Will a power conditioner help me?

[20to20K]

I'm getting static interference thoughout my house coming through anything with a speaker on it. My audio speakers, TV, telephone...even my clock radio. It quite annoying and my equipment doesn't even need to be on to get it(but it is plugged in). It happens mostly on my clock radio at night...a crackling and buzzing electrical interference noise.

I live very close (about 3 miles) to an International Airport and I'm wondering if it's possibly RF inteference between the planes and the tower. Whenever I hear it at night I always seem to hear a plane nearby as well. But that could be a coincindence since planes are almost ALWAYS nearby.

Anybody had any experience with this? Would a power conditioner address this. If not what would besides moving?

 

[HookedOnSound]

Is it constant? Or is there a pattern?

Do you have appliances in your house that could be causing the noise? I don't know which region of the country where you live but if maybe your furnace is the culprit? Heat/exchange unit? Motors are notorious for causing problems.

Those are some of the basic things to look into. Maybe try a surge suppressor with some good noise filtering or a line conditionner.

If this problem is not isolated to just your house, your neighbors are probably affected as well, try talking to them. This could really save you some time and frustration.

Other steps involve contacting your local electricity supplier and/or professional consultants but this is not always easy or cheap.

Good Luck,

 

[miklorsmith]

Maybe

If you decide a power conditioner must be tried, I'd demo some in-home before buying. There are so many flavors, and there is such a wide disparity of opinion about their effectiveness that I can't imagine research alone would get you the best solution. What if a 50% solution can be had for $100? What if it would cost $2k to get 90% effectiveness?

These are possibilities, however there may be an 80% solution available for $200. I truly don't think you can know without trying several in your home.

It is also possible that other measures would be effective without the expense. HookedOnSound has some good sleuthing possibilities. I'd try these first.

 

[sjdgpt]

Is this a new problem? Or has it existed to some degree for a long time?

Yes, a line conditioner would help. BUT, as noted by others, how much line conditioner you would need is going to be a huge question.

Personally, I would start with an inexpensive line conditioner. Rat Shack sells a nice multiple outlet HT unit for about $55. But even that one could be overkill for your needs.

Why the inexpensive units? Well, comparing units in the dreaded Monster brand, the biggest improvement between their $50 unit and their $200 unit is basically the number of outlets, telephone and cable outlets, and the joules of surge protection. There is some internal noise reduction features, but the amount of noise isolation improvement to be had with those features is minimal.


Start cheap, 40 or 50db of noise reduction could be all you need to improve the problem.


By the way, yes the problem could be with the airport. Relocated antenna, new more powerful broadcast equipment, repairs or maintenance on existing broadcast equipment, changes in air traffic patterns etc etc.... good luck in tracking down that kind of information.

Or the problem could have absolutely no correlation with the airport.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I'm getting static interference thoughout my house coming through anything with a speaker on it. My audio speakers, TV, telephone...even my clock radio. It quite annoying and my equipment doesn't even need to be on to get it(but it is plugged in). It happens mostly on my clock radio at night...a crackling and buzzing electrical interference noise.

I live very close (about 3 miles) to an International Airport and I'm wondering if it's possibly RF inteference between the planes and the tower. Whenever I hear it at night I always seem to hear a plane nearby as well. But that could be a coincindence since planes are almost ALWAYS nearby.

Anybody had any experience with this? Would a power conditioner address this. If not what would besides moving?

If it is the RF from the airport, my feeling on th eissue, power conditioner will not help as it is coming through the component case besides the house wire. But, if you can try one free, no questions asked, why not.
Do you have any electronic dimmers in the house? That could be a killer on AM radios. It it is coming to the speakers alone without radio on, it is indeed the radars around the airport and will be there after the conditioning too.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

I'm getting static interference thoughout my house coming through anything with a speaker on it. My audio speakers, TV, telephone...even my clock radio. It quite annoying and my equipment doesn't even need to be on to get it(but it is plugged in). It happens mostly on my clock radio at night...a crackling and buzzing electrical interference noise.

I live very close (about 3 miles) to an International Airport and I'm wondering if it's possibly RF inteference between the planes and the tower. Whenever I hear it at night I always seem to hear a plane nearby as well. But that could be a coincindence since planes are almost ALWAYS nearby.

Anybody had any experience with this? Would a power conditioner address this. If not what would besides moving?

Check your fuse box's ground outside. It's possible it may have come loose. How old is the house? Is the fuse box original? Does it need replaced? We live near an airport and get none of the interference you are talking about. That is a serious problem.

I had a customer (I'm in the construction field) that lived under high power lines and their aluminum siding was acting like a ground. Their kid was constantly sick and always in and out of the hospital. They've had their house on the market for 5 years and cannot sell it because of the electrical interference, not to mention the health hazard. Are there any high power lines near you?

 

[mtrycrafts]

not to mention the health hazard. ?

Can you post some citations on this new discovery, health due to power lines?

 

[philh]

Can you post some citations on this new discovery, health due to power lines?

I've always wondered if the health claims were just junk science.

Interesting observation this year. I live on a flooded river, fairly narrow, few hundred feet across. Hadn't noticed it past years, but this year, the lake was mostly thawed, actual river had been thawed for a couple of weeks, except for directly underneath the HT power lines. Even the river under the power lines was still frozen.

 

[twheeloc]

Similar Problem

When I was in College in Boston my roommate had a problem with his computer monitor being all mixed up with distortion and such. After spending hours with multiple Tech support people from Dell, he finally got someone who asked where he lived. Ironically the problem was the Boston Airport reasonably nearby. The Solution: Putting tinfoil around the back of the monitor casing to shield it. Seemed funny but it worked like a charm. Point being if it's the airport then most likely a powerconditioner will only lessen the problem slightly, try tinfoil around the alarm clock as a test...cheap test and may answer the question about the powerconditioner.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I've always wondered if the health claims were just junk science.

Interesting observation this year. I live on a flooded river, fairly narrow, few hundred feet across. Hadn't noticed it past years, but this year, the lake was mostly thawed, actual river had been thawed for a couple of weeks, except for directly underneath the HT power lines. Even the river under the power lines was still frozen.

WOW
Yet another mystery

While this link is about cancer and electricity, it would follow:

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/emf.html

 

[philh]

WOW
Yet another mystery

While this link is about cancer and electricity, it would follow:

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/emf.html

Good article. I started looking on the internet, which is always right , trying to understand what might cause the ice to still be intact under the power lines. While I said I hadn't noticed it before, that doesn't mean it hasn't happened before. Mostly because the lake thaws in a couple of days, first time in awhile it's been totally frozen with a very slow thaw. Anyway, closest thing I found, and unfortunately don't have the link anymore, was a phd study of the H2O phase tranformation molecular bond under the influence of EMF(?). The theory implied there was an increased strength due to better(?) alignment caused by the field, however slight. Physicists acquaintence is unable to explain this either. I'll have to watch it next year, but this year was unusual in both the way the ice formed and melted.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Good article. I started looking on the internet, which is always right , trying to understand what might cause the ice to still be intact under the power lines. While I said I hadn't noticed it before, that doesn't mean it hasn't happened before. Mostly because the lake thaws in a couple of days, first time in awhile it's been totally frozen with a very slow thaw. Anyway, closest thing I found, and unfortunately don't have the link anymore, was a phd study of the H2O phase tranformation molecular bond under the influence of EMF(?). The theory implied there was an increased strength due to better(?) alignment caused by the field, however slight. Physicists acquaintence is unable to explain this either. I'll have to watch it next year, but this year was unusual in both the way the ice formed and melted.

Good observation and lots of notes would help
I am not sure how well H2O can better aligne to make a better water molecule but then I am not in that league of experts. Maybe some other expert explanation of such field interaction with that molecule

I wonder how high the wires, how much Voltage it carries and fromt hat a field can be calculated by someone. I bet it is miniscule field to affect the molecule much. Salt on the lake/river? who knows.

 

[philh]

Good observation and lots of notes would help
I am not sure how well H2O can better aligne to make a better water molecule but then I am not in that league of experts. Maybe some other expert explanation of such field interaction with that molecule

I wonder how high the wires, how much Voltage it carries and fromt hat a field can be calculated by someone. I bet it is miniscule field to affect the molecule much. Salt on the lake/river? who knows.

It didn't make it a better water molecule, but a stronger bond during the phase transformation. I have absolutely no idea, it's well out of my league. Power lines are typical HT power plant to station lines. I used to know the voltage, don't remember, but 115k sticks in my head. What makes this even more interesting, the lake is a flooded river, so water is always moving.