Home very close to High Voltage Power Lines

[Buck Parrish]

A friend is considering buying a lot and building a home near a large set of the large high power lines.
His house would be 150 feet from them.
This is a country setting with few houses in the area.


He asked me what I thought about stray voltage , etc...
Any thoughts on should he build thier or look for an other lot ?
Thanks

 

[cadpoint]

NC State did a study oh about 2 - 3 years ago on stray emf and power lines
and it was quickie dismissed but the POCO's... Not the correct tested applications, not this, not that...

Tell your friend to go to the property at night walk out from the property line toward the power lines holding a clean 4' flouresent lamp in the center of the tube... ... I think, he can make the judgement call from that.

 

[Hameedulla-Ekhlas]

A friend is considering buying a lot and building a home near a large set of the large high power lines.
His house would be 150 feet from them.
This is a country setting with few houses in the area.


He asked me what I thought about stray voltage , etc...
Any thoughts on should he build thier or look for an other lot ?
Thanks

The three most common sources of residential 60Hz magnetic fields are electric appliances, the grounding system of the residences and nearby power lines. high voltage transmission lines produce relativeely high magnetic fields directly under them. It depends on
1- voltage on line
2- height of poles or tower

Here is a table which gives some information

 

[gar]

100714-1752 EST

One day a while ago I went around the country side to find a place where I could look for ground current below a 345 KV transmission line. Finding an isolated place where I could park and there was some flat ground took me by accident to the tie point between eastern and western Michigan. That is between DTE and Consumers Power. I do not know where my notes are but over a 12 foot distance I was not over a couple tenths of a volt, maybe less than 100 millivolts. Basically the same as my back yard, and i do not have a grounded Y supply. My daughter has a ground Y supply and the readings are not much different in her yard.

For various reasons I would not plan to build a home or business any closer than 1000 ft or more from high voltage lines. This is a judgement mostly unrelated to technical reasons, but does relate to line of sight.

If I am building a large industrial plant, then I would expect high voltage lines coming to it and my own substation. A different criteria. Building a home next to high voltage lines is not good for resale.

.

 

[zog]

A friend is considering buying a lot and building a home near a large set of the large high power lines.
His house would be 150 feet from them.
This is a country setting with few houses in the area.


He asked me what I thought about stray voltage , etc...
Any thoughts on should he build thier or look for an other lot ?
Thanks

If you care to read a couple hundred pages of data I can send you some stuff but here are the clif notes. HV power lines have been found to alter cell structures and development, and to cause an increase in certian cancers in laboratory animals but there is not any solis evedence of harm to humans, the specific research was focued around the largest conerns which is childhood lukemia. I have read all of the research papers and don't have a solid answer but I can say as a family man, I would not buy that house.

 

[SG-1]

And then one stormy, rainy night one of the lines fall.

 

[jeremysterling]

Ugly to look at and noisy too. I would graze the cows there and live further away.

 

[dbuckley]

150feet is not "near" HV lines.

Many houses are built under these sorts of lines...

 

[gar]

100714-2312 EST

dbuckley:

Because it is done does not mean it should be, or that I want to be that close.

There is no necessity to build under power lines for residential property.

.

 

[76nemo]

NC State did a study oh about 2 - 3 years ago on stray emf and power lines
and it was quickie dismissed but the POCO's... Not the correct tested applications, not this, not that...

Tell your friend to go to the property at night walk out from the property line toward the power lines holding a clean 4' flouresent lamp in the center of the tube... ... I think, he can make the judgement call from that.

Never heard of that. Maybe something I can "YouTube". What would one expect?

 

[76nemo]

Okay, don't want to hijack Buck's thread, but don't think it's worthy of a new one. One of the fronts they are using up here to stop windfarms is that in a "fair" share of people, they can create migraine headaches

I know that's what Google is for, but I like thee advice from people I trust on an electrical forum over some "taffy" I might find somewhere else.

Again, I do not want to take away from Buck's question, just curious.

 

[gar]

100715-1843 EST

I have never taken a fluorescent bulb under a high voltage line, but if the voltage gradient is sufficient it should light.

A long time ago I gave a demonstration of my 2 meter transmitter and beam antenna. I used a 20 W fluorescent bulb to demonstrate the beam pattern with the light intensity being an indicator of the RF intensity. With a 25 W transmitter I was lighting the bulb maybe 10 ft away.

.

 

[mivey]

If you care to read a couple hundred pages of data I can send you some stuff but here are the clif notes. HV power lines have been found to alter cell structures and development, and to cause an increase in certian cancers in laboratory animals but there is not any solis evedence of harm to humans, the specific research was focued around the largest conerns which is childhood lukemia. I have read all of the research papers and don't have a solid answer but I can say as a family man, I would not buy that house.

I seem to recall the data I have as saying that while strong fields don't cause cancer (not enough power to break down the cells), they reduce the production of certain enzymes(?) that help the body fight cancer. They also interfere with the biological clocks in animals.

 

[poeboy]

I have heard Lineman tell tales of EMF's from high voltage causing them to go sterile.... How much truth there is to those tales I have no idea. Truthfully, it seems pretty far fetched to me.


A long time ago I bought a property near some 100KV transmission wires. I sold the place for nearly 4X what I had bought it for 15 years earlier. The original plan for that property was going to be my retirement castle, but I moved away from that area.

I don't think I would enjoy being in a mist or gentle rain right next to those wires (the buzzing and crackling sounds might bug me). But I do think that the POCO cares enough about them that they are well maintained, so short of a violent EQ, or Hurricane, they aren't gonna go anywhere anytime soon.

 

[Cow]

The HV lines over here, I think they head down to CA and are around 250-500kV make a lot of buzzing and crackling. I'd think that'd get pretty old.

 

[Buck Parrish]

Thanks for all the comments. I had taken off for a few days. But my freind ( who is not an electrician) was reading the all the post.
He said the info was great and he probably won't buy the house. Mainly for resale of course.

 

[robbietan]

150 ft ~ 45 meters

yeah, if that was me, I would buy that house. I would first use the EMF scary scenario to bring the price down though.

seriously, I have used a gaussmeter (Bell 4080) and measured under 115kV and 230kV as well as 34.5kV power lines. None even came close to the 833 mG limit by the World health organization and i was standing right under the lines.

using the original post as an example, at around 45 meters away plus assuming the height of the power lines at around 90 feet (27 meters approx) - I would say could get around 5 mG especially if I measure during peak loading time of the transmission line.