If you saw a house without the sheet rock you would be very surprised how many electric wires there are snaking all over the place. As in the world now, our house is a huge electromagnetic jungle with electromagnetic fields both big and small crisscrossing our bodies from many directions.
Why Electrical Wiring Needed?
As a green builder I am concerned about these fields. The evidence is still inconclusive as to what the fields actually do to your body. It has been pretty solidly proven that living next to high tension electric lines increases your chances of leukemia among other cancers. But health risks from low voltage electrical wires like the ones in a house are still unknown.
Here is my reasoning on this. High tension wires cause increased cancer because the energy wreaks severe havoc on the body. Low voltage wires, like low level noises, slight smells, vague annoying lights, and all other sorts of subtle environmental agravators may not kill you but they do increase the stress levels to your body.
For example, sitting in a rumbling car tires you out a lot more than sitting in the soothing sounds of nature for the same amount of time. A car has the grinding of the engine as well as an electromagnetic drain caused by the air hitting the car and the wheels rubbing on the road (yup, I totally made that last part up, but it sounds pretty authoritative, right).
Anyway, the point is that gentle nature energy heals and jarring mechanical energy drains. All illnesses are the result of the weakest link giving out and it is usually caused by stress. i.e. if you are prone to heart attacks all you need is a little nudge from the chaos of life to push you over the edge.
Sooooo….. as a green builder my job is to make a house that increases the soothing elements and reduces the aggravating elements, however faint thus reducing the stress on your body and increasing your well being.
And this brings me to house wiring.
Here is the wiring job my electrician did on the first day of the job:
It is to code and by all current standards is well done. The only problem is that on the other side of the wall is the bedroom and most probably where the person will put the bed. This means that the wire will run right along the person’s body from head to toe. It probably won’t give them cancer. But will it disturb their sleep? There are too many variables in life for me to ever know but I’m not taking any chances and it costs me nothing to do it better.
Here is how I had him rewire it. The cables go along the ceiling. This is the farthest they can be both from people on this floor and people on the floor above. One small reduction in EMF.
Another point is that we are using BX cable which is clad in metal. This is required by code in NY anyway so that nobody drills a hole in the wall and punctures the wire. But the added benefit is that it thoroughly grounds the wire and reduced the electromagnetic field. I would have used BX, which is more expensive, even if it wasn’t required by code.