Using copper mesh for EMF sheilding

I live in a relatively poor community "on the fringe". I renovate homes, and this is where the bargains are. Looking for ways to improve each camp site I come upon, I have ran head first into an issue with power lines. The area I am working in right now has a lot of condemned buildings in it. Having been in this area for about 3 years renovating homes and dealing with persistant headaches I am coming to terms with the fact that the big power lines and especially the substation down the block have a lot to do with why these houses are so underpriced. So solution...

I have read that 1/16 inch copper screen (window screen size) makes an effective (80-100 db reduction at 60 HZ) EMF barrier and it is relatively cheap ($2.00/sqft for the 1/16th inch). 1/100th inch is a little bit better of a barrier... especially against higher frequencies... but costs as much as 3x. I plan to cover my insulation in my attic with the 1/16th inch stuff... hopefully the buzz won't be so apparent

I won't put a link here but TWP, inc.'s commercial website has a lot of great info on wire mesh. The alchemist in me left wondering about all the wonderful things I could do with 2" welded stainless mesh.

While I was on the subject I ran across this pdf:

The Equipotential Plane in New Livestock Facilities

www.egr.msu.edu...

I found it odd that there were so many rules and regulations about grounding the plane beneath an animal's feet, but I've been in construction for a long time an I have never heard of any code for or of anyone installing an equipotential plane under the floor. It would make excellent sense directly infront of an electric stove for example. The paper pointed that:

Cows may avoid drinking, eating, letting down their milk or entering stalls. If cows are nervous in the milking parlor, they may not milk out properly, which can affect production and health. If cows receive a shock when drinking or eating, they may consume less and this would affect milk production. Or, if cows receive a shock when they enter an area, they may avoid that area making management more difficult.

Most of the article dealt with what it called "stray voltage"

To understand how stray voltage is caused, it is important to recognize that
electricity always has a source. For a farm it is the transformer mounted on a utility pole or a cement pad on the ground. Any current that gets out of its conductor is looking for a path back to the transformer. Conductors supplying a building can be a source of neutral-to-earth voltage. Every time electricity flows along a conductor, some of its energy is lost in the form of a voltage drop

It almost makes sense that if you are going to be building new or gutting a home... you might want to cover the floors, walls, and ceiling in a layer of copper mesh if you intend on having electricity in the home.

Feeling like the boy with the aluminum foil in his hat,

Sri Oracle

I've been considering using a shielding paint, there are several on the market.
It sounds to me that your making a faraday cage for your entire house.
I may just look into this a bit further, thanks for the idea.

I never went ahead with the copper screening.... I am going to hold off and switch my rentals over to metal roofs next time they need new roofs.

That said I have learned something along the way...

To shield an ELECRTICAL field a grounded metal roof will do.

To shield a MAGNETIC field the entire dwelling space must be enclosed in an envelop of grounded shielding material.

The ELF power line problem I and others experience constitutes both electrical and magnetic flux fields.

I have learned something else as well...

If you are going to wear a tin foil hat to shield yourself from an electrical field you should follow the following rules

1) attach a thin ground chain that dangles to ankle length
2) insulate the shield from your head with cloth and 1" of space

Using a telsa meter I have found the guass potential is actually higher directly behind a metal shield, but then drops off about 1" below.

That is... if I stand somewhere with a 5 gauss reading (like out my front door... scary) and I place a grounded copper shield between the meter and the lines the reading falls to 2-2.5 but if I come any closer than 1" away from the shield the reading gets as high as 7 gauss.

My meter peaks out in the middle of my road over 10 gauss; earth normal "in the woods" is 0.5 gauss. EU standards for shoolchildren is no more than 2.

Also note... your tinfoil hat will do nothing for the magnetic field you are probably immersed in day to day although a chainmail full jumpsuit might.

Sri Oracle