Buying a flat opposite a school AND near an electricity sub-station

rtho782

AnotherJoe wrote: »

10 centimetres would be a safe enough distance. Its not dangerous as long as you arent living in it.
The electrical field from a light bulb 2 feet above your head (or a phone 1 millimetre from your skull) would be stronger than that from a substation 10 metres away. This is why the people who believe this stuff are away with the fairies.

I'm glad there is someone sensible here!

Given that the walls of every building you go in are ALIVE with METALLIC ELEMENTS (copper) recovered from naturally occuring minerals via PYROMETULLURGY (smelting) carrying electrical charges caused by BILLIONS of electrons moving NEAR THE SPEED OF LIGHT, and you probably carry a phone about with you everywhere you go, PROJECTING RADIATION into your body.....

A substation 10m away is irrelevant. If you're going to worry about that, you need to live off grid with no electricity.

LittleMax

AFF8879 wrote: »

I didn't know being near a sub station was linked to health issues - I thought it was only being underneath overhead power lines (and even then - the evidence is patchy).

needhouseadvice wrote: »

'Measured electromagnetic fields such as those produced by substations have been associated with health effects such as cancer, depression, dementia, infertility, miscarriage, heart problems, etc. For further details see our library article Powerfrequency EMFs and Health.'

http://www.powerwatch.org.uk/elf/substations.asp

You really should read multiple sources before making a decision. This puts another viewpoint, but the 'tinfoil hat brigade' will dismiss it out of hand as it is maintained by the electricity industry.

http://www.emfs.info/living-substation/

JP08

rtho782 wrote: »

BILLIONS of electrons moving NEAR THE SPEED OF LIGHT

Severe pedantry here, but the electrons are not moving at anywhere near that speed. They are whizzing round at a fair lick, around 100,000 metres/sec. Speed of light is 299,792,458 metres/sec, so they're doing about 0.03% of light speed.

The average speed electrons move along a wire is even lower.

About 1 metre/sec.

I remember being highly surprised by that figure back in my University days.

A good analogy : "Wondering how electrons can be so slow and still have electricity go so fast? Imagine a long plastic tube filled with ping-pong balls. You gently press on the ball at one end so that a different ball falls out the other. Both the information that you had pressed, and the energy to dislodge the ball, travel much faster than the ball you pressed.

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?SpeedOfElectrons

AnotherJoe

LittleMax wrote: »

You really should read multiple sources before making a decision. This puts another viewpoint, but the 'tinfoil hat brigade' will dismiss it out of hand as it is maintained by the electricity industry.

http://www.emfs.info/living-substation/

And how do you know I havent? Because I have.

These folk cherry pick the few favorable results of numerous studies (understanding noting about statistics), nothing they show is replicable, they will show bizarre behaviour such as calling someone on their mobile phone (1mm from skull) to complain about a substation 10meters away, despite the fields being far stronger from a phone.

Or campaign against mobile phone masts despite the fact that the further away it is the more the mobile phone right next to their head ramps the power up hugely many more times than from the mast. Its all based on illogical badly understood prejudice.

They are no different to the anti-vaccination or anti-wifi proponents, they look for evidence that backs up their position and not for that which disproves. Just as you did by jumping to a conclusion that I havent researched this stuff.

Funniest one i read was a school (in Australia IIRC) where the parent showed that her child suffered wifi-related headaches when the wifi was on as opposed to when it wasnt. Except that the wifi was on the whole time and the only difference was a bunch of little red LEDs on soem otherwise empty boxes that the person running the test switched on and off to supposedly switch the wifi on and off (No doubt parent is now coming up with a website about red LEDs)

Rant over, i feel better now.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

needhouseadvice wrote: »

Had just about talked myself into the school being OK but now reading the Homebuyer Survey there's an electricity sub-station near the property. Didn't really twig when I went to see the flat as it's bricked up and quite small but my bedroom would be overlooking it (and the school playground) as it's just a few metres away.

I'm slightly concerned about the health issues as I would like to have kids soon but also that the combination of the two would affect resale value. I'm so annoyed as there's nothing to buy in London at the moment and this would actually be a cheap purchase!

Would you steer clear? Or is it not that big a deal?

It's probably "a cheap purchase" because of these factors.

It's amazing how many people say "I've found the perfect house except it's got X wrong with it; will X affect resale value?" without realising the reason it's the perfect house is because it's cheaper than most similar houses because of X.

So yes, these things might affect resale value, just as they are affecting resale value for the previous owner making it affordable for you.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

zagubov wrote: »

I wouldn't be bothered, as I'm rational.

If you're planning to move on from there soon, you may need to worry what mix of your potential buyers are rational or, alternatively, away with the fairies.

It will will be about 10% rational, pretty much like the general population.

If someone starts shouting that trees cause cancer the newspapers will all run with it and the bulk of the population won't want to buy a house near a tree "just in case". The truth of things is neither here nor there.