House Specifications

Last updated September 20, 1999

In addition to providing a chemically-safe environment for Kathy, a second major objective is the minimization of EMFs in the home. The goals were: to enable Kathy to live comfortably in a home with the typical appliances (e.g., refrigerator, hot water heater, etc.); and to enable Kathy to resume working from home doing software consulting. For air quality and to minimize ambient EMF exposures, the house is located in a rural area of northeastern Arizona. Because of the remote location, it was necessary also to design the home to enable Dwight to work from home as a software engineer without adversely affecting Kathy's health.

Electrical Sensitivity Accommodation

(See the explanation of the nature of electrical sensitivity)

1. The floor plan of the home was designed to concentrate electrical appliances and computers as far away from Kathy's working and sleeping areas as possible. The appliances, computers, and electrical subpanel are in the southeast section of the home, while Kathy's office and bedroom are in the northwest section. The bedroom is electrically isolated from the rest of the house and a cut-off switch has been provided so that the bedroom can be electrically disconnected from the rest of the house at night.

   Due to special cabling in steel conduit for remoting the central processing unit (CPU) of her computer, Kathy will be able to use her computer and printer from her office while they are located about 50 feet away in Dwight's office.

2. A projector room was added to the floor plan to accommodate two projectors that will substitute for a computer monitor and a television set, respectively. Kathy's computer display will consist of a rear-projection screen located in the wall between her office and the projector room. The projector is being custom designed and built with the goals of minimizing EMF and chemical emissions. The keyboard and trackball will also be modified to reduce EMF emissions. The second projector provides rear-projection TV on a screen in an opening in the wall between the projector room and the living room.
3. Both the projector room and Dwight's office are being constructed as shield rooms in order to contain EMF emissions within them. They have galvanized steel walls, ceilings, and floors and RF (radio frequency emission) screening on windows and doors. Also, the steel reinforcement in the house foundation and in the exterior masonry walls has been isolated at the edges of these rooms so that the steel cannot conduct EMFs outside the shield rooms. The bedroom also has been outfitted to accommodate shield screens in the windows should blocking out EMFs become necessary in the future (due to an increase in ambient EMFs in the area).
4. Power line and phone line filters in Dwight's office provide greater than a 100 decibel reduction in emissions (military grade) from his office, and the entire house has a high-frequency power line filter to reduce emissions at switches and outlets.
5. The home wiring is contained in EMT (galvanized steel) conduit and the wires are twisted. This significantly reduces emissions from the wiring. The phone wires are contained within double-shielded cable to reduce their emissions.
6. The home has a custom Active Isolated Ground System. It eliminates stray ground current at the home site, and has already successfully detected faulty wiring of the well pump.
7. There is a remote direct current (DC) power supply for the telephone answering machines. This eliminates the need for transformers, removing them as a source of emissions.
8. The house has a lower slab with fibermesh reinforcement and an upper slab with no reinforcement. By eliminating steel reinforcement entirely, we avoid having it act as an antenna (transmitting EMFs from the two shield rooms).
9. The house has radiant in-floor heating (WIRSBO hydronic heating system) to avoid magnetic fields from baseboards. (Gas heating is not allowed due to MCS disability.)
10. The walls, ceiling, and slab are super-insulated to make electric heating affordable. Special insulation was used for MCS accommodation.
11. The sauna is super-insulated so that it will stay hot after the heater is shut off. (The intention is that the sauna will be used with the heater off.) To further reduce EMF exposures while Kathy is in the sauna, there is a switch to shut off the nearby hot water heater.
12. The entire house is lighted with recessed lighting to avoid emissions from cords for standing lamps and table lamps.
13. The outlets in the kitchen have switches so that they can be turned off when not in use, thereby eliminating the EMFs that would otherwise emanate from power cords for appliances.

MCS Accommodation

1. There is no paint at all in the interior of the house. Except for the bedroom, the walls are Keenes cement plaster.
2. The walls and ceiling of the bedroom are glazed ceramic tile, as is the floor throughout the house. The tile was adhered with latex-free thinset, and grouted with a cement and sand mixture (with no additives). The result is a surface treatment that has very low chemical emissions.
3. All cabinets, doors, and interior wood finishing is solid maple. Maple was used because it is the wood best tolerated by individuals with MCS. There is no plywood or particle board in the house at all. The maple is finished with a water-based acrylic sealer that was selected by testing for individual tolerance.
4. A HEPA filter system is used to filter supply air.
5. Duct work and a blower were installed to continuously suck stale air out of closets and cabinets.
6. Insulation is provided by Thermax foil-faced board and Miraflex hypoallergenic fiberglass bats which were selected by individual testing for tolerance.
7. Most interior wall framing is galvanized steel. The steel was used in order to avoid wood terps from wood framing. Where it was essential to use wood, we used kiln-dried hemfir that had no fungicide treatment.
8. All electrical conduit, metal duct work, and metal framing was washed before installation to remove residual oil.
9. To keep odors from insulation and other construction materials in the walls and attic from entering the air space of the house, the walls were constructed of foil-faced drywall and all seams and perforations were sealed with aluminum tape.
10. The exterior of the house was constructed of masonry blocks. By using masonry, we avoided the need for termiticides and for applying paint or another sealant.
11. The roof was constructed of steel over 2x4 hemfir purlins. This allowed us to avoid using plywood and tar paper.