Technology is the longevity domain where the evidence is mixed, the discourse is loud, and the cost of being precautionary is genuinely small. The framework treats it accordingly: cheap interventions, scoped to the rooms where the body is most vulnerable, no claims beyond what the literature supports.
What technology actually is, in a residence
Three exposure types matter:
- Radiofrequency: Wi-Fi, mobile, DECT cordless phones, smart-home wireless, smart meters. The exposure that gets the headlines.
- Low-frequency: 50/60 Hz wiring, transformers, motors. The exposure that lives inside walls and is least often considered.
- Dirty electricity: high-frequency transients on the building wiring, produced by switching power supplies. The exposure most homes don’t realise they have.
The MAVI 129™ Technology domain measures all three.
The thresholds that matter
The honest position: regulatory thresholds are based on thermal effects, and the question of non-thermal effects is unresolved. The framework adopts the precautionary thresholds proposed by the EU Council Resolution 1815 and by Building Biology guidelines for sleeping zones:
- Sleeping bedroom RF: target below 10 µW/m² (Building Biology “no concern”).
- Wi-Fi router placement: at least 2 m from the head of the bed; 3 m or more preferable.
- Smart-meter location: not on the wall behind a sleeping head.
- Mobile-phone charging: not on the bedside table; not under the pillow.
- Dirty electricity: filterable at the panel; standard test is the Stetzer meter or equivalent.
Source-distance is the cleanest variable. RF intensity falls with the square of distance; doubling distance quarters the exposure.
Where the design decisions actually live
For most residential projects, the technology outcome is set by four decisions:
Router and access-point placement. Centralised, away from bedrooms, scheduled to dim outside use hours. Wired backhaul to access points reduces the number of high-power radios on the property.
Bedroom sanctuary. No router, no smart-meter, no DECT phone, no charging device within 2 m of the head of the bed. Wired ethernet for any sleep-area device that benefits from connectivity. This is the single non-negotiable rule of the domain.
Wiring and dirty-electricity filtering. Switching-load segregation (LED drivers, USB chargers, variable-speed motors on dedicated circuits). Panel-level filters on circuits feeding sleeping zones if measurement warrants.
Smart-home topology. Where smart-home systems are specified, prefer wired (PoE, KNX, BACnet) over wireless mesh in habitable rooms. Where wireless is required, choose lower-power protocols (Zigbee, Z-Wave) over Wi-Fi for low-bandwidth applications.
What “technology” looks like in a MAVI Diagnostic
A residence’s Technology score is built from RF measurement at the bed and at the major sitting positions (HF35C or equivalent meter), low-frequency electric and magnetic field measurement (NFA1000 or equivalent), dirty-electricity measurement on circuits feeding sleeping zones (Stetzer meter), and an inventory of devices and their placement.
The output is a 0 to 100 sub-score and a priority intervention list. For most residences, the highest-leverage interventions are bedroom-sanctuary specification and router placement.
The single thing to do today
Stand at the head of your bed and look around. Count the things that emit RF: mobile phone, Wi-Fi router, smart speaker, smart watch, baby monitor, smart-meter on the other side of the wall. Move the ones that don’t need to be there. The MAVI Diagnostic does the measurement and produces the per-room intervention list.