Why is the reading high with everything switched off?

Question

Why does my meter still read high when everything is switched off?

Answer

For an electric-field or body-voltage reading, this is expected: the field exists whenever a conductor is energised, regardless of whether current flows, so wiring in the wall behind the bed and a switched-off-but-plugged-in lamp both still produce it. Unplugging at the socket, or fitting a demand switch on the circuit, removes it — switching off at the appliance does not. If it is a magnetic-field reading that stays elevated everywhere and does not fall off with distance, suspect net current from a shared or crossed neutral, which is a wiring fault for an electrician rather than an EMF mitigation problem.

Related records

• Bedroom wiring AC electric field

  Live conductors in walls and in lamp flex create a power-frequency electric field that couples to the body whether or not any current flows; building biology grades below 1 V/m with ground reference as 'no anomaly'.

  Sources & emitters

• Net current (wiring error)

  When the current flowing out on a circuit does not return on the same cable, the imbalance radiates a magnetic field across the whole building.

  Glossary

• Demand switch (Netzfreischalter)

  A relay in the consumer unit that de-energises a circuit when no load is drawing current and re-energises it when a switch is thrown, eliminating the bedroom AC electric field overnight.

  Shielding & remediation

Sources

1. sbm-2024 Building Biology Evaluation Guidelines for Sleeping Areas (SBM-2024) — Institut für Baubiologie + Nachhaltigkeit (IBN), 2024. ngo, link checked 2026-08-12.
2. niehs-emf Electric and Magnetic Fields — National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. government, link checked 2026-08-12.