Living under big power lines

[Janie Grace]

Would you buy a house (that was your dream house) under power lines? They are the kind that connect to a tower (maybe on property or right nearby). I don't know what to think about EMFs. I think the power lines are the reason this house is underpriced. I LOVE it except for those pesky power lines. They're ugly, yes... but are they really dangerous?

 

 

 

[Clemsondana]

There's a big neighborhood near us that is built under power lines. We were trick-or-treating there with friends who live in the neighborhood in a drizzle one year. As we walked under the lines, you could hear the hum...and my fingers started tingling. Apparently electricity + rain + umbrella = mild shock. :-)

 

I'm not sure about safety - I seem to remember that some of the early fears were overhyped (although I could be mis-remembering that). The neighborhood near us is full of nice houses - we have many friends who live there.

[Rosie_0801]

I wouldn't.

 

A housing estate was built right next to power lines in my suburb when I was a kid and damn near everyone living in it got cancer.

 

 

That said, I don't consider myself in any way properly informed and this is an entirely emotional response.

[Beaniemom]

We have passed on otherwise perfect houses based on them being close to heavy power lines. DH says being near the lines causes an unpleasant sensation in his metal fillings.

[creekland]

I wouldn't, but that's because I like perfection in location when I'm buying something.  View is a/the #1 consideration for us.

 

I haven't paid attention to recent studies about high powered electric lines.  If I were to be considering such a house, I'd be digging up what I could find from reliable sources.

[Seasider]

Nope. Even if you don't care, it affects your resale value. Personally, I've told realtors I don't even want to see (and inadvertently fall in love with) a house with high power lines nearby. Once in a househunt the agent pulled up to one and I told her to just keep going.

[solascriptura]

I wouldn't.

[Janie Grace]

Wow, quite the consensus! Dang it. I love this house.

[lea1]

Nope, would not even consider it.

[Paige]

No. 

[Melissa in Australia]

No

Too dangerous

[KungFuPanda]

Nope. Even if you don't care, it affects your resale value. Personally, I've told realtors I don't even want to see (and inadvertently fall in love with) a house with high power lines nearby. Once in a househunt the agent pulled up to one and I told her to just keep going.

We did the same thing, and we're not the pickiest of consumers. The house was cute, but we never got out of the car.

[Butter]

There are power lines behind my house.  They run between my neighborhood and the neighborhood behind us.  We have no problem with them nor do any of our neighbors along this street.

[MommyLiberty5013]

Soooo I bought a tool to measure EMR (nerd) and even unused outlets in the walls in the homes in which we all live emit it. The only way to avoid it is to have buried electrical lines or a home with no electricity.

 

Any power line in the air (or wall) emits it - even a single line from the street grid to a home does. As the size of the wires' voltage increases so does the EMR. If you have a house under high tension wires - the big guys - it is getting baked 24/7/365.

 

Medically, it is sort of hard to attribute cancer to all this because there can be other factors to getting cancer. But, living under or near a constant, major stream of EMR has got to do something long term to a body's cells.

 

I would RUN from this house.

 

 

[momacacia]

I'm a no also.

[heartlikealion]

No.

 

In college we watched some video about this town that had them and a lot of kids had leukemia. It's actually one of the reasons I'm not too eager to send ds to the nearest public school. I did get some comfort reading some comments here on the board because there was some space between the school and substation, but it really isn't ideal for me.

 

Also, I am the type of person that will go batty hearing a certain noise. If the power lines make a humming sound or something I would slowly go mad. When dh and I were dating he lived in a duplex where you could hear these noises from a plant in the distance at night. I'm sure he didn't notice when he toured the place because of the time of day. It might have happened during the day, too, but I wasn't usually near that window when it happened. It drove me crazy.

[heartlikealion]

Soooo I bought a tool to measure EMR (nerd) and even unused outlets in the walls in the homes in which we all live emit it. The only way to avoid it is to have buried electrical lines or a home with no electricity.

 

Any power line in the air (or wall) emits it - even a single line from the street grid to a home does. As the size of the wires' voltage increases so does the EMR. If you have a house under high tension wires - the big guys - it is getting baked 24/7/365.

 

Medically, it is sort of hard to attribute cancer to all this because there can be other factors to getting cancer. But, living under or near a constant, major stream of EMR has got to do something long term to a body's cells.

 

I would RUN from this house.

 

I wanted to buy one (fellow nerd lol) but I didn't know what to get. When we talked about ds going to the public school I thought about bringing it with me to the school.

 

[scholastica]

There are some behind our house. They're not a problem. There are people on my street who have lived here 30+ years with no problems from them. They don't make noise and we're not being baked. There's no huge cancer cluster here either. I think it's completely overblown as a worry, It reminds me of "chemtrails". As many people as live near these things throughout the country, I think we'd have an avalanche of evidence if there was really an issue.

[EmilyGF]

From this thread, it looks like a good reason not to buy it is because it'll be hard to resell. Though maybe if the price is really really cheap...

 

Emily

[heartlikealion]

There are some behind our house. They're not a problem. There are people on my street who have lived here 30+ years with no problems from them. They don't make noise and we're not being baked. There's no huge cancer cluster here either. I think it's completely overblown as a worry, It reminds me of "chemtrails". As many people as live near these things throughout the country, I think we'd have an avalanche of evidence if there was really an issue.

 

Did you interview all your neighbors to ask if they have cancer? lol. It's one of those things where it's hard to prove or disprove where people's cancer came from, but I'm pretty leery myself.

 

[Seasider]

Did you interview all your neighbors to ask if they have cancer? lol. It's one of those things where it's hard to prove or disprove where people's cancer came from, but I'm pretty leery myself.

The cancer/whatever discussion could go round and round. The fact of the matter is that it can affect resale value. That is a big consideration what investing in a house.

Edited July 3, 2017 by Seasider

[maize]

You can get an EMF meter like this one and check things out yourself:

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NC8QMKY/ref=asc_df_B00NC8QMKY5057507/?tag=hyprod-20&creative=395033&creativeASIN=B00NC8QMKY&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198082402940&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16273816723429608761&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9029679&hvtargid=pla-323400861252

 

 

When I did that I found much, much higher readings inside my house from stuff like my refrigerator and my sprinkler timer than I did when I walked over by the power lines a couple of blocks away.

[Guest]

No. No way, no how.

 

One time when we were traveling, one of our boys needed to make a roadside pitstop. We pulled over, and he and I walked out of the car around to the door of thr travel trailer we were pulling.

 

As we were walking through the mid-calf height grass, I felt ants or chiggars or something biting at my legs. Odd, I thought. Then I put the key to the door of the travel trailer and it zapped me bad. Turns out we pulled over right underneath power lines. What I thought was chiggars was small electrical zaps from each blade of grass. And the zap from the key to the door was from the power lines too. We got back into the car, drove a mile ahead, and had no problem.

[PeterPan]

http://emfinfo.org/guidelines-distance.html

 

Ok, I'm EMF sensitive (and sensitive to a bunch of other things), so it's something I'm maybe noticing more than other people. I just spent hours measuring on google maps the distance from xyz power lines near a hotel, because I had stayed at a different hotel in that same area that was closer and got VERY sick from them. I'm sensitive, and no one else in the hotel room got sick.

 

If they're power lines, you've got electrical fields and magnetic. That link gives you some suggested distances, and for *me* those distances are plenty generous, adequate, workable. High tension lines come in various voltages, depending on the lines, blah blah. Like there's high tension that is like 12K and there's high tension that is 250K, kwim? And both are called high tension.

 

So I can tell you that I have a gaussmeter and have measured off various lines, trying to decide a safe distance. Our old house was under high tension lines that were in that lower range for high tension. Because I was *at home* so much with a little one, I was feeling the constant effect of them! I think it's really different if you go to work all day, send your kids to school. I just don't think it's equivalent exposure to homeschooling, where you're going to be there ALL THE TIME. Any potential health effects will be magnified. Also, you don't know if you're one who is biologically more susceptible. We didn't realize until I lost my health, kwim?

 

Now, some other nifty things. When we were living at our old house, we worked with an EMF amelioration consultant (yes, this exists) and he wanted us to have the power company rearrange the lines and STACK them to cancel out the fields and reduce emf exposure. We had the engineer out who was the head of their EMF research (yes, the power company has people who research this, who know stuff they don't tell you), and they gave us the gaussmeter, agreed it was an issue, confirmed my body was that sensitive (I could literally tell you where it was high and low, I was a walking gaussmeter!!). But they gave us some estimate that was insanely expensive, like $60k, which basically was almost the value of the house. :(

 

A few years later, they went through and redid those transmission lines, trimming trees, replacing poles, and what do you know, but they STACKED THE LINES the way the consultant had said!!! We just laughed. We had already sold the house, but to us it was like those nasty people were ADMITTING they know these lines cause problems, admitting they could do better with the engineering to reduce exposure, and they just don't.

 

Now the other thing is, the truth is you don't know the fields till you get a gauss meter and measure. The power company will come out if you call them. Me, I would do it. It's fast, easy, and if you like the house that much you could ask. It MIGHT be that they're not that high high (250K kind) and that they're stacked in a modern way that is canceling out. There's some small hope there, sigh. 

 

Me, I would never ever encourage anyone to live under/near extremely high tension lines. However the exposure decreases exponentially with distance. Notice the math of that. It decreases exponentially with distance. So without a gauss meter, you can't really establish how far back you need to be to get back to baseline.

 

As far as the oh there's EMF everywhere, well again I've got a gaussmeter. I have special wiring in my entire house, with special shielded cable. We were very careful where we placed the electrical panels. There definitely are things to consider.

 

Cell phones are a known danger too, and I don't think most people worry about them. (I do, but that's me! I NEVER let my dd put a cell phone to her head, never ever.) 

 

So I would get the data then decide. It sounds like it's probably not going to be a good thing. And as far as what they do, well there's PLENTY of evidence that significant EMF exposure causes depression and insomnia. You can talk cancer, etc., but the depression and insomnia are the ones you'll hear regular, typical people say. (Their bed is on a wall with an electrical panel on the other side and they struggle with insomnia, that kind of thing.) The mechanism I had read about years ago was a stress reaction in the body causing carbon monoxide poisoning essentially. So to me, as someone who *is* extremely sensitive, I'm saying the thing you can definitely say is that it's a stress your body has to deal with. So people who are out, getting a lot of oxygen into their system via exercise, getting a super healthy diet to combat oxidative stress, these people might react differently. But if you're in it more hours, more hours, not going out, not getting your oxygen up, you're going to be more and more susceptible. And because I had a newborn, I wasn't going out much. It totally crashed my thyroid and ruined my health. It was AWFUL what it did to me.

 

You can find another house. Takes a lot to rebuild your health. And yes, we had a hard time selling our house because people would see the power lines and run.

[Lanny]

Very Very possibly dangerous. We lived for 9 years with HV power lines approximately I am guessing the distance 200 feet from front of the house. At least one neighbor had Cancer. Their house was much closer to the HV lines

Consider resale problems if you buy it and someday want to sell it. BAD location

 

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[Guest]

I would not.  I've read too many things about exposure.  

[heartlikealion]

The cancer/whatever discussion could go round and round. The fact of the matter is that it can affect resale value. That is a big consideration what investing in a house.

 

Of course. My point was I don't know that people necessarily always know when someone comes down with cancer. If you live in a big neighborhood and chat with your neighbors at the mailbox or whatever, you may not know that so and so was just diagnosed with cancer. I mean, they might offer that info. But they might not.

 

[Guest]

Soooo I bought a tool to measure EMR (nerd) and even unused outlets in the walls in the homes in which we all live emit it. The only way to avoid it is to have buried electrical lines or a home with no electricity.

 

Any power line in the air (or wall) emits it - even a single line from the street grid to a home does. As the size of the wires' voltage increases so does the EMR. If you have a house under high tension wires - the big guys - it is getting baked 24/7/365.

 

Medically, it is sort of hard to attribute cancer to all this because there can be other factors to getting cancer. But, living under or near a constant, major stream of EMR has got to do something long term to a body's cells.

 

I would RUN from this house.

 

 

http://emfinfo.org/guidelines-distance.html

 

Ok, I'm EMF sensitive (and sensitive to a bunch of other things), so it's something I'm maybe noticing more than other people. I just spent hours measuring on google maps the distance from xyz power lines near a hotel, because I had stayed at a different hotel in that same area that was closer and got VERY sick from them. I'm sensitive, and no one else in the hotel room got sick.

 

If they're power lines, you've got electrical fields and magnetic. That link gives you some suggested distances, and for *me* those distances are plenty generous, adequate, workable. High tension lines come in various voltages, depending on the lines, blah blah. Like there's high tension that is like 12K and there's high tension that is 250K, kwim? And both are called high tension.

 

So I can tell you that I have a gaussmeter and have measured off various lines, trying to decide a safe distance. Our old house was under high tension lines that were in that lower range for high tension. Because I was *at home* so much with a little one, I was feeling the constant effect of them! I think it's really different if you go to work all day, send your kids to school. I just don't think it's equivalent exposure to homeschooling, where you're going to be there ALL THE TIME. Any potential health effects will be magnified. Also, you don't know if you're one who is biologically more susceptible. We didn't realize until I lost my health, kwim?

 

Now, some other nifty things. When we were living at our old house, we worked with an EMF amelioration consultant (yes, this exists) and he wanted us to have the power company rearrange the lines and STACK them to cancel out the fields and reduce emf exposure. We had the engineer out who was the head of their EMF research (yes, the power company has people who research this, who know stuff they don't tell you), and they gave us the gaussmeter, agreed it was an issue, confirmed my body was that sensitive (I could literally tell you where it was high and low, I was a walking gaussmeter!!). But they gave us some estimate that was insanely expensive, like $60k, which basically was almost the value of the house. :(

 

A few years later, they went through and redid those transmission lines, trimming trees, replacing poles, and what do you know, but they STACKED THE LINES the way the consultant had said!!! We just laughed. We had already sold the house, but to us it was like those nasty people were ADMITTING they know these lines cause problems, admitting they could do better with the engineering to reduce exposure, and they just don't.

 

Now the other thing is, the truth is you don't know the fields till you get a gauss meter and measure. The power company will come out if you call them. Me, I would do it. It's fast, easy, and if you like the house that much you could ask. It MIGHT be that they're not that high high (250K kind) and that they're stacked in a modern way that is canceling out. There's some small hope there, sigh. 

 

Me, I would never ever encourage anyone to live under/near extremely high tension lines. However the exposure decreases exponentially with distance. Notice the math of that. It decreases exponentially with distance. So without a gauss meter, you can't really establish how far back you need to be to get back to baseline.

 

As far as the oh there's EMF everywhere, well again I've got a gaussmeter. I have special wiring in my entire house, with special shielded cable. We were very careful where we placed the electrical panels. There definitely are things to consider.

 

Cell phones are a known danger too, and I don't think most people worry about them. (I do, but that's me! I NEVER let my dd put a cell phone to her head, never ever.) 

 

So I would get the data then decide. It sounds like it's probably not going to be a good thing. And as far as what they do, well there's PLENTY of evidence that significant EMF exposure causes depression and insomnia. You can talk cancer, etc., but the depression and insomnia are the ones you'll hear regular, typical people say. (Their bed is on a wall with an electrical panel on the other side and they struggle with insomnia, that kind of thing.) The mechanism I had read about years ago was a stress reaction in the body causing carbon monoxide poisoning essentially. So to me, as someone who *is* extremely sensitive, I'm saying the thing you can definitely say is that it's a stress your body has to deal with. So people who are out, getting a lot of oxygen into their system via exercise, getting a super healthy diet to combat oxidative stress, these people might react differently. But if you're in it more hours, more hours, not going out, not getting your oxygen up, you're going to be more and more susceptible. And because I had a newborn, I wasn't going out much. It totally crashed my thyroid and ruined my health. It was AWFUL what it did to me.

 

You can find another house. Takes a lot to rebuild your health. And yes, we had a hard time selling our house because people would see the power lines and run.

 

PMing you two!  :P

[kitten18]

I have doubts about actual dangers but the resale issues would prevent me from buying a house near larger power lines.

[mumto2]

We just lived through a huge disagreement with our former church over the installation of a huge mobile phone tower in the bell chamber. Our home is within the 100m zone and our kids ring there. Quitting ringing and attending there is easy but our home is a different matter. The tower was eventually scrapped but lots of anger in our little village still.

 

I own one of the EMR measuring devices now. ;) Fascinating and scary. One thing to think about is do you really want a cordless phone in your house? Both my newish one and our neighbour's measured scary levels. Both were good as in name brand expensive models. We have both gone back to cords.....why take a risk when the fix was so easy.

 

One of our biggest obstacles in our fight was the fact that while many seem to accept power lines are dangerous, most considered government guidelines good enough for phone masts which have not existed long enough for any long term health study to exist. I personally would not buy near lines or a mast but if I considered it I would want a substantial discount. We did buy next to a pub and took 5% off our offer for that. Electrical lines would be bigger. We actually found a chart giving percentages in the UK. I now understand some odd UK rules regarding the zoning C of E churches and would take money off any offer near one of those. I would never buy near a C of E again no matter how picturesque.

 

Resale and studies not available are my big reasons for staying away from both power lines and masts. Personally I think the effects are probably going to be cumulative. If you live a relatively low EMR lifestyle living by powerlines and mobile towers won't matter. We live a relatively high emf lifestyle with wifi and streaming prime etc. so would prefer not to add to our amount until we know from real studies.

 

Posting before I lose this......

Edited July 3, 2017 by mumto2

[Scarlett]

I wouldn't.

 

A housing estate was built right next to power lines in my suburb when I was a kid and damn near everyone living in it got cancer.

 

 

That said, I don't consider myself in any way properly informed and this is an entirely emotional response.

I wouldn't buy it either. My good friend died of an aggressive breast cancer at age 37 after she had lived under such a power line for about 5 years. However her younger sister was also diagnosed with the same cancer so maybe the power lines had nothing to do with it.....at the very least I always felt the power lines activated it in some way. I know the younger sister spent a fair amount if time at her sisters house....

 

I really don't have the facts either....they just freak me out.

[MommyLiberty5013]

Yes some people are more sensitive. Also, it is hard to make a definitive correlation between cancer cases and closeness to lines. Yes the government says certain things are okay. But the same government permits many things the EU has banned. And California gives warnings in certain cases for certain products other states don't. My point being, I'm not ready to give my blind trust to the government on the power line issue.

 

With any substance or material, too much is generally bad for the body. We're talking about a form of radiation here. 24/7/365. Everywhere else, radiation is tried to be limited. But not here. There is a right or wrong answer on this as a health issue. It can't be both. That said, the most likely answer is that EMR is bad for the body re cancer, depression, insomnia.

[MEmama]

Are they transmission or distribution lines?

 

Do you know what the voltage is? That will determine the adviseable distance you ought to live.

 

Do you know about easement issues? There may be one line there now, but the power company owns the right to add more, to cut trees, etc.

 

My DH works on these types of cases and might be able to answer questions if you have specific concerns.

 

Being in the electric business, there's no way he would buy a house near lines.

[Janie Grace]

Are they transmission or distribution lines?

 

Do you know what the voltage is? That will determine the adviseable distance you ought to live.

 

Do you know about easement issues? There may be one line there now, but the power company owns the right to add more, to cut trees, etc.

 

My DH works on these types of cases and might be able to answer questions if you have specific concerns.

 

Being in the electric business, there's no way he would buy a house near lines.

 

I don't know any of this. I just saw this house online that seem absolutely perfect (and actually affordable) and then we drove by after church to see it in person. Now we know why it's so affordable. :(

 

Based on your last sentence (and all the replies here), I'm letting it go. 

[scrapbookbuzz]

It would make me highly uncomfortable to live in a house so near/under large power lines like that. So, no, I wouldn't buy that house.

[dirty ethel rackham]

We have passed on otherwise perfect houses based on them being close to heavy power lines. DH says being near the lines causes an unpleasant sensation in his metal fillings.

I get that same sensation.

 

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