Niall of the Nine Hostages Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 There was a thread here recently about smart meters. Some people think smart meters can make you ill - because of something called dirty electricity. I watched a couple of videos on Youtube about dirty electricity and I'm not sure if I should make some effort to look into the dirtiness of my electricity and minimise the risks. What do the wise men and women think of The Off-Topic Forum think about dirty electricity and its supposed health risks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porca misèria Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 I hope you don't use wifi or a mobile phone. Let alone radiant heat or light bulbs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gigantic Purple Slug Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Build yourself a faraday cage. Ensure the thickness of the conductors used is consistent with the frequency of radiation you are trying to screen yourself from (skin depth). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LC1 Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Its the WIFI aspect, isn't it. Can't understand the need for SMs myself, and I won't be having one. Love the idea of 'dirty electricity' - please tell me more! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niall of the Nine Hostages Posted August 10, 2016 Author Share Posted August 10, 2016 Build yourself a faraday cage. Ensure the thickness of the conductors used is consistent with the frequency of radiation you are trying to screen yourself from (skin depth). I thought about building a faraday cage - just in case of EMP attack. Apparently a metal dustbin lined with cardboard will do the trick. I'd shove all my survivor-necessary electronics in it every night and when the EMP blast comes my superior technology will lead to me emerging as leader of the starving masses up my street. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niall of the Nine Hostages Posted August 10, 2016 Author Share Posted August 10, 2016 Its the WIFI aspect, isn't it. Can't understand the need for SMs myself, and I won't be having one. Love the idea of 'dirty electricity' - please tell me more! I am sitting right next to a couple of computers, monitors, a printers and various other electronic gadgetry and gismology and because I don't have the required bits and bobs to clean the inevitable dirty electricity this will all generate, I might be making myself a little ill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chronyx Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Of course it's dirty, it's that EDF foreign rubbish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecrashingisles Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Ban this filth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gigantic Purple Slug Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 This made me think a bit. The wifi is there so the smart meter can be read from outside. So you can read the data stream coming off it. What is to stop someone installing a Faraday cage around the smart meter and then just simulating the smart meter with your own set of hardware to tell the leccy company that you are not using any electricity. And if they find out, how can they prove you did something wrong. After all is it your fault that the reader interogated the wrong machine and got the wrong answer ? What sort of encryption/protocols do these things use ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Of course it's dirty, it's that EDF foreign rubbish. What happened to British Electricity? Margaret Thatcher sold it to make us more competitive. Now we can compete over which logo is printed on the bill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saving For a Space Ship Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgul Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 This made me think a bit. The wifi is there so the smart meter can be read from outside. So you can read the data stream coming off it. What is to stop someone installing a Faraday cage around the smart meter and then just simulating the smart meter with your own set of hardware to tell the leccy company that you are not using any electricity. And if they find out, how can they prove you did something wrong. After all is it your fault that the reader interogated the wrong machine and got the wrong answer ? What sort of encryption/protocols do these things use ? Smart meters communicate with the outside world using the mobile phone network. Presumably there isn't much data moved around, so they've got a cheap deal with the mobile networks. You can't easily forge the signal due to encrypted/signed communications. If the co. can't read your meter then they do something else - most likely just guess while you provide occasional manual readings. Besides this, I'd imagine that it would be difficult to screen the meter using a Faraday cage due to the large number of wires which would need to pass through the cage acting as passive re-radiators. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gigantic Purple Slug Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Smart meters communicate with the outside world using the mobile phone network. Presumably there isn't much data moved around, so they've got a cheap deal with the mobile networks. You can't easily forge the signal due to encrypted/signed communications. If the co. can't read your meter then they do something else - most likely just guess while you provide occasional manual readings. Besides this, I'd imagine that it would be difficult to screen the meter using a Faraday cage due to the large number of wires which would need to pass through the cage acting as passive re-radiators. You'd need to put feed through filters on the lines going into the cage. You can get these, I've used them before. High power ones for the mains power might be a bit more tricky, but I've used ones over 100A peak current before on inlets to a faraday cage, so its do-able. The idea wouldn't be that the company wouldn't think the meter was not read, because you would spoof a signal in its place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stormymonday_2011 Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/clean-electricity Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/clean-electricity Yes I have filters to keep my electricity "clean" for the AV stuff. My neighbours are keeping theirs "dirty", by using this powerline internet stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chronyx Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Heavy electricity is why power lines sag in the middle, it's basic physics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecrashingisles Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Heavy electricity is why power lines sag in the middle, it's basic physics Do they use it as a lip filler too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The XYY Man Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 I thought about building a faraday cage - just in case of EMP attack. Apparently a metal dustbin lined with cardboard will do the trick. I'd shove all my survivor-necessary electronics in it every night and when the EMP blast comes my superior technology will lead to me emerging as leader of the starving masses up my street. That course of action would ensure that you would become the shortest ever leader of the starving masses in the history of leaders of the starving masses. The starving masses would hoard more practical things like axes, knives, cross-bows, air-rifles, samurai swords, petrol-bombs, knuckle-dusters, baseball-bats, catapults, shotguns, bow-and-arrows, machetes, Gurkha-knives, tomahawks, spears, truncheons, broadswords, Lugers, Purdeys, Brownings, AK47s and Smith and friggin' Wesson's - items that are completely immune to an EMP, and will ensure that your reign as supreme holder of the mobile phones, android tablets and ipads will be the briefest ever known. You sir are the monkey about to enter Hartlepool...! XYY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niall of the Nine Hostages Posted August 10, 2016 Author Share Posted August 10, 2016 That course of action would ensure that you would become the shortest ever leader of the starving masses in the history of leaders of the starving masses. The starving masses would hoard more practical things like axes, knives, cross-bows, air-rifles, samurai swords, petrol-bombs, knuckle-dusters, baseball-bats, catapults, shotguns, bow-and-arrows, machetes, Gurkha-knives, tomahawks, spears, truncheons, broadswords, Lugers, Purdeys, Brownings, AK47s and Smith and friggin' Wesson's - items that are completely immune to an EMP, and will ensure that your reign as supreme holder of the mobile phones, android tablets and ipads will be the briefest ever known. You sir are the monkey about to enter Hartlepool...! XYY LOL!! I was thinking more of walkie talkies and night-vision goggles and solar rechargable battery thingies rather than ipads and similar stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The XYY Man Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 LOL!! I was thinking more of walkie talkies and night-vision goggles and solar rechargable battery thingies rather than ipads and similar stuff Now that idea might keep you alive a little longer Mr Hostage. Maybe after the balloon goes up, we can trade some of your walkie-talkies for a few tins from my stash of corned-beef - or maybe a couple of my Fray Bentos tinned-pies...? XYY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happy_renting Posted August 11, 2016 Share Posted August 11, 2016 That course of action would ensure that you would become the shortest ever leader of the starving masses in the history of leaders of the starving masses. The starving masses would hoard more practical things like axes, knives, cross-bows, air-rifles, samurai swords, petrol-bombs, knuckle-dusters, baseball-bats, catapults, shotguns, bow-and-arrows, machetes, Gurkha-knives, tomahawks, spears, truncheons, broadswords, Lugers, Purdeys, Brownings, AK47s and Smith and friggin' Wesson's - items that are completely immune to an EMP, and will ensure that your reign as supreme holder of the mobile phones, android tablets and ipads will be the briefest ever known. You sir are the monkey about to enter Hartlepool...! XYY I think most of the population would atrophy and die if cut off from Facebook. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNACR Posted August 11, 2016 Share Posted August 11, 2016 I think most of the population would atrophy and die if cut off from Facebook. Like Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig_ Posted August 11, 2016 Share Posted August 11, 2016 I thought about building a faraday cage - just in case of EMP attack. Apparently a metal dustbin lined with cardboard will do the trick. I'd shove all my survivor-necessary electronics in it every night and when the EMP blast comes my superior technology will lead to me emerging as leader of the starving masses up my street. Does your house look like this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porca misèria Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 Today's Dilbert captures the problem of dirty electricity perfectly: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happy_renting Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 It's quite easy to make a DIY mains filter. First, break the wire, so that the electricty has to jump the gap. Jumping can be achieved using an electron gun from an old CRT. Then, simply stretch fine denier tights or stocking so that the spark has to pass through it. That will filter out the heavier particles allowing only electrons through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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