How close can they build a pylon to your house?

ecuyetx

I am not sure if this is the appropriate place for this but I am interested to know if there is actually a legal limit on how close to you house they can build an electricity pylon.
Everyone says "oh yes there are rules they cannot build them within x metres of your house" but nobody actually seems to know what the rules are or even if there are any.
Does anyone know?
Tony E.

System

Considering the number of homes around the country that either have a pylon leg in the garden or just the other side of the fence then I think the answer is 'pretty damn close'

System

This answers your question:

http://www.emfs.info/policy/property-uk/

ecuyetx

Thanks guys, it looks like from the link you sent, that there isn't really a legal limit to how close they can be.
There are supposedly safe distances that people should be from the cables based on the amount of current they are carrying, but then they say there is no minimum distance they need to be from houses.
Seems a bit crazy to me. But also explains why everyone says there are limits but nobody knows what they are, because there are actually no minimum distances specified!
Tony E.

System

ecuyetx wrote: »

Thanks guys, it looks like from the link you sent, that there isn't really a legal limit to how close they can be.
There are supposedly safe distances that people should be from the cables based on the amount of current they are carrying, but then they say there is no minimum distance they need to be from houses.
Seems a bit crazy to me. But also explains why everyone says there are limits but nobody knows what they are, because there are actually no minimum distances specified!
Tony E.

Houses would fall under the other locations of Schedule 2 of The Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002

lstar337

ecuyetx wrote: »

Thanks guys, it looks like from the link you sent, that there isn't really a legal limit to how close they can be.
There are supposedly safe distances that people should be from the cables based on the amount of current they are carrying, but then they say there is no minimum distance they need to be from houses.
Seems a bit crazy to me. But also explains why everyone says there are limits but nobody knows what they are, because there are actually no minimum distances specified!
Tony E.

Well, we have a pole front and back of our house that carries four cables in a line (not sure on voltage etc.), which are then twisted together and slung across the top of the house (about 30CM above the apex of the roof, which is about 1.5M above where we sleep), presumably because the 4 wires in a line wouldn't fit over in a line.

So it seems they can get pretty damn close. Not that I care about EMF.

D_M_E

This seems to me to be another case of passing the buck, everybody says something but nothing ever gets done.


I think there should be a limit to how close living space can be constructed in proximity to power lines.


It's not just the emf radiation, there has also been cases of lightning strikes on the power cables arcing to the ground, and if the happened to be a house in the path of the arc, it's likely to severely damaged.


There was some work done a few years ago which showed that power lines had a tendency to concentrate cosmic rays.

NeverInDebt

I always remember this one in news a few years back

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1354253/For-sale-Bungalow-sea-views-bargain-99-950-pylon-thrown-in.html