In this article, we will take a look at which factors actually affects the level of EMS radiation in your home.
It turns out there are many things you can do your self if you know exactly how to go about it. We will start with their primary living spaces and have a strong focus on the bedroom.
The bedroom is especially important because it’s where we should rest of bodies on a daily basis.
Table of Contents
Abbreviations used in this article:
EMF: Electromagnetic Fields (All types of radiation)
RF: Radio Frequencies (Radiation from wifi, cell towers, and other wireless technologies
V/m: Volts over meters (How we measure RF radiation & electric fields)
mG: milliGauss (How we measure magnetic fields)
21 Things You Can Do To Lower EMF In Your Home
Let’s start by looking at the radio frequencies we have in our households.
Wi-Fi signals and Bluetooth signals are everywhere these days and we need to pay close attention to these sources of EMF radiation.
1) Turn Off 4G On Your Phone (3G Is Less Harmful)
As you probably know, the EMF radiation from cell phones and tablets around us counts for a big part of the RF radiation.
The best solution would be to turn off the cell phone signal altogether but in reality, this is simply not possible for most of us. Most of us rely on our smartphones in order to do our job and to get through our everyday coordination with our spouse and families. So whenever you need your cell phone signal to be turned on, here’s what you can do to limit the exposure.
By turning off the 4G signal on your cell phone you will take care of the lot of the EMF radiation that you’re smartphone is accountable for.
Every time we have switched to the next generation of the cell to phone technology we have added significantly more EMF radiation to the signal. And the 4G signal is no exception here.
But luckily, it’s pretty easy to turn it off if you are willing to stick to 3G. If you have a teeny bit of patience it’s almost as good as 4G. Here’s how you do it on the iPhone:
Settings: Cellular > Cellular Data > 4G
2) Kill The Wifi Or Move The Router
Another thing you can do to reduce the amount of RF radiation in your home is to get rid of the Wi-Fi signal.
The router and your access points are a major source of radio frequency pollution. The Wi-Fi signal requires RF radiation in order to create a wireless network.
But there’s another reason why you should kill the Wi-Fi instead of just moving the router if you have the option to do so. And this is because the Wi-Fi is creating a two-way communication “line” between all the connected devices and the router.
Every time your computer or your smartphone is connecting and communicating with the Wi-Fi signal it both receives and transmits data. It’s not a problem that it receives that data it’s the transmission back to the router that is the main problem here.
Whenever you are connecting to the Internet you’re not only receiving data but you are also uploading data constantly to the router. This happens not only when you’re downloading stuff but also every time you are asking the router to find a specific page on the internet for you (to keep things simple here).
This is exactly why it’s much more efficient to kill the Wi-Fi signal and install a wired Internet connection in your house instead.
But if you simply cannot live without Wi-Fi or if someone else in the household demanded to keep it on you can at least move the router. You need to move the router and access points far away from seating areas and beds as well as the kitchen and other places where you spend a lot of time.
If you decide to keep the Wi-Fi signal on and you must make sure to turn it off during the night.
During the night the body needs as much rest as possible.
This is the period where your body should have access to a radio silent environment when it comes to RF radiation.
3) Locate Cell Phone Towers (They Are Getting Sneaky!)
Cell phone towers are some of the worst sources of pollution when it comes to EMF radiation around your home.
New cell phone towers are being put up every day in all major cities and you need to know exactly where they are in order to take proper precautions.
We recently found out that a new cell phone tower has been installed at the building just one block away. We have decided to stay in the city even though it means that we have to deal with these things so it’s important for us to know where the cell towers are located.
They are getting harder and harder to spot. Manufacturers are becoming better at building them smaller and they are also trying to camouflage them to make them blend into the landscape.
The only way to do this is to either take a walk around the block and spot the ones you can see or make your own readings with an EMF meter. If you want to find all of them you probably have to use your own EMF meter.
It’s a priceless piece of equipment if you want to know how much EMF radiation you have in your home!
Now that you know where they are you need to make sure you are not sleeping right next to a window which is exposed. Make sure to place your bed at the opposite end of the house if possible. If that’s not possible you need to get creative.
You want to need to take a look at EMF protective paint and film for your windows. These are pretty drastic and expensive solutions so it’s much easier to remove your bed. It’s simply not possible to remove the cell tower because the Telecom industry is protected against lawsuits regarding EMF (let’s hope that changes soon!).
4) Unplug Your Chargers From The Socket
Many people who are new to EMF radiation will make sure to turn off lamps and other electronic devices around their bedroom.
But what many people don’t know, is that you need to get rid of the electric fields inside the wires in order to get rid of the electric fields they emit.
This is why it’s simply not enough to turn the switch off. You need to take the cable out of the socket or you can turn off the switch so you don’t have any electricity running inside the wires.
When you do so you will quickly detect a drop in the amount of radiation around your bed.
I personally always switch the power outlet off every night so I don’t have any electricity in the wires in the bedroom. I just tested the difference between having the nigh lamp switched off and turning off the electricity at the outlet in the wall. The difference was overwhelming. The magnetic fields radiation dropped from around 14 mG to 7 mG from doing this alone.
The rest of the radiation has to do with the electric wires in the walls and I simply have to switch off the breaker panel in order to reduce it to the safe limits (1 mG). That’s the next step we will look at.
5) Turn Off The Breaker For The Bedroom At Night
Now we are getting back to the bedroom again because this is the most important room in your house when we are trying to reduce EMF radiation.
In the bedroom, you will have several wires in the walls like in any other room. By turning these off you will lose over the electric fields in the room as well as the magnetic fields.
You can do this by putting one person next to the breaker panel in your house and letting the other person measure the electric fields in the bedroom (with our EMF meter). You turn one switch at the time and measure exactly how it impacts the radiation in the bedroom. As soon as you have located the breakers that turn off the wires that run in your bedroom walls you will see detect this with the EMF meter.
Now you will know which breaker panel(s) to turn off during the night. This will reduce the electric fields and the radiation of the magnetic fields in your bedroom.
It might seem like a pretty drastic step to take. But as long as you don’t shut off the breakers that control the fridge and your smoke alarms you can definitely turn off the electricity during the night. I personally preferred to turn off all the breakers except for the ones that control the fridge, the freezer, and the smoke alarms.
6) Induction Stovetop Burners Are The Worst
I have absolutely loved using my induction stovetop burner for many years. That was before I learned about EMF. It came to my attention that these things emit a big chunk of the EMF pollution in the kitchen and there are several reasons why they are problematic:
- They emit high levels of EMF
- You typically stand close to them when they are the most dangerous
- Kids are very exposed due to their height
Many induction stovetop burners will have the generator placed right in front of your belly when you are standing in front of it.
This is a big problem. Especially if you are pregnant because that generator will be one inch from your belly.
There are only two ways to find out where the generator is placed inside the induction stovetop burner. The first way is to take the thing apart. But before you do that you should consider option number two which is buying an EMF meter. They only cost around $200 and they are excellent at locating exactly where the radiation is emitting from.
You will need to move the EMF meter slowly along the front of the thing to find out where the highest levels are. If the exposure is much higher at the center you have a stovetop burner with the generator positioned in the front.
This is bad.
It’s much better if the generator is placed at the back because that way you will (probably) be far enough from it to be a safe distance.
7) Make Your House As “Dumb” As Possible
This may sound counter-intuitive but we are talking about all the little “smart” devices that connect wirelessly to the Internet in order to send data to the cloud.
These are devices like:
- Smart thermostats
- Smart TVs
- Smart meters
- Smart watches
- Wireless speakers
- Philips Hue bulbs
- Etc.
Not smart!
All these devices have one thing in common: They emit radio frequencies in order to send data over the Internet. This also means that they emit EMF radiation. Wifi signals are classified as radio frequencies (RF) radiation and the levels can get sky-high when you combine all the things we connect these days.
It’s not smart at all when we are talking about radiation from EMF.
The best way is to only use these devices when we have the option to wire them. That means using them with an ethernet cable so they can connect to the internet via a cable connection.
If we can do that we are good to go regarding radiation issues. But the problem here is that these devices are designed to be wireless and you will typically not be able to connect them with a wired connection.
So, the only option here is to opt out of the internet of things trend.
8) Get Wired Baby Monitors
If you have little ones you need to pay EXTRA close attention to EMFs.
Research has shown that kids that are still growing are two times more affected by EMFs as adults. This is mainly because their skulls are not fully developed yet so the radiation can easily reach the brain.
So, the first place to set in here is the baby monitors. They are often emitting way too much EMF radiation to be anyway near your baby. The problem is only getting worse here because people often place the baby monitors close to the baby’s head in order to hear every single little peep he/she makes.
We don’t want anything that emits EMF radiation anywhere near babies.
Certainly not near their heads.
So, instead of the classic baby monitors, you should get a wired camera that you can access online. You just connect to it from a cable connection on your laptop and voila! You have a self-made wired baby monitor which will emit zero radiation around you or your baby!
9) Shield Your Smartphone With These Covers
We cannot turn our cellphones off at all times. We need them on sometimes and often we need them to be on when we are on the go. Then we also need to keep them in our pocket or somewhere near our bodies like a bag or similar.
So, we will need a good solid case for the smartphone that will shield some of that RF radiation that will otherwise pollute our bodies.
Here are some good options from Defender Shield.
Note: Defender Shield is a fantastic store created by Daniel Debaun, one of the pioneers of EMF products. He has written books on EMF and has a background in the Telecom industry in Silicon valley, until he found about about EMF and decided to dedicate his career to develop the best product to protect people instead.
Here are two options that work really great:
As you can see, there are several options. These are just two of the designs that shows some of the possibilities. If you like to include your credit cards etc. with your smartphone case you can do so. You can also get a super thin case that doesn’t take up much extra space in your pocket.
They block close to 100% of the radiation that is emitted from all cellular devices. So it’s a pretty good investment. They are pretty cheap too, you can get them from around $20-70.
A really good investment if you ask me.
10) Replace Your Headphones With These Headphones
Earbuds and headphones are not optimal solutions to getting your smartphone away at a distance from your brain. Unless you are using these special air tube headphones that are emitting almost zero EMF radiation.
They are built in a way that lets the sound travel inside air tubes during the last part of the wires that reach your head.
This way you can avoid the EMFs that normally comes with headphones and earbuds.
It’s another clever design from Defender Shield. Our favorite shop when it comes to bullet-proof EMF-protective gear.
You can find them here.
It quickly gets pretty technical when we start looking at how they work so I’ll just leave you with this little video that shows exactly how they work:
11) Put Your Phone On Flightmode When Using it As GPS
We all need to use GPS sometimes. I am horrible at finding my way around inside cities so I need to turn the GPS on more often than I’d like to admit.
Luckily, the GPS chip in our smartphones and tables work independently from the other chips. In other words, you can actually use the GPS location services on your phone without having to turn the cellphone signal or even the Bluetooth on.
Here’s a guide to exactly how you do it (and how it’s possible).
12) Move Your Beds Out From The Walls
It’s a really good idea to move your bed out 5-7 inches from the walls. Unless you are able to turn off the breakers in your home during the night.
We do this in order to reduce the magnetic fields that emit from the wires in the walls.
If the electricians did a really good job on your house you want to have a minimum of magnetic fields around your walls. But you will always have some sort of magnetic fields because that will be current running inside the wires.
So one way to reduce this specific type of radiation is by simply moving your beds out a few inches from the walls. By doing this you remove yourself a little bit from the radiation. The radiation from magnetic fields decreases quickly when you remove yourself from the sources.
You will need the EMF meter to get specific readings on just how far you need to move the bed to get the magnetic fields within the 1 mG limit that is recommended by building biologists.
It’s a really easy way to fix the problem if your source of radiation in the sleeping area is mainly from the wires in the walls.
13) …Or Use A Canopy
You can also choose to install a canopy over your bed which will help create a radio silent area around you at night.
These EMF protecting bed canopies are pretty expensive but they also worked really well.
You install them in the ceiling and they will shield your bed on both sides. It will make your bed look more or less like a princess bed:
Check the prices here at Amazon.
(Unfortunately, the good canopies like this one that actually works really well are quite costly. But the alternative is often worse as you will have to paint your walls with black EMF blocking paint and apply protective-films on your windows in order to get similar protection.)
These canopies are really good and they are typically the easiest solution if you are living next to a cell tower or if your neighbor is trying to create a smart home.
This specific canopy design is pretty cool because it’s easy to bring with you if you travel or need to sleep outside your home.
It can be packed easily in your hand luggage and it isn’t as heavy as some of the other options even though it offers excellent protection and is recommended by several EMF experts (like Jeromy Johnson who spoke at the TED conference about EMF a couple of years back).
These bed canopies work by shielding and grounding the space so you will need to insert a little grounding part into the ground.
Another cool thing about these canopies is that they double-function as mosquito nets too. Great if you are in a warm area and life-saving if you are traveling in sub-tropic areas where mosquitos are aggressive.
14) Pay Attention To Power Lines
Many streets will have power lines or even high-voltage power lines running parallel to the street. If this is the case you need to pay attention to magnetic fields that are created from the lines as well as the transformers that may be placed near your house.
We have written a separate guide about how to protect yourself from power lines here.
15) Remove Transformers And Chargers From Your Body
All homes are full of them. They are everywhere because we use them to charge our many electronic devices such as phones, tablets, laptops, Bluetooth devices, etc.
I am talking about chargers.
Chargers have transformers inside them which are basically a piece of metal that has a ton of wires going around inside them. They are made to reduce (or increase) the voltage to match that of the electronic device they are built to charge.
I recently did some readings on several transformers I found inside our home like the ones we use for smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc.
You can check the EMF levels I found here as well as tips on how to make sure you don’t get exposed to the magnetic fields they emit.
You need to develop a habit of keeping these chargers at a safe distance from your body. They emit very strong magnetic fields around them and you need to throw them at least 1-2 feet away from you.
Tips: Don’t use them to warm your feet during the winter as I used to (long before I learned about EMF).
16) Shield Your Smart Meter
Most houses are getting smart meters. All over the western world. They are smart in some regards, as they can emit data to the cloud about your electricity usage.
But they are one of the worst things in your home when it comes to EMF radiation!
You can actually shield it with what we call a Faraday’s cage. It’s just a box that you place on top of it in order to reduce the radiation it emits. They’re pretty simple and dumb shells you just place over the thing and you immediately have a much lower EMF radiation in your home.
They typically look something like this:
They typically cost around $150 (the ones that work, don’t get the cheap Chinese knock-off’s!)
You can check the price for our recommended one here on Amazon.
It may look like a simple thing but it’s actually a rather complex solution. These guys know what they are doing and you should just stick to the model we link to above and you are good to go.
17) Don’t Use Your Phone Inside Your Car (Or RV)
Your car, your camper, and you RV are basically tin cans.
They will work as protection from outside radiation when you are inside the car. But this also means that you should never use your cell phone inside these vehicles. The reason is pretty simple.
Whenever you use your cell phone signal and Bluetooth signal inside your car it will bounce around inside the chassis.
This is because the car is basically an enclosed environment made of thick glass and metal which will prevent the radiation from beaming out of the car.
This is also why you should never use wireless devices or wifi signals inside your camper. You should put an antenna on the outside of the RV/camper in order to get a cell phone signal. Then you need to do some wiring inside the thing in order to avoid the router and the wireless signal. You need to install Ethernet cables in your camper.
It’s a hassle, but it’s something you don’t need to do once. And trust me, you will also get a MUCH better signal once you have done it!
I’m about to do it in my own camper van which is very much a tin can.
I can hardly pick up any Wi-Fi signal inside the thing (which is absolutely amazing for an EMF freak like me!) but it also means that all types of EMF radiation will bounce around like crazy when emitted inside the camper.
PS: read tip #11 if you want to use your GPS inside your car or your RV.
18) Ground All Electronics Devices
It’s important to ground us many electronic devices as you can. Which means all of them.
We want to do this in order to decrease the number and magnitude of magnetic fields around laptops, appliances, and many other devices.
Just make sure everything is connected with three pins whenever you’re inside any power cord into the electrical sockets:
When we do this we will reduce electric fields significantly around our chargers and plugged-in devices.
19) Make Sure You Use Flight Mode Correctly
You have probably heard that you can turn off the Bluetooth signal as well as the cellphone signal by switching your smartphone to flight mode.
This is also true.
That some people still get this wrong (and with good reason!) because iPhones can actually have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on even though they are set to flight mode!
Sometimes the phone will automatically keep the Wi-Fi and/or the Bluetooth signal on whenever you switch it to flight mode. I believe this is something that started happening within the last couple of updates from Apple. At least I cannot remember this happening any earlier than 2018.
This is what you want icons to look like when you have set your iPhone to flight mode:
20) Use A Foam Mattress Instead Of One With Springs
This may sound weird but spring mattresses contain a whole lot of metal that can pick up or strengthen the EMF in your bedroom.
The best way to go about this is to throw out the old spring mattress and invest in a good memory foam mattress. They can also do wonders for your back. I have been sleeping on foam mattresses for many years and my back loves them.
As long as you get a mattress without any metal inside you are good to go.
This is especially important if you have some bad (or just very old) wiring in your home. Then you are probably having a lot of dirty electricity which can cause quite a lot of EMF radiation.
21) Spread The News
This last factor might be the most important one on the list in order to reduce EMFs in our households.
Now that you have learned a whole bunch of ways to get rid of your EMF radiation it’s time to spread the news to your friends and family.
How To Tell If You Are Hypersensitive To EMF?
If you suspect that you are extra sensitive to these forms of radiation we have made a good guide for you.
Here is a list of some of the most common symptoms for people who are hypersensitive to EMF.