Can EMF's cause a device,appliance,etc to turn on without being plugged in?

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HeXen

HeXen

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Dec 13, 2009
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So you may have heard of power beaming, the radiative form of wireless electricity. Can such EMR's occur naturally and could they theoretically cause a device to turn on and power up until that energy is decayed?

So for example, if your home stereo kicks itself on then shuts off and it's not plugged in, you may think it's haunted but what would actually be occurring? A strong EMR spike is the only one I can think of, could there be other sources strong enough to power something that normally requires 110 volts?
 
Red Squirrel

Red Squirrel

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May 24, 2003
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I imagine in theory it would be possible for energy to couple with the low voltage side (skipping conversion losses) though I can't imagine such energy being more than enough to light up a few LEDs. Maybe make a LCD screen flash a few times or something. When I was a kid I built a crystal radio and it needed no batteries. It picked up enough energy from the air waves to power the earpiece. Not knowing much about electricity back then, I connected it to a step up transformer thinking I would get more energy out of it, of course it didn't do anything. :p
 
Red Squirrel

Red Squirrel

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FeuerFrei

FeuerFrei

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Mar 30, 2005
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Spirits have a history of tampering with such things. I wouldn't rule that out. It could actually be occurring. People do stuff to trigger it.

I'd probably be asking the same questions though - about natural causes. Because that's what you hope for :D
 
NAC4EV

NAC4EV

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Feb 26, 2015
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Check this out.
Sadly the sound editing is poor.
RF energy can do this as well.


 
Last edited:
Thebobo

Thebobo

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Jun 19, 2006
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Dad had an old 1K tube transmitter for his Ham setup and anywhere near that with a florescent bulb would light as he was sending out code.
 
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PowerEngineer

PowerEngineer

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Oct 22, 2001
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Well, theoretically yes. Note that those florescent bulbs glow (weakly) because of the differences in the EMF strength (akin to voltage) between one end and the other, however the amount of power that can be drawn is very small. The effect is something like that of a Van de Graff generator. Loops of wire held with their axis at right angles to the power line will also see induced currents (can also happen to long wire fences paralleling transmission right-of-ways). Again, the amount of power that can be drawn is small, and I would say too small to power something like a stereo system.

A somewhat related phenomenon that I have witnessed is radio station signals strong enough to induce currents large enough to be amplified by a stereo's phonograph preamp and amplifier even though there was no record playing.
 
FeuerFrei

FeuerFrei

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PowerEngineer said:
A somewhat related phenomenon that I have witnessed is radio station signals strong enough to induce currents large enough to be amplified by a stereo's phonograph preamp and amplifier even though there was no record playing.
Click to expand...
Yes yes. I've seen my sub act as a radio. quietly playing some broadcast. Guess the input cable acts as a radio antenna.
Of course it was plugged in ... not like the OP's.
 
Ken g6

Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
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Dec 11, 1999
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I've heard speakers near a smartphone make noise when the phone was transferring a lot of data. I think the devices were plugged in, but not powering the speakers.
 
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