I noticed with a new electric blanket I recently used if you look under the blanket in pitch black And run your fingers along the blanket you can see Very faint light emanating from your finger Tips. Definitely some kind of electromagnetic effect. It was fascinating when I discovered that. I heard this can even happen with just basic wool blankets.
That is fascinating - my first thought is it might be triboluminescence - when charges get separated by rubbing or similar process and then recombine to give off a bit of light. Apparently same thing happens with mint Lifsavers if you chew/break/rub them in a dark room. I'm definitely going to have to try a few blankets and see if I can see what you saw!
@@ChongMcBong Gaffer tape! I had heard the old cloth style electrical take did that - never occurred to me to try gaffer tape. I'm guessing it has a lot to do with the sticky stuff . I'm thinking a video on that topic might be interesting, although I probably will need to get an image intensifier to be able to video it.
@@ChongMcBong 3M Tape generates many thousands of volts and a device has been created to do just that, I forget the details but I think it was to create a high voltage for a field instrument like a geiger tube. I will get back to you If I locate the details.
Awesome video! I love the quick test also. I did not even know they were still available. I bought mine years ago from eBay used hence the blue and brown color code on mine, but I bought it quick as I could back then because I had never seen one available. Of course, eBay was one of my few choices buying online at that time.
Thanks! I got my quicktest from Newark - get generally seem to have them in all color codes and even 3 phase combination. A really great little device - I have it sitting on my workbench all the time in case I need to power up something!
YT "Big Clive" uses them and they have become popular from my understanding they are back in production. Very simple safe device RS used to have one in Bakelite.
Thanks! I always find your videos interesting! I did some experimenting on my electric blanket a few years ago. I have a newer one that claims to be DC powered rather than AC. But when I checked it, it seemed that the DC was being pulsed depending on the heat setting. Then, using my multi meter, I laid under the blanket (or on top, didn't seem to make a difference) and checked my bodies AC voltage to ground. The potential was around 20 volts, whether the blanket was on or off. Then I disconnected the electric blanket controller wire from the blanket. This didn't make much difference and my body AC voltage still read high. I realized that the wires in the blanket must be acting like an antennae for 60hz AC. Sure enough, if I turned off the lamp by my bed, the voltage would drop some. So I left the blanket disconnected and grounded one connection on the blanket. This dropped the voltage to around 2 volts and seemed to absorb some of the AC that otherwise would have gone through me. I had been using the blanket for some time without powering it on. After grounding it, I would fall asleep much more quickly in the night after waking up at 2 or 3 am; it took minutes rather than hours to fall back asleep. I feel like the 60 hz AC might have a sort of caffeine effect on me and reduce the quality of my sleep. Maybe poor sleep could explain some of the possible negative effects attributed to em fields.
Well thank you so much! Thats interesting - pulsed DC - so probably a switching power supply/control with some sort of PWM (pulse width modulation) to control the heat. So the electric and magnetic fields would have AC energy at the pulse frequency and many harmonics at higher frequencies. Your grounding the blanket and sleeping better is so interesting. The grounded blanket as you said is shielding you from the AC electric fields from various devices and wires in your home. I never would have thought it could have an influence on sleep - that is something that should be studied - who knows - with all the sleep problems people have these days, could some of it be from E fields? Very cool that you investigated that!
@ElectromagneticVideos Funny thing is that has been a hot topic lately. I came across that a few weeks back. It is sometimes called earthing blankets. It's seems as though its gaining popularity really fast?
Years ago had reason to dismantle some blankets and found the third wire was part of a series parallel arrangement for three heat settings and sometimes a thermister. I think modern blankets now have a protective conductive screen so the RCD / GFCI will operate if liquids are spilt, it is possible the wire may have PTC or is it NTC properties for self regulation. A story that may interest or bore your tribe relating to Thermographic cameras and blankets; Many moons ago a colleague and I were privately experimenting with a non destructive IR inspection technique to detect delamination caused by water ingress freezing in composites effectively splitting the component and fastenings. The project came about over a beer talking about the time Concorde pilots discovered they had lost the rudder on route to Sydney in 1989 and recent ( 2005 ish) problems with some airliners built with composites, as one aircraft type was experiencing unscheduled disassembly of the rudder in flight which was an undesirable situation !. The idea was that the larger thermal mass of water trapped in the honeycomb would take more time to return to ambient allowing the thermal camera to register this delta T once the heat source had been removed thus indicating potentially compromised epoxy laminations and water ingress, which was a serious problem for the aircraft operators as some vertical stabilisers and rudders were departing the airframe in flight with rather tragic outcomes. To prove our technique we had covered 26 foot of disassembled compromised rudder in borrowed pink and blue domestic electric blankets and yes there were comments about where we sourced the blankets. The trials were promising as it was more effective than tapping a dime / penny over the wing which was the usual test Boeing used other than expensive X ray, Gamma radiography or Ultrasound. Covering a wing with heated blankets was not very practical and soon progressed to high power IR lamps then high discharge Xenon which is what is now in use some 35 year on. Back on subject, there is a lot of electrically heated clothing now on the market I think they make use of woven carbon fibre, I am sure you will find some interesting items of apparel on AliExpress. I have an electric blanket under the carpet for the dogs to sleep on and a silicon heat pad under my metal Vickers office desk a tip learnt from the esteemed sage AVE. Interesting video, Best wishes.
I was wondering if they might do that for safety - given the low power levels it would be quite practical. Really glad to hear they are doing that. Do you know if its AC or DC? If its DC that would further take away any AC magnetic field concerns.
Another commented mentioned the pulsed DC used in some of them. I'm guessing some sort of PWM (pulse with modulation) for power control. It sure would generate a lot of RF. I wonder if anyone has experienced things like WiFi disruptions when trying to use a tablet when using an electric blanket at the same time?
Although a person normally uses an electric blanket in the winter, there are times the blanket is used in spring or fall when chilly. I assume that if you are using one and lightning strikes your house, you would be shocked head to toe. My very first time using one, I was 19 years old and I was cold so the person I stayed over night with offered an electric blanket. I was on a couch and turned the thing to high and fell asleep. I woke a few hours later , soaking wet from sweat. lol - I never did that again.
Yes - an electric blanket in a thunderstorm would be an "interesting" experience! Probably not to be recommended! Gee - your lucky it didn't short with all the salty sweat - that could have almost been as bad as lightning!
That could be it - make it harder to power it with a more "normal" power cord that doesn't have a temperature control. Given how old it is, that would make more sense than some sort of sophisticated fault detection sensor.
I noticed with a new electric blanket I recently used if you look under the blanket in pitch black And run your fingers along the blanket you can see Very faint light emanating from your finger Tips. Definitely some kind of electromagnetic effect. It was fascinating when I discovered that. I heard this can even happen with just basic wool blankets.
That is fascinating - my first thought is it might be triboluminescence - when charges get separated by rubbing or similar process and then recombine to give off a bit of light. Apparently same thing happens with mint Lifsavers if you chew/break/rub them in a dark room.
I'm definitely going to have to try a few blankets and see if I can see what you saw!
@@ElectromagneticVideos you get the same effect when peeling gaffer tape (and some other flavours of tape), it might be a nice comparison :)
@@ChongMcBong Gaffer tape! I had heard the old cloth style electrical take did that - never occurred to me to try gaffer tape. I'm guessing it has a lot to do with the sticky stuff . I'm thinking a video on that topic might be interesting, although I probably will need to get an image intensifier to be able to video it.
@@ChongMcBong 3M Tape generates many thousands of volts and a device has been created to do just that, I forget the details but I think it was to create a high voltage for a field instrument like a geiger tube. I will get back to you If I locate the details.
@@ElectromagneticVideos Your Smartphone camera on IR nightvison mode will probably see that effect
Awesome video! I love the quick test also. I did not even know they were still available. I bought mine years ago from eBay used hence the blue and brown color code on mine, but I bought it quick as I could back then because I had never seen one available. Of course, eBay was one of my few choices buying online at that time.
Thanks! I got my quicktest from Newark - get generally seem to have them in all color codes and even 3 phase combination. A really great little device - I have it sitting on my workbench all the time in case I need to power up something!
@ElectromagneticVideos
Nice to know Newark has them. I use it on the bench very often as well.
@@ThriftyToolShed I think Newark is (or was) owned by a UK company and as a result often has European stuff that other like Digikey does not have.
YT "Big Clive" uses them and they have become popular from my understanding they are back in production. Very simple safe device RS used to have one in Bakelite.
Thanks! I always find your videos interesting! I did some experimenting on my electric blanket a few years ago. I have a newer one that claims to be DC powered rather than AC. But when I checked it, it seemed that the DC was being pulsed depending on the heat setting. Then, using my multi meter, I laid under the blanket (or on top, didn't seem to make a difference) and checked my bodies AC voltage to ground. The potential was around 20 volts, whether the blanket was on or off. Then I disconnected the electric blanket controller wire from the blanket. This didn't make much difference and my body AC voltage still read high. I realized that the wires in the blanket must be acting like an antennae for 60hz AC. Sure enough, if I turned off the lamp by my bed, the voltage would drop some. So I left the blanket disconnected and grounded one connection on the blanket. This dropped the voltage to around 2 volts and seemed to absorb some of the AC that otherwise would have gone through me. I had been using the blanket for some time without powering it on. After grounding it, I would fall asleep much more quickly in the night after waking up at 2 or 3 am; it took minutes rather than hours to fall back asleep. I feel like the 60 hz AC might have a sort of caffeine effect on me and reduce the quality of my sleep. Maybe poor sleep could explain some of the possible negative effects attributed to em fields.
Well thank you so much! Thats interesting - pulsed DC - so probably a switching power supply/control with some sort of PWM (pulse width modulation) to control the heat. So the electric and magnetic fields would have AC energy at the pulse frequency and many harmonics at higher frequencies.
Your grounding the blanket and sleeping better is so interesting. The grounded blanket as you said is shielding you from the AC electric fields from various devices and wires in your home. I never would have thought it could have an influence on sleep - that is something that should be studied - who knows - with all the sleep problems people have these days, could some of it be from E fields? Very cool that you investigated that!
@ElectromagneticVideos
Funny thing is that has been a hot topic lately. I came across that a few weeks back. It is sometimes called earthing blankets. It's seems as though its gaining popularity really fast?
Years ago had reason to dismantle some blankets and found the third wire was part of a series parallel arrangement for three heat settings and sometimes a thermister. I think modern blankets now have a protective conductive screen so the RCD / GFCI will operate if liquids are spilt, it is possible the wire may have PTC or is it NTC properties for self regulation.
A story that may interest or bore your tribe relating to Thermographic cameras and blankets;
Many moons ago a colleague and I were privately experimenting with a non destructive IR inspection technique to detect delamination caused by water ingress freezing in composites effectively splitting the component and fastenings. The project came about over a beer talking about the time Concorde pilots discovered they had lost the rudder on route to Sydney in 1989 and recent ( 2005 ish) problems with some airliners built with composites, as one aircraft type was experiencing unscheduled disassembly of the rudder in flight which was an undesirable situation !.
The idea was that the larger thermal mass of water trapped in the honeycomb would take more time to return to ambient allowing the thermal camera to register this delta T once the heat source had been removed thus indicating potentially compromised epoxy laminations and water ingress, which was a serious problem for the aircraft operators as some vertical stabilisers and rudders were departing the airframe in flight with rather tragic outcomes.
To prove our technique we had covered 26 foot of disassembled compromised rudder in borrowed pink and blue domestic electric blankets and yes there were comments about where we sourced the blankets. The trials were promising as it was more effective than tapping a dime / penny over the wing which was the usual test Boeing used other than expensive X ray, Gamma radiography or Ultrasound. Covering a wing with heated blankets was not very practical and soon progressed to high power IR lamps then high discharge Xenon which is what is now in use some 35 year on.
Back on subject, there is a lot of electrically heated clothing now on the market I think they make use of woven carbon fibre, I am sure you will find some interesting items of apparel on AliExpress. I have an electric blanket under the carpet for the dogs to sleep on and a silicon heat pad under my metal Vickers office desk a tip learnt from the esteemed sage AVE. Interesting video, Best wishes.
I have a modern electric blanket and it works with low voltage adapter
I was wondering if they might do that for safety - given the low power levels it would be quite practical. Really glad to hear they are doing that.
Do you know if its AC or DC? If its DC that would further take away any AC magnetic field concerns.
Some of the blankets put out quite a bit of RF. Ones with cheap control boards connected to the long wires in the blanket, like a big antenna.
Another commented mentioned the pulsed DC used in some of them. I'm guessing some sort of PWM (pulse with modulation) for power control. It sure would generate a lot of RF. I wonder if anyone has experienced things like WiFi disruptions when trying to use a tablet when using an electric blanket at the same time?
Although a person normally uses an electric blanket in the winter, there are times the blanket is used in spring or fall when chilly. I assume that if you are using one and lightning strikes your house, you would be shocked head to toe. My very first time using one, I was 19 years old and I was cold so the person I stayed over night with offered an electric blanket. I was on a couch and turned the thing to high and fell asleep. I woke a few hours later , soaking wet from sweat. lol - I never did that again.
Yes - an electric blanket in a thunderstorm would be an "interesting" experience! Probably not to be recommended!
Gee - your lucky it didn't short with all the salty sweat - that could have almost been as bad as lightning!
3rd pin... to ensure proper alignment with the original socket? Just a thought.
That could be it - make it harder to power it with a more "normal" power cord that doesn't have a temperature control. Given how old it is, that would make more sense than some sort of sophisticated fault detection sensor.