have your utility replace split-bolt connectors with crimp-on connectors, if they have split-bolt connectors on your line. (If you have split-bolt connectors on line you own, you should have an electrician replace those as well.) Utilities have not installed split-bolt connectors in quite awhile because they have a tendency to loosen up and arc as time passes. Even crimp-on connectors in high stress areas may need periodic re-crimping.
- Have your electrician make sure the wire between the meter and your electrical box is large enough and in good shape. If it is too small, it is a bottleneck for high frequencies and a fire hazard.
- Plug in high frequency filters. Approximately 20 Graham/Stetzer filters are needed for the average house. They should be plugged in near sources of high frequencies, as well as, frequently used electrical appliances. (Some devices generate pollution that the capacitor will lower at the receptical, but will not lower at the device. This is a particular concern when people are close to the device, as they are with hairdryers, sewing machines, and low voltage halogen desk and reading lamps.) A couple should be plugged into outlets installed off of both A and B phases next to the main service box. (Have your electrician use properly rated stranded wire to wire the outlets for maximum filter effectiveness.) The rest should be scattered throughout the house. If improvement occurs only slowly, more filters may be necessary. If way too few are installed initially, no difference may be observed, so it is very important to put in sufficient quantity from the start.
Have a plumber install a PVC pipe between the house pipes and the water/sewer system, which has become an alternate return path for electricity. - Have the phone company install an Radio Frequency (RF) Filter on your phone line. The phone line can conduct the electric utilities ground currents, including high frequencies, since they are both grounded to the same earth.
- Some people have found installing shielded phone wire to be helpful.
- Make sure new electronics come with appropriate harmonic noise filters already installed.
- A caution on old wiring, particularly knob and tube and cloth insulated wiring: This wiring was designed long before modern electronic loads, non-linear loads, were even conceived of. It is not, therefore, designed to be used by them. The high frequencies generated by them can cause overheating, resulting in a fire hazard. (Blown-in insulation touching knob and tube wiring is inherently a fire hazard.) It is important to have an electrician check that the fuses/circuit breakers on old wiring are the appropriate size. People have been known to tire of constantly tripping fuses/breakers and replace them with larger ones instead of re-distributing loads or re-wiring. This is a fire hazard and should be corrected.
- Convince your neighbors to do the same.
Other mitigation measures:
- Walls do not stop electromagnetic fields. Be aware of this when arranging furniture. Sources of electromagnetic fields (EMF) to be aware of as you place your furniture include transformers for electronic gadgets (the box at the end of the cord), televisions, computers, electric clocks (don't put them right next to the head of your bed), fluorescent lights, and your electrical service panel and electrical meter, as well as wires feeding them. You will also want to be aware of where major wire bundles run in the walls of your house and keep the time you spend near them to a minimum. Be aware that televisions and computer screens with cathode ray tubes (CRT) frequently have electromagnetic fields around the sides and back that are as high, or higher, than those in the front. Electric blankets and heating pads should also be avoided, particularly old models. Any electric device will have an electromagnetic field. Both Warning: The Electricity Around You May Be Hazardous to Your Health. How to protect yourself from electromagnetic fields by Ellen Sugarman and Crosscurrents by Robert O. Becker, M.D. have sections discussing risks posed by specific household appliances. Crosscurrents by Robert O. Becker, M.D. also discusses mechanism of action and sundry other interesting items that relate to electromagnetic fields and health. The frequencies on electrical wiring are now high enough that they radiate. This can be measured using a Multidetector II Plus/Profi meter. Lamps and other ungrounded items radiate the worst. Putting a cord with a grounded plug on helps. Lamps and items with the least amount of metal seem to radiate least. Metal shades and reflectors seem to direct and concentrate the radiation.
- Use rubber gloves when washing dishes or working in the sink. Also stand on a non-conductive mat. Both increase the resistance of the path through your body.
- For computers, put aluminum flashing on desktop and connect it to aluminum flashing under chair with a width of aluminum flashing. If there are different pieces, they need to have a good connection such as aluminum rivets between them. The aluminum flashing can be under a plastic mat like ones used to protect the floor from desk chairs. This creates a path to the floor for the contact current to take that is lower resistance than your body.
- Wear conductive socks or copper insoles (at least 2" wide by 16/1000" thick) connected with stranded wire (at least a single 10 gauge wire or 16 gauge lamp cord with both wires connected in parallel). www.lessemf.com sells the socks. Electricity travels through the more conductive pathway this provides, instead of through your body from one foot to the other.
- Shut off non-essential circuits especially while sleeping. This should help you sleep and feel better. (You will get the best results if all circuits in your bedroom or the room you are in are off, including circuits in the walls and floors that may service other rooms. If this is not possible for whatever reason, being aware of where the live wires are and keeping your distance is also effective.)
- Sleep on a wood-framed bed.
- Sleep on a mattress without springs e.g. futon with no box springs.
Sleeping in a Faraday cage may also be helpful. There are conductive cloth versions available. Some people have found them to be helpful. Some people have found that it makes the problem worse. If you get one, get it at a place with a good return policy. I would take all the other steps first.
Other potential grid-related sources of exposure to high frequencies:
- Equipment running at cell towers and strobing lights that are installed without an RF Choke.
- Alternative energy systems installed without filters to clean up the waveform the inverter generates. Consult a power quality specialist.
- Work or school. A specialist should evaluate the power quality and recommend appropriate remediation measures. If that is not a possibility, the portable high frequency filters may be able to provide some relief.
- New watt-hour meters (your electrical rate meter) may include modern circuitry which generates pollution right at the meter. This is especially likely if your meter is one that is designed to be read remotely. If you notice a change in your health after the meter has been changed, check the meter with an AM radio.
What can your utilities do locally to reduce your exposure to "dirty" power? - First and most important: enforce the section of the IEEE 519-1992 that specifies allowable distortion of current and voltage on return current. In other words, the largest polluters will have to clean up their power to certain specifications before returning it to the primary neutral. The utilities would still have to "clean" up after the individual polluters who already meet the specifications, but it would significantly reduce the overloading of the system.
- Make sure that wires at your house and your neighbor's house are connected with crimp-on connectors instead of split-bolt connectors. Split-bolt connectors can be a source of arcing and, therefore, high frequencies.
- Make sure that tree branches are trimmed so they are not touching the wires. Branches rubbing or bumping the wires can cause arcing. (With a little care trees can actually be trimmed away from wires without being mutilated.) Bare wires are more likely to arc, causing high frequencies, than insulated wires.
- Install a primary neutral wire that is 225% the size of the phase wires all the way to the substation and/or filters on the utility side to filter the high frequencies.
- Install transformers with filters built in.
- Make sure that the wires are in good shape. In some areas the wires have overheated so much from being overloaded with high frequencies that the insulation is hanging off in shreds.
The Solution: Both the Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) have identified remedies for "dirty" power and electrical ground currents.
Non-Grid Sources of Exposure to High Frequencies - Spark plugs are a source of exposure to high frequencies in gas cars. The high frequencies from the arcing transmit directly and travel on the car wiring. The firing of the spark plugs can be heard on a properly tuned AM radio. Filters used by audiophiles are helpful for filtering them off. We have a stripped down model truck and disconnected the unnecessary wires. (The wires had been run and connected for all the options we did not get.) We also got a diesel for our primary vehicle. Diesels do not have spark plugs.
- Speakers generate high frequency electromagnetic fields. The high frequency electromagnetic fields are generated by the electromagnet used to move a diapham that creates the sound waves we enjoy listening to. Speakers are usually only a problem when close by, as in vehicles.
Important information about transmitters: Safety standards in the United States are based on tissue heating. The strength of signal required to cause tissue heating was calculated and then a safety factor of 100 was taken. No account was taken for other more subtle biological effects of exposure to high frequencies. Thus, transmitters in the United States (I believe Canada is the same.) transmit at strengths far higher than permitted in countries where the health effects (other than tissue heating) of high frequencies are used as the basis for regulation of signal strength. Please read this letter from the Radiation Protection Division of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding the limitations of the FCC standards. The Salzburg Standards recommend no more the 1 microwatts per meter squared. The Russians recommend no more than 10 microwatts per meter squared. The U.S. allows 1,000 microwatts per meter squared. (Cell phones taking a call have been measured transmitting over 2,000 microwatts per meter squared at 10 feet away.) Our Volkswagon Jetta handbook actually warns against cellphone use in the car due to the potential for the signal to fry the microprocessor. If the signal has the potential to damage electronics during normal usage, what does it do to sensitive biological systems? Incidentally, the phone does ramp up the signal if it is not getting through to the tower enough and due to the blocking effect of the metal in the vehicle, this often happens in motor vehicles. This results in a greater exposure for you and others when a cellphone is used in a vehicle. Antennas transmit in all directions from the antenna. This results in substantial exposure to yourself and others around you (kind of like second hand cigarette smoke) each time you use the phone. There are gadgets being sold that are supposed to shield you or direct the signal. An informal test of one of the signal directors showed it to be useless. Not only that but at 10 feet the signal from the phone was still overloading the meter that read up to 2000 SAR, the highest the phone should output when read directly at the phone. Thus, everyone in the room was exposed to a signal that was stronger than deemed safe. Because people using these "protectors" use their wireless technology more than they otherwise would without real additional protection, these things are dangerous. I think it worthwhile noting that although it is a good idea to use a non-transmitting air-tube headset with your phone to reduce the risk of brain cancer, depending on where the phone is set or worn while doing so, it may increase the risk of cancer in other parts of the body due to microwave exposure. The industry often claims that the phones could not possibly cause brain tumors because most of the signal bounces off of your skull. Your abdomen has no such shield, or at least mine doesn't. Thus, wearing or carrying a phone, with the battery installed, on a belt, in a pocket, or in a purse is likely to result in higher cancer risk in the exposed areas. No one is tracking these cancers related to cellphone use or wireless technology use of any kind. Some cellphones transmit more than others. Smart phones transmit almost continuously in order to update whatever information they have been asked to keep on top of. The more data the more power dense the signal is likely to be. Almost all newer cell phones continuously transmit a GPS signal even when off. In other words, they always transmit a microwave signal. This is a "safety" feature so that you can always be located. However, continuous exposure to microwaves is unsafe. (As an aside, I find it interesting that people are willing to pay to carry around a device that tracks their every movement, but if the government asked them to do so at no charge there would, quite rightly, be an uproar.) According to a news story by NPR the data is being used to track people and their movements in many different ways. Here is a link to a similar story in Technology Review titled Mobile Data: A Gold Mine for Telcos. Finally, exposure to high frequencies, including from cellphones, decreases melatonin secretion. Melatonin is a hormone that is essential for a good night sleep. It also has antioxidant and cancer fighting properties. Sleeping with a cellphone or other transmitter that is not turned off is therefore not conducive to getting the best night of sleep and has the potential for further health consequences. Steps to take - Hardwire high speed internet routers. Transmitting high speed internet routers transmit a very strong signal. All the wireless routers tested by Dave Stetzer so far have been over 2000 microwatts per meter squared and that is the highest his meter goes. People suffering from or concerned about radio wave sickness should make sure that their router is hardwired and does not transmit.
- Eliminate (recycle) baby monitors. Baby monitors transmit continuously as long as the transmitting unit, the one right by the baby, is on. Some transmit on the wiring, some through the air, but both transmit at high frequencies. Many transmit well into the megahertz range.
- Get rid of (recycle) cordless phones that transmit continuously. Cordless phones transmit at high frequencies and so should be used by people sensitive to high frequencies as little as possible.
- Keep cell phones off. All Cell phones transmit periodically continuously unless turned off. (Hence the airport/airplane and hospital requirement for turning them off.) These transmissions are how the phone informs the network where it is and assesses signal strength. Thus, carrying a cell phone, unless it is off, results in continuous exposure to high frequencies. Which part of your body is exposed the worst depends on where you carry it.
- Remove batteries from your cell phone and use for emergencies only. (Almost all newer cell phones continuously transmit a GPS signal even when off. In other words, they always transmit a microwave signal. This is a "safety" feature so that you can always be located. However, continuous exposure to microwaves is unsafe. As an aside, I find it interesting that people are willing to pay to carry around a device that tracks their every movement, but if the government asked them to do so at no charge there would, quite rightly, be an uproar. According to a news story by NPR the data is being used to track people and their movements in many different ways.)
- Eliminate (recycle) miscellaneous other transmitting devices. These devices are multiplying so fast I could not possibly list them all, but the general result is similar.
- If one or more transmitting consumer products are responsible for making you ill, please report it/them. (Be prepared with the meter manufacturer, model and/or serial number, and the symptoms it causes.)
- Beware of shielding paints and fabrics. If they are used properly they can make things better, if not they have the potential to worsen the situation. It is very difficult to do right.
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