Any thoughts on living next to a high tension power line?

[David Weaver]

I don't think there is a definitive answer ...

Weak association with leukemia, which is why I wouldn't move close to one if kids are in the picture. There's just never going to be a great way to collect data to prove causation. You live next to it for 8 years and 300 yards away, the next subject lives 500 yards away for 3 years, and the next 350 for 35 years. You'd have to take a cohort of people and split them up over 35 years and put 10,000 of them under a power line and check for differences. It just isn't going to happen.

It reminds me (because the mrs. has a bunch of physician friends) where it's something that a dr. would say that there's no proven link, but they wouldn't live close to it, either.

[Brian Elfert]

It sounds like nobody would recommend living near a high tension power line. I did set up a meeting with a builder this week, but I highly doubt with land prices and my budget that I will be able to make a new house work. I am trying to sell my current house. My current house I had built in 2001, but it is way bigger than I need and too expensive. I just found out my property taxes are going up to $4,800 for this year and will probably be over $5,300 next year. My property taxes have gone up by $1,200 in two years.

It is likely I am going to have to settle for buying an existing house. I have my eye on a house built in 2002 selling for only $135,000, but it is a 40 mile trip each way to work versus 13 miles today. I am also looking at a dome house built in 1979 with 10 acres and several outbuildings for a shop that is $159,000 and 28 miles from work. I was hoping to look at a house close in with a 2.7 acre lot, but it sold Friday and I was supposed to look at it today. (The house I was going to look at today had been on the market for 4 months.)

[Dave Sheldrake]

There are far bigger threats from natural background radiation, Potassium 40 in Bananas for example @ 0.01mrem of dose, geothermal energy (heat) is a product of the decay of Potassium 40, Uranium 235,238 and Thorium 232 (plus some other minor nuclide's) and thus far we don't all seem to be glowing in the dark just yet

It's a sad fact that anything that radiates will always be a seller of news and stories designed to appeal to those who have little if any understanding of the relative dangers. I've known guys that bemoan the dangers of living within 500 miles of TMI and yet are 40 a day smokers.....

cheers

Dave

[Raymond Fries]

I would not move there. I am sensitive to energy and when I drive under a power line, it feels like I put a battery on my tongue only not as strong. I do not trust it.

Just my opinion.

Enjoy Life...

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Dave....I couldn't agree more......

[Keith Outten]

Deriving power from high energy T&D lines does work and it is very common. Power companies have a way to detect theft of electricity from coils hidden underground, I participated in a management seminar which included a presentation that outlined all of the common practices people use to obtain free energy. The presentation also included innovative ways people use to tap into their neighbors power and believe me people can be very innovative. Nobody in the industry will admit that this happens for obvious reasons.

[Rick Christopherson]

Deriving power from high energy T&D lines does work and it is very common.

Someone is feeding you a line. The reason it doesn't work is because the distance between overhead phase conductors is relatively small compared to the distance to the ground. The net effect is that the distance from each phase wire is about the same, and the electromagnetic fields cancel at a distance from the line, such as being at ground level.

Yes, it would work with an elevated coil, especially one that was significantly closer to one phase conductor than another. But it will not work with a buried coil. For a buried coil to be significantly closer to one phase conductor than another, it would have to be far to the side, which also means it has to be even farther away from the conductor itself.

This is the same reason why you can't use a clamp-on ammeter around a multi-conductor power cord, but it reads just fine when only a single conductor passes through the loop.

[Bobby O'Neal]

For what its worth, I am a Lineman and work with electromagnetic fields everyday. Healthy as a horse.

Though, they aren't they most attractive land feature you could own.

[Curt Harms]

Owning a property near a high voltage line around here certainly wouldn't enhance the resale value. If I had to live or work very near a high voltage line, I wonder how building something similar to a Faraday cage - metal roof/siding, make sure the pieces are electrically bonded, good earth ground would help and if it'd be economical. Even if the structure worked it wouldn't help while in the back yard but seems like it'd reduce your exposure.

[Alan Bienlein]

I grew up seeing these power lines from my parents front door. Never really thought about except for foggy days when you could hear the sizzle from them. We even went and tried to get a flourescent light to light up but never did. I will also say these homes have no problem selling as a lot of the original homes were demolished to build bigger ones. My parents house sold before we could even get the for sale sign up this past November.
Power lines.jpg

[Alan Bienlein]

We used to light up 4ft fluorescent tubes with our mobile CB radios.
Although we were running a couple hundred watts of power.

That sure brings back memories except we only ever did that with the 8' t-12's. We would stand by the vehicle and key the mike and it was like someone turn the light switch on.

[Pat Barry]

The good thing about this is its AC power and multi-phase at that so the net effect of the electromagnetic field at any significant distance (maybe 3X the distance of the lines to ground) would be effectively canceled out completely. Otherwise, I would think we would see issues with trees and plant life being affected either one way or the other. I haven't ever seen anything about strange growth patterns of this type and I suspect that those plants would be much more sensitive than people in a physical sense.

[Tom Megow]

If your wear your Aluminum Foil hat you'll be fine

[Jim Matthews]

I used to work for a Power Company, we caught people stealing electricity constantly and the company showed no mercy when their lawyers took people to court. Farmers are notorious for burying coils under main T&D lines, they can provide power for a large barn absolutely free right up until the day they get caught .

Shenanigans.
This sounds ridiculous.

If the Power Company owns the air around the lines, and all that's in it - I'm a Doctor of Brainatrics.

How a remote coil that works of the EMF generated would be a load falls with the square of the distance.
I would very much like to see a citation of what sounds like a "Rural legend".

https://user.physics.unc.edu/~deardo...psolution.html

[Ole Anderson]

Just hope they don't fall your way in a severe ice storm. I wouldn't be concerned with the EMF, but aesthetics and the buzz during humid weather would be an issue for me. As far as property value, just make sure the asking price has already fully discounted the effect of the proximity of the lines. I have seen new subs put in which straddled 120 kv transmission lines and one sub had also had twin 30" and 36" high pressure gas lines 60 feet from one house setback line (over my objections an the township engineer). I talked to a gas company rep and he said that they were safe, but when pressured, said he wouldn't want his daughter living closer than a couple hundred yards.