But if you do move the meter outside it would make it easier to separate the effects of acoustic, electrically conducted, and directly radiated emissions. If you can get your problems to be dominated by just conducted effects then in-line filtering where it enters the house becomes possible.
Note that turning things off  at the circuit breaker usually only breaks the live core, not the neutral or earth, (main switch and RCDs are normally L and N )so if doing  that helps (and the improvement is not just due to reduced loads) then in-line filtering of the live cores also ought to work. It also suggests that shielded wiring may also help you . (does not have to be earthed conduit, but there are wiring types that ought to be a lot better than twin and earth.)

Mike

Hi Mike, Andrew & co. Thank you for all your helpful advice.

Had UK Powernet around this morning to quote for moving the mains supply outside the house to move the meter outside. We also have an appointment with our supplier British Gas to change the meter in a month. That was soonest they could do. I was very specific with the British Gas person I spoke to and she took down in the notes to change it to an "analogue meter because of tinnitus". I thought it was important for them to have that against the issue.

We have had confirmation emails/text that say 'all booked in for changing up to a new smart meter' which doesn't bode well, but we're hoping that's just stock communication.

In meantime we have possibility of someone with appropriate equipment to test for radio waves so if that pans out I will post any results here.

Also going to speak to new electrician next week about the internal wiring, lighting,etc to see what we can do about that. I have printed out this thread so will discuss your suggestions Mike with him so thanks for those.

We have been running the house (internet hub, tv) off only the kitchen ring for about a month now with all lights, underfloor heating and fire alarm system off. So we've ruled them out as primary tinnitus cause. Which leaves only the meter as possible cause.

I have tried to stay out of the house as much as possible, working in the garden and even sleeping in the shed the last couple of nights. Which gave me a full nights rest for the first time in around a month. My wife has been sleeping with earplugs in but not well and is going to try room furthest away from the meter tonight. Her tinnitus is strongest at night and early morning and for both of us, even with only the kitchen zone turned on, unfortunately it seems to be getting slowly worse. 

Thanks, Mark. 

Hi Mike, Andrew & co. Thank you for all your helpful advice.

Had UK Powernet around this morning to quote for moving the mains supply outside the house to move the meter outside. We also have an appointment with our supplier British Gas to change the meter in a month. That was soonest they could do. I was very specific with the British Gas person I spoke to and she took down in the notes to change it to an "analogue meter because of tinnitus". I thought it was important for them to have that against the issue.

We have had confirmation emails/text that say 'all booked in for changing up to a new smart meter' which doesn't bode well, but we're hoping that's just stock communication.

In meantime we have possibility of someone with appropriate equipment to test for radio waves so if that pans out I will post any results here.

Also going to speak to new electrician next week about the internal wiring, lighting,etc to see what we can do about that. I have printed out this thread so will discuss your suggestions Mike with him so thanks for those.

We have been running the house (internet hub, tv) off only the kitchen ring for about a month now with all lights, underfloor heating and fire alarm system off. So we've ruled them out as primary tinnitus cause. Which leaves only the meter as possible cause.

I have tried to stay out of the house as much as possible, working in the garden and even sleeping in the shed the last couple of nights. Which gave me a full nights rest for the first time in around a month. My wife has been sleeping with earplugs in but not well and is going to try room furthest away from the meter tonight. Her tinnitus is strongest at night and early morning and for both of us, even with only the kitchen zone turned on, unfortunately it seems to be getting slowly worse. 

Thanks, Mark. 

For some reason I got a notification which drew my attention to this thread once more.

Let's get something clear: electricity does not stimulate the cochlea unless it is applied directly by a cochlear implant. The same goes for radio waves, 5G masts, etc. That also goes for the auditory pathways and the cerebellar cortex.

You might just as well blame the wearing of red clothes as blame the electrical installation - both would be equally valid.

Chris, I could feel the ringing in my ears increase as soon as the meter recently installed was turned on. The previous meter put pains in my ears and made me flinch forward when it was turned on followed by tinnitus after a calm hour of the electricity being off once the L+G E470 was turned off.

Me, Mark and Dan are in the same horrible trouble with tones in our ears once smart meters were installed. Mark even has the L+G E470 as triggered my tinnitus at the beginning. Mark and I find the tinnitus dies down away from the house and sleep better outsude of the house. We've ruled out everything else as the cause. There's lots of people on other forums complaining of tinnitus after meter installations. For a possible explanation of what is happening for meters to cause tinnitus please see the research document from Norway produced for 10 people who feel strong enough to go to court other their decline in health including tinnitus, insomnia and fatigue. (See post: engx.theiet.org/.../123148) Whether the science in that document stands up in a Norwegian court or not, I am in no doubt about the harm to my health that the digital meters that have been installed in my house have caused to my health. The circumstances in which the tinnitus and other effects, can be reduced with a Faraday Cage and my testing points to low frequencies causing biological effects, something which the ICNIRP low frequency guidance acknowledges is possible. They have accepted my experience for inclusion in their review of this guidance which a lot of people are campaigning for them to get tightened up.

I look forward to the day when my meter is changed to one that does not emit low frequencies by way way of good noise suppression or back to an induction powered analogue meter. On two occasions the latter was promised and I was hoping to reporting back to the forum the results. Unfortunately the industry and government policy is making that return to an analogue meter virtually impossible while I have to continue suffering from what is a very serious problem which began the day the L+G meter was installed with people who are in disbelief of what is a debilitating condition which is not some kind of allergic psychosomatic response. The lack of recognition that this is happening to people is a major block in getting changes made.

Chris, 

You are missing the causality.

Tinnitus comes inter alia as a physiological reaction to sound waves. Such triggering sound waves are overtones and undertones to other ultrasound and infrasound waves. These waves are caused by mechanical vibrations. Such mechanical vibrations are well-known to occur in and emanate from electronic equipment. 

This kind of causal chain should also be well-known to a person such as yourself. I am puzzled as to why you would be trivialising the phenomenon. 

Given the existence of such causal chains, the further question is whether this is actually occurring in AR Brearley's case. He has measured the sound environment in the environment of his meter. He has found peaks which are Helmholtz-related to his prime tinnitus frequency, and has shared the measurements with us on this thread. Prima facie there is reason to think his tinnitus is being exacerbated by such sound/ultrasound waves.

He is, however, finding it very difficult indeed to engage others. Someone needs to visit, investigate and reproduce his measurements, and then explain them causally. Nobody competent seems motivated to do so. 

Peter Bernard Ladkin said:

Tinnitus comes inter alia as a physiological reaction to sound waves.

No, that is simply not true. What you describe is hearing.

Peter Bernard Ladkin said:

These waves are caused by mechanical vibrations. Such mechanical vibrations are well-known to occur in and emanate from electronic equipment.

Indeed. I happened to walk past a large substation this week and there was a fairly loud humming coming from it.

Chris,

What I said is exactly true.

You need to revisit your physiology. Since loud rock music became popular, there is significant study of this, not least amongst musicians and roadies. And the results of all this study is why, for example, Germany has strict laws regulating sound emissions in public venues.

No, that is wrong again. There is an association between hearing impairment and tinnitus. Exposure to loud noise causes an initial temporary threshold shift and accompanying tinnitus: that is physiological. If it continues, it becomes a permanent threshold shift ± tinnitus: that is pathological.

The UK also has laws concerning exposure to noise at work. That is why you see musicians wearing ear pieces nowadays.

In any event, what has this to do with a smart meter?

Do you have any medical or physiological basis for claiming I am wrong? If so, please present your reasoning.

There are no sensible limits or product standards for exposure to ultrasound however, and the acoustic limits we have are quite high, being related to avoiding occupational hearing loss, not just discomfort.

It is known that most people are sensitive to ultrasound to some degree more or less, and there are some fairly dodgy products available online that exploit that effect.  Now I am not suggesting that the electricity meter radiates acoustically at a level that compares to vehicle mounted crowd control devices or the self defence "pain field generator" linked to above, but as with normal sound there is a huge range between things that keep a sensitive person awake, and the level that causes hearing loss. Many switch mode power supplies generate what is in effect a supersonic transformer buzz, at levels that may be legal, but may  still be a significant nuisance to some fraction of the population.

There are also questions as to if some folk can detect electric fields directly as well. Of course we all can when it is a huge DC field and the  fine hairs stand up with approaching thunderstorms etc,  but some seem considerably more sensitive than that.

Mike.

Thanks Mike. As discussed previously, the evidence does point to the problem being caused by acoustically and electrically noisy switched-mode power supplies used by some, maybe not all, digital meters. In my case, it is certainly nothing to do with smart meter functionality. The electricity meter now fitted is not even a smart meter.

A lot of other people are reporting tinnitus immediately following meter installations on other forums. There are some people around the world who have worked out that switched-mode power supplies are causing harm. The controversy and conspiracy theories surrounding smart meters are too loud and get in the way of sensible discussion. In government circles it seems a taboo area, probably due to failing installation targets, technical problems and excessive costs that the news media enjoying reporting so often. As an IET member, I thought there was no better place than here to report my problems and findings, have a sensible discussion, get help, get the problem recognised and ultimately help stop the problem affecting others, some of whom will be suffering without a clue the source could be their meter.

Just a few reminders of my situation before things stray off course a little bit too far:

• I haven't had active smart meters since 16 Feb, that's before I started this discussion. The smart turned dumb electricity meter was replaced on 11 July with a pre-smart era digital display meter. The 3 different digital electricity meters have resulted in 3 different intensities of tinnitus. Turning the smart meters dumb on 16 Feb made no difference to the high pitch tone I was suffering at that time with the second meter installed.
• No other electrical devices in my house have been installed on or since 9 Feb.
• The high pitch tinnitus occurs all around the house, it subsides only by leaving the premises. After fitting a Faraday Cage, effects are less intense. There are some places where the instensity is worse than others not necessarily always closer to the meter. The fewer cables near me the better, eg the bathroom. Sleep is improved by turning the ring main supplying the bedroom off at night. (Weather permitting, I sleep outside.)
• When away from home, the tinnitus fades very slowly, except at other premises where ultrasound background noise shows up on the sound analyser app on my phone. If it was not tinnitus and just a high pitch tone from the meter I was hearing, the tone would completely stop when far enough away from the house not to hear it.
• Unlike the previous digital electricity meters, the digital display meter now fitted seems to make no acoustic sound within my hearing range. (15kHz is the max tone I can hear, around 1kHz above the tinnitus tone.)
• I had my ears tested in March, the result was very good for someone of my age with only a mild drop off in the 7 to 8 kHz range.
• I am struggling to get my energy company to reinstall an analogue meter to revert me back to 'normality' prior to 9 Feb. The Energy Ombudsman has given up on me after promising they would instruct my energy company to refit a traditional analogue meter in accordance with a letter I presented them from my doctor, after declaring that the replacement digital meter was a traditional meter. (Complaint with them now in progress.)
• I have not found another energy company to switch to that are willing to refit an analogue meter even when they have them in stock. I have not been able to have a reasonable conversation with any of them about the choice of a new meter that they can install to ensure it is fitted with adequate noise suppression of its power supply.

I am hurting, I am tired, I am very fed up. My life since 9 Feb has been nothing like it ought to be. I have spent a lot of time and effort researching this while far from being well. I am seeing doctors more often than both me and they would like. Having a 14kHz tone buzzing around my head is debilitating. There is little the doctors can do about it except they do agree though that the meter needs changing back to analogue. Sadly the top researcher in the UK I had been hoping to discuss the matter with has recently passed away. I have recently been trying to contact other medical specialists who may be able to confirm or help establish scientific proof of the problem.

To be told by anyone I am not suffering because of the digital electricity meters I've had, despite all the evidence, testing and mitigation techniques I've discovered, simply hurts me even more and I am sure Dan and Mark are extremely annoyed at any such suggestions after their own investigations and ongoing ordeals after having new meters fitted. We need the problem recognising and solutions finding. We do have problems, truly horrible ones and on so many fronts because of the disbelief by those who do not have or do not understand the sensitivity issues we are experiencing to these meters.