Shielding against electrosmog: what helps, what takes work — and what we do instead

If you start looking into electrosmog in your own home, you quickly run into a long list of measures: shielding paint, curtains, demand switches, earthing sheets, meters. A good deal of it works. Some of it is more demanding than it first appears, and a few measures can achieve the opposite of what was intended. This article sorts the common measures out, calmly — and without selling you anything before you understand what it is about.

First: proximity and duration decide, not alarm

Before you build, measure or buy anything, a plain inventory is worth the effort. Two things determine whether a source plays any role in your daily life at all: how close it is to you, and how long you are exposed to it.

The mast at the edge of town occupies people’s minds; the device on the bedside table occupies eight hours of every night. That is why the bedroom is where you start — not because more happens there, but because it is where you stay longest. And that is why an honest list of your own devices usually achieves more than any measure applied to the building envelope. For most people, that list is shorter than they feared.

Two different things that often get lumped together

“Shielding” is not a single concept, because there are two very different kinds of fields.

High-frequency fields come from anything that transmits: WiFi routers, mobile networks, cordless phones, baby monitors, Bluetooth devices. They spread through the room and can be attenuated by conductive materials.

Low-frequency fields come from the building’s wiring: cables in the wall, extension leads, power supplies, power strips. They behave completely differently and call for completely different measures — shielding fabrics do nothing here.

Using a measure meant for one problem against the other means spending money and effort beside the point. It is the most common mistake in this field.

What works without materials, without a tradesman and without cost

The most effective steps are usually the least spectacular:

• Distance. One metre more does far more with a transmitting source than most people expect. The phone does not belong on the pillow, and the router does not belong in the bedroom.
• Cable instead of wireless. The computer on a network cable, the printer on a cable, music over a cable: any connection that does not have to transmit does not transmit.
• Night switch-off on the router. Most current routers can switch the WiFi off at night by themselves. It costs one click in the settings and works every night.
• The base station of the cordless phone. It transmits continuously, whether or not anyone is on a call. Placing it outside the bedroom is one of the most effective single steps there is — and many devices have an eco setting that markedly reduces transmission at rest.
• The baby monitor. It stands where the child sleeps and runs all night. More distance from the cot changes more here than any structural measure.

These steps cost nothing and can be done this evening. Anyone who still wants to do more after that arrives at structural measures — and should know what they are taking on.

Shielding materials: they work, but only without gaps

Shielding paints, fabrics, canopies and metallic films do attenuate high-frequency fields. That is physics, not superstition, and it can be measured.

The difficulty lies not in the material but in the absence of gaps. A field takes every route left open: windows, doors, ventilation openings, cable entries. A wall coated with shielding paint next to an untreated window moves the problem rather than solving it. Shielding paint also has to be properly earthed — without correct earthing it can achieve the opposite of what it was applied for.

Our advice, if you want to go down this road: go all the way, with an experienced specialist and with measurements before and after. Half a shield is the most expensive state of all.

Earthing the bed: only by a qualified electrician

Earthing mats and sheets are frequently recommended online. A factual safety note, independent of any question of effect: earthing intervenes in the electrical installation. You cannot tell by looking at a socket whether its protective earth is sound, and faulty earthing is a risk that has nothing to do with electrosmog any more. That belongs in the hands of a qualified electrician — even when the product comes with a plug-in adapter.

The point that is almost never mentioned

Mobile devices regulate their transmitting power according to connection quality: the worse the reception, the harder they transmit. Anyone who shields a room and keeps operating a phone, tablet or baby monitor inside it can therefore achieve precisely the opposite of what they wanted — the transmitters are then inside the shield and working against it.

Shielding only works if the sources stay outside. This is not a side note; it is the question on which most shielding projects in living spaces founder.

Do I need a meter?

For taking stock: yes, that makes sense. A meter shows you which sources play any role in your home at all, and replaces guesswork with figures. It also shows you whether a measure did what it was supposed to do.

What it does not show is our work — more on that in a moment.

Our way: not keeping fields out, but harmonizing

We do not build shields. We take a different route: we provide a harmonious vibrational field in the energy system concerned — the house, the body, water, the vehicle. In such a field, artificial frequencies can no longer create resonance.

The practical difference is easy to describe. A shield has to be planned, built, measured and kept free of gaps; it is only as good as its weakest point, and it loses value as soon as a new device arrives. A harmonized field remains in place, even if another device enters the house tomorrow.

Our products work on the information level. That also means a meter will show the same readings after one of our products is in use as it did before — we do not change the physics of the fields, and we do not claim to. Anyone who notices a change notices it in themselves. How, where and whether it shows varies from person to person and cannot be predicted.

We have described how this approach works in detail here: Harmonizing instead of shielding →

In short

Start with the sources that are closest to you and with you longest. Use what costs nothing first: distance, cable, night switch-off, the location of the phone base station. If you want to shield structurally, do it fully and with professional support — and remember that the transmitters then have to stay outside. And if you are looking for a route that needs no building work and no replanning with every new device, take a look at our approach.

Further reading

• Clearing the bedroom — the room where duration matters most.