Should I buy a house close to a small electrical substation???

thequant

princeofpounds wrote: »

They are harmless if you have a wall or a wire fence in the way. You are probably getting more electric field exposure from the electrical kit in your house.

This is probably true. Electric fields drop off in an inverse square law relationship. Which means at a distance of 10 m the field strength is already 1/100 th than that of 1 m away.


If the OP, is really concerned they could construct a faraday cage in their house to keep out the field and give the kids tin foil hats for when they play outside.

janed9388

I wouldn't, you've raised your concerns with yourself - what happens now if you do buy it & your child does get ill and although (most likely) completely unrelated how would you feel ? We had the same issue with a house and pulled out for that very reason. Also, this issue tends to pop up in the press on a fairly regular basis, if that's about the same time you decide you want to sell it could give you a very hard time selling at a decent price.

kaya

Aside from the hocus pocus of it all we recently viewed a house with a huge electricity pylon in the back garden, it was up for £434k whilst similar properties on the road were £200k more , of the few people who made an offer on it not one of them could secure a mortgage , I would be more concerned with being able to sell it on afterwards , I'm not sure if people are as bothered about substations but I know it will have an effect . The other question I would ask myself is what if they do discover in ten years that they are bad for your health? It took enough years of people dying from cancer before they announced that smoking caused it, what if the same happens with substations and pylons ( there isn't any proper evidence available at the moment to suggest anything untoward though )

davidmcn

kaya wrote: »

I would be more concerned with being able to sell it on afterwards , I'm not sure if people are as bothered about substations but I know it will have an effect .

As I said above, I've sold a house with a fairly chunky substation next to it, nobody even mentioned it as an issue, and it sold quickly. Admittedly that just looked like an ivy-covered brick garage, something uglier might put people off.

Februarycat

I have one at the end of my garden, it just looks like a brick garage, I don't hear any noise from it and does not bother me. Son use to like to kick the football against it when out in the garden

Kynthia

My brother bought a house next to one and has no troubles. As long as it's discounted compared to equivalent properties, and you sell it at the same discount then it shouldn't affect you financially.

BillJones

thequant wrote: »

This is probably true. Electric fields drop off in an inverse square law relationship. Which means at a distance of 10 m the field strength is already 1/100 th than that of 1 m away.
.

Only from a point source. For an infinite linear source it is 1/r, and for a finite linear source (such as a power line..l) it's between the two.

lizards

I bought a house years ago which had one on the opposite side of the road and a few doors down. I could easily hear the hum, especially at night, and hated it.

Saying that, the last house I bought had one at the end of the road and I never heard that one hum even when walking past. It must depend on the substation.

Riggster

Februarycat wrote: »

I have one at the end of my garden, it just looks like a brick garage, I don't hear any noise from it and does not bother me. Son use to like to kick the football against it when out in the garden

Exactly, and no one is going to get planning permission to build anything strange their either.

If it makes the house cheaper, great, if not don't worry.

SerialRenter

liam999uk wrote: »

Personally i don't really think it poses much health risk but i just worry about emf and him playing close to it.

Unless your child is made of a coils of wire i wouldn't worry about electromotive force!

Humans are squishy and not particularly inductive.

I would just recommend not practicing your fly fishing out in the garden.