What are the Three Tiers of Residential EMF Testing Surveys?

Top-Tier

ELEXANA residential test surveys are EMRS-based and have additional features.

Middle-Tier

Building Biology Institute’s Professional Electromagnetic Radiation Specialist residential test surveys.

Lower Tier

Standard Testing includes what most EMF Specialists will test for you.

Standard EMF Surveys

These include:

1. AC Magnetic and Radio Frequency testing. Sometimes, the “dirty electricity” can be detected with an inexpensive plug-in meter like a Greenwave, Stetzer, or Alpha Labs Broadband EMI Meter. This later test takes about one minute to perform.

2. There will be none to a few mitigation suggestions, such as “call your electrician,” “buy some shielding, “get some distance, or “turn things off.” Most of these technicians, or engineers, will advertise themselves as Professional EMF Testing Specialists, EMF Medical Experts, or just EMF Experts. (For all of you in the New York Tri-State area, where there are a few rascals, please know there is no state license for EMF Testing.)

3. There is no consistency with persons conducting Standard EMF surveys, so you don’t know what level of competency you will receive. This is in contrast to the next Tier of EMF Survey providers.

Building Biology Institute Professional Electromagnetic Radiation Specialist EMF Surveys

The good thing about hiring an EMRS is that all are trained and have learned testing procedures and protocols. The certification program is somewhat rigorous, but the IEEE, the US Government, and any state government do not recognize the certification.

Many training staff have an undergraduate B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering; a couple may have an M.S. degree. This organization also has other types of engineers, electricians, and medical practitioners.

Although the level of competency varies, as with any profession, the more experienced EMRSs are generous with their time to support and assist newer EMRSs with questions and on-the-job issues. So, if you hire an EMRS, you will get a modicum of consistency, depending on the integrity of the individual EMRS.

The tests you should expect from a certified EMRS are:

  1. AC Magnetic Field, AC Electric Field, and DC Magnetic Field flux densities.

  2. Radio Frequency Broadband Meter testing from 20 MHz to 8 GHz. (Some use inexpensive spectrum analyzers to identify frequencies. A few use more capable uncalibrated SAs.)

  3. “Dirty Electricity”: Most use a plug-in EMI Broadband meter, but some also use an oscilloscope and an antenna.

  4. Stray current tests on all utility services.

  5. Some EMRSs will check the building’s grounding with a ground tester. Ask if they offer this service.


What distinguishes an EMRS from others is that they receive the training to work with electricians to detect and solve wiring errors that cause actionable EMF. They have a competent understanding of various shielding techniques.

Limitations

  1. Most EMRSs use inexpensive factory-calibrated equipment, so any reports they file would not stand the rigors of a court of law.

  2. Because the equipment is not ISO certified as having been calibrated with accredited degrees of uncertainty, or +/- dB error, the actual levels measured are not replicable or verifiable by scientific standards.

  3. Standard-issue equipment has frequency spectrum gaps. For example, RF from 1.0 to 20 MHz is not accounted for, even though thousands of FCC-licensed equipment emit RF in this range.

  4. The typical EMRS uses EMF-sensitive persons to establish whether a mitigation protocol works. Although this is a very compassionate approach, it lacks scientific rigor.

ELEXANA EMF Surveys

Elexana’s James Finn is a voting member of the New York Section of the IEEE and a certified EMRS. The company also has an affiliate staff of fellow EMRSs, NYC local electrical engineers, and electricians.

What distinguishes Elexana from a typical EMRS and all others?

  1. We conduct surveys using ISO 17025-certified, calibrated equipment with GPS coordinates and time stamps, measuring from Earth’s DC fields to RF up to 60 GHz, calibrated to 40 GHz. Every frequency from DC to 60 GHz is accounted for. (Please note: Even though few in this area of work can match the level of our equipment, a skilled consultant who has a strong working knowledge of the laws of physics involving electromagnetic radiation and a deep understanding of DC and AC power systems can help you and your family with even the most modest equipment.)

  2. Every report is an official legal document and a scientific study that is replicable and verifiable.

  3. Of course, we know the Building Biology threshold levels, but we do not use terminology like “severe” and “extreme.” We believe this is fear-mongering and skates the boundaries of conflict of interest, since most EMRSs profit by selling mitigation products. Instead, so our clients can be informed of contemporary science, we present the various international standards to our clients and point them to the studies published by the Bio-Initiative.

  4. Another difference between Elexana and the Building Biology Institute EMRS is that they like to make up terms like MEP, Microsurge Electromagnetic Pollution, DE, dirty electricity, and electrosmog. In contrast, we prefer terms used by electrical engineering for the last fifty years, such as EMI, electromagnetic interference, THD, total harmonic distortion, and SNR, Signal-to-Noise Ratio. This is because we work with third-party engineers and electricians every day.

  5. We test primary grounds with a certified calibrated meter and successfully design grounding systems using soil resistivity tests.

  6. We can log and run multiple tests on your single-phase or three-phase electrical service panel's current and voltage for several days.

  7. We can test the bonding integrity of every electrical bond in your home with a certified Micro-Ohmmeter. This is an unprecedented detail. (It is probably not necessary for 99.9% of homes.)

  8. We measure epidermal voltage from DC to 3.0 GHz in real-time, covering every frequency.

  9. We measure AC magnetic fields to 30 MHz.

  10. We measure more than voltage noise that could yield “dirty electricity” (harmonic transients) on the electrical lines (hot, neutral, and ground); we measure the harmonic transients on the current. We also measure the frequencies in the air to see if what is conducted on the electrical line translates to capacitive coupling. Line and capacitive noise sometimes do not correspond due to cancellation. This thoroughness helps us determine if line filters are needed for our client or if they would make their home environment worse. Yes, installing ”dirty electricity” filters sometimes worsens the home environment!

  11. We do not sell mitigation products directly to our clients to avoid a conflict of interest.

  12. Due to the trickery of the placebo effect, we do not use EMF-sensitive clients as our metric for mitigation success. We work towards achieving the lowest levels achievable or reasonable due to the budget.

  13. ELEXANA also tests ionic radiation with a certified calibration pan-style Geiger counter for clients' homes built on landfills before 1980, or their homes are in an area known to have radiation. (Although we have a radon detector, we do not test for radon.)

  14. We can also provide seismic studies, acoustics testing well beyond the range of human hearing capabilities, and vibration, again with state-of-the-art, certified, calibrated equipment. This work is helpful for people suffering from tinnitus. It helps determine whether the ringing is in the physical space or self-generated.