This is the third in a three-part series of my investigation of EMF in my house.
Part 1  EMF – What About It?
Part 2  EMF – The Survey

So I’ve done an EMF survey at my home and I have determined that the levels are higher than I’m comfortable with. If I want to take this further I have to take some concrete actions.

In my case, I determined that the bulk of the high EMF levels were the result of a net current from the ground connection to my water intake pipe. I also discovered a tie between the ground and neutral bars in an electrical sub panel. This is also a known creator of magnetic fields but is also very easy to cure. Figure 1 shows the sub-panel with this faulty wiring. I know I know, I should have checked this earlier. You know the old saying about plumbers having leaky pipes…

Figure 1 – Improper neutral-ground tie in sub-panel

Anyway, the net current at my water intake pipe is most likely the result of faulty wiring in a separate residence somewhere in my section of the electrical grid. There may even be something of a feedback loop. Meaning the electrical fault in another residence is creating a magnetic field in my house which then is propagated to other houses and back. That is my own theory and I don’t have any research to back it up at this point but I’ll report on that when I find out.

In any event, at first glance the remedy to this problem seems to be out of my control. How could I possibly call upon the authorities or anyone else to start investigating all of the houses that are connected my segment of the grid for faulty wiring. Wouldn’t happen. Luckily there is a workaround.

Houses in rural areas are most often not connected to the city water system. Their water supply is from private wells which most often have some type of plastic piping coming in from the well to the pump equipment inside the house.  Plastic is not an electrical conductor and therefore this pipe from the well is not useful as a ground. Houses like this are grounded to metal rods or grounding plates buried in the ground near the house.

Figure 2 – Typical electrical grounding plate

What I’m going to do is change my grounding from the connection to the metal water pipe near the water meter, to a grounding plate like they do in the country. This is all perfectly legal and conforms to the Canadian Electrical Code, Rule 10-700(2)(b). Here is how I did it.

Firstly, I have to install a grounding plate underground, somewhere practically near the house. In my case there is a patio and some grass near the electrical service entrance at the back of the house.

Figure 3 – Types of electrical grounding (Section 250.50 is a U.S. electrical code reference)

The grounding plate, which can be purchased from most hardware stores, is buried in the ground not less than two feet in depth. A bare grounding wire is then connected to the plate on one end and the neutral bus in the main electrical panel at the other. I could have legally used two grounding rods instead but it would have been more work to drive them down to proper depth and connect the wiring I decided. Figure 3 is a diagram of all the grounding methods generally in use. I’m going to be using method 6.

In my case I have an existing connection from the main electrical panel to the water pipe. I’m going to disconnect the ground at the water  intake pipe and connect the wire from my new grounding plate to this wire. This will complete the connection from the electrical panel to the grounding plate.

Figure 4 – Dielectric union

The installation of the grounding plate is the first part of the operation. This does not however eliminate the magnetic fields from entering the home. There is still the water pipe coming in which is the source of magnetic fields. What I need to do next is install a dielectric union on the water pipe. It should be installed as close to where the water pipe enters the house as possible. This fitting will break the connection of the water pipes hopefully stopping the magnetic field from entering the home. 

So I’ve installed the grounding plate, disconnected the original ground for the water pipe, and installed the dielectric union on the main water pipe coming into the house.

Figure 5 – Grounding plate excavation

Figure 6 – Exterior view of grounding plate installation

The next step is to test for EMF fields. The results were that the readings near my plumbing pipes went from well over a hundred milligauss down to one or two milligauss. Success!

This concludes my three-part series on EMF in my house.
Part 1  EMF – What About It?
Part 2  EMF – The Survey
Part 3  EMF – Remediation