I just saw this CBC report (share by a friend) on YouTube about the dangers of “dirty electricity”.
Supposedly, CFL bulbs create harmonics in the cycle of the electricity that powers them, causing potential health complications to diabetics (which I am), MS sufferers, etc.
I kinda put this up with the increased risk of leukemia in children that live in homes near high-voltage transmission lines. But, since sometimes I have real problems controlling my blood glucose, and our house is filled with these swirly bulbs.
Does Cecil (or any other learned Doper) have the truth about dirty electricity?
I watched the report and read the “expert”'s site, and it seems like the usual “EM is killing you” malarkey. WiFi is killing you, cell phones are killing you, “electrosmog” is killing you, &c.
Yes, it is true CFL bulbs mess with the electrical wave form and incandescents don’t. Their ballast is a type transformer and they are an inductive load. There are 2 types of electrical loads. Purely resistive ones, incandescent light bulbs, toasters water heaters, anything that just heat up just resist the flow of electricity. Anything with a motor or transformer are inductive loads. The windings create a back flow of electricity that distorts the wave form. So your house will be full of harmonics even if you pitch every CFL in the house.
In residential consumption, it isn’t a big factor. In industry with all the 3 phase inductive motors, it is big. The electric companies measure the reactance and apply a power factor to the bill. Industries can take steps to reduce it. One way are synchronous drive motors, oftn use with large air compressors. Another way are capacitors.
I think thelabdude’s point is, or at least could be, that if harmonics caused health problems then they would have been causing health problems virtually since the introduction of electricity to homes. There is nothing new in them. What is new of course is CFL’s and new things cause health panics, as reliably as night follows day. Hence the OP.
My opinion, as an electrical engineer, is that the “expert” in the OP’s video forgot to mention the importance of using an aluminum foil deflector beanie to protect yourself from dirty electricity. And remember, the shiny side faces out!
A “dirty” waveform can, in principle, be problematic for some electronic devices plugged into it. Though of course, devices of anything resembling reasonable quality are built to be able to tolerate this.
CFL, neon signs, motors with brushes that arc a lot, dimmer switches, and all sorts of things will cause"dirty" electricity. Arc welders are about the worst thing I can think of off the top of my head for it. Electrical noise will cause problems with radio reception (AM more than FM, depending on the type of FM receiver you have), and can cause problems with old fashioned analog TV signals, intercom systems (both wired and wireless), wifi routers, and all sorts of things. As Chronos noted, better quality devices have better filtering on their power supply circuits and are more immune to such noise.
Noisy power is not the same as an imbalanced power factor. The OP’s video is filled with a bit too much technobabble to really be clear, but their “dirty electricity” according to them seems to be a combination of power factor and high frequency noise. Purely resistive devices like old fashioned incandescent light bulbs have a perfectly balanced (unity) power factor. CFLs may be a bit inductive, but so are a lot of other things. Residential power in general tends to be somewhat inductive on average, which is why the power company uses capacitor banks in substations (and occasionally on utility poles) to balance out the power factor. An imbalanced power factor means that some current is being wasted to charge up and discharge inductive devices (typically a coil of wire, like that in a motor or a transformer, builds up stored energy in a magnetic field during the charging phase, then releases this energy later in the AC cycle). Aside from making a bit more strain on the generators to supply the extra current, an imbalanced power factor doesn’t really do much. Power companies only balance out the power factor to make the energy transmission and distribution more efficient.
While all of this “dirty” power may have some effects on electronics, the idea that it has any effect at all on the human body is just silly. And by silly I mean tin foil hat type of silly (hence my previous comment). It’s not just a little silly. It’s ridiculous.
That was from legendary British satirical show Brass Eye, those in the report are actually genuine British celebrities (of gretare and lesser degree) who had been duped in to taking part. The clip is almost 15 years old now:eek:
Which is it? I have tried to get this straight. Should the common Reynold’s Wrap work, or do I need to run down some genuine tin foil. I have tried the aluminum foil, and not seen any difference.
It is downright reckless to do anything less than wear several hats, two of each material, one shiny side out and one shiny side in. I do, and I’m still healthy.