# Dirty electricity

> High-frequency harmonics and transients riding on mains wiring, typically from dimmers, switch-mode supplies and inverters. Not a term used in any exposure standard.

- Canonical URL: https://emfbase.com/glossary/dirty-electricity
- Collection: Glossary
- Record id: `glossary:dirty-electricity`
- Status: verified
- Last verified: 2026-08-12
- JSON: https://emfbase.com/api/glossary/dirty-electricity

## Key values

- **Category:** measurement

## Definition

Dirty electricity describes conducted voltage distortion above the power frequency, roughly 2 kHz to 1 MHz. It is measurable as harmonic content at a socket, and building-biology practice grades it more severely than the fundamental. No regulator defines an exposure limit for it, and the widely used proprietary meter index is not an exposure unit, so claims quantified only in those units cannot be compared against any standard.

## Sources

- `sbm-2024` Institut für Baubiologie + Nachhaltigkeit (IBN) (2024). *Building Biology Evaluation Guidelines for Sleeping Areas (SBM-2024)*. https://buildingbiology.com/site/downloads/SBM-2024_EVALUATION_GUIDELINES_EN.pdf — ngo, link checked 2026-08-12

Data licence: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Dataset version 2026.08.1. Retrieved from EMFBase, https://emfbase.com.

This record is reference data, not medical or legal advice. Regulatory limits, scientific guidelines and precautionary values are labelled separately and answer different questions.