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Real Life EMF Experiences? 163

Posted by Cliff from the life-near-high-voltage dept.
ilander asks: "I've been looking to buy my first home recently and found one that seemed perfect. The one downside is that there are power lines directly overhead (in the yard) as well as a high tension power line tower in the empty lot in back, less than 200 feet away from the house. So does anyone have any personal experience working/living near power lines? Aside from the possible health risks, which may or not exist (depending on who you ask), will I run into any problems with my monitors and TVs? What about DSL, cable and my 802.11b network? How about digital satellite reception? Any help is appreciated!"
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Real Life EMF Experiences? More

Real Life EMF Experiences?

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  • Well, on a positive note... (Score:4, Funny)

    by revmoo ( 652952 ) <slashdot&meep,ws> on Wednesday October 22, 2003 @09:26PM (#7286667) Homepage Journal
    The government mind-rays will be scrambled by the high-energy power lines.

  • Real-Life EMF Experiences? (Score:4, Funny)

    by kurosawdust ( 654754 ) on Wednesday October 22, 2003 @09:27PM (#7286672)
    Yeah I have an EMF experience, happened when I was ten - it's pretty much how you'd think it was...Everyone was standing around waiting for them to play 'Unbelievable', then standing around waiting for it to end

    That and buying a Jesus Jones album are my two great regrets from childhood..

    • Re:Real-Life EMF Experiences? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Pieroxy ( 222434 ) on Wednesday October 22, 2003 @09:39PM (#7286759) Homepage
      I remember some news in france a while ago, where a little village was suing EDF (French version of PG&E, but belong to the government) because they came up with a statistics that leukemia rates were just 1200% higher than anywhere else in France... Scary. Of course, it might just have been a hoax.

      Ready to bet your life on the fact that it was? I am not. Let's say there is a 10% chance that these guys were right. Would I risk my life and the ones of my family just because the house in question is a little nicer than another one? No thanks.

      I basically think you've got to reorder your priorities. Mine is order this way: Life first. House second. TV/Computer third.
      • I agree. Now prove beyond a doubt that power lines are a risk.

        • Re:Real-Life EMF Experiences? (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Pieroxy ( 222434 ) on Thursday October 23, 2003 @12:12AM (#7287690) Homepage
          I don't care about proving it. I life my life the way I want. If one day they prove to me that there is no risk, I'll gladly go and live under a high-tension power line. Until then, when in doubt between two houses, one of which being a "potential" risk, I'll go with the safe one. Maybe stupid.

          Think about this one: I give you two glasses of water. One looks clean, the other one looks yellowish. But I garantee you that the yellowish one is as safe as the other one. However, you may choose freely either one of them. Are you going to go with the yellowish water? You would be crazy.

          Why taking this risk - as small as it may be - when you have equivalent other alternatives ?
          • I life my life too. Why would i be crazy?

            If you only give me two glasses of water i will drink them both. Infact the color of the water doesnt realy bother me as i am accustomed to drinking well water which can have a tint at times. They say y2k is an issues, so lets stock up like morons with no basis to be the laughing stock for the future. There is always a risk no matter how visible that risk. What may appear to be a better option is not always the better options. Unless you understand %100 of both opt

            • Man, in the glass example, you can't take both !! ;-)

              Anyways, my point is: If in doubt between two houses, if you like them equally and one has a high tension line just over it, then just go with the other one.

              Of course, it might be worse for other factors, but you get to decide with what you know, as always.

          • Re:Real-Life EMF Experiences? (Score:4, Funny)

            by ebbe11 ( 121118 ) on Thursday October 23, 2003 @05:06AM (#7288700)
            But I garantee you that the yellowish one is as safe as the other one. However, you may choose freely either one of them. Are you going to go with the yellowish water? You would be crazy.

            Maybe not. The yellowish water might be beer.

            • This got scored funny, but it actually has a very good point.

              Without people trying weird unsafe yellowish funny-smelling water, people never would have invented beer. And what a sad world it would be today.

              If everybody took that attitude, we'd still be living in caves and eating our meat cold. Oh, but we'd be safe!
            • But I garantee you that the yellowish one is as safe as the other one. However, you may choose freely either one of them. Are you going to go with the yellowish water? You would be crazy.

              Maybe not. The yellowish water might be beer.

              And the clear water might be *shudder* Budweiser.

            • if it is "yellowish " it is not beer.
              Do you here me Coors? it's not beer.
          • Think about this one: I give you two glasses of water. One looks clean, the other one looks yellowish. But I garantee you that the yellowish one is as safe as the other one. However, you may choose freely either one of them. Are you going to go with the yellowish water? You would be crazy.

            You mean everyone drinking lemonade is crazy? Do you want to talk about it?

      • Re:Real-Life EMF Experiences? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by dasunt ( 249686 ) on Wednesday October 22, 2003 @10:48PM (#7287222)

        Part of the uselessness called 'science' that they teach in schools deals with electrical current and magnetic fields.

        IIRC, the strength of an electrical field is 1/(distance^2). If we have two distances, we can calculate the drop in the magnetic field as follows: (1/(d1^2)) / (1/(d2^2)) or, more simply: d1^2 / d2^2. Therefore, the difference between living directly under the power lines (assuming that the power lines are 50ft up in the air) and the difference between living a few houses away (say 200 ft) would be 2500/40000 or 5/80ths (about 6%). Living a few more houses away (say, 200 more ft) would result in a drop of 2500/160000 or about 1.5%

        The point of all this math and science is that if power lines can cause cancer, it should be rather easy to detect - cancer rates would be high under the power lines, and fall off sharply.

        I have never seen a study with this result, so its probably safe to assume that power lines do not cause cancer.

        • The question is: Is there a point in living under a high tension power line?

          Even if there is, let's say, a 3% risk of all this stuff to be true, what is the point in taking this risk? Life is at sake in this matter! There is plenty of other houses around! It's not like you're refusing to do something cool or something...

          Plus, you will hardly find any relevant statistics about that. People move very often, and if there is any bad effect from it, it is clearly long term. In the village I was mentionning, on
          • But you can justify anything that way. "I heard about these people whose house fell down and killed them. I'm living in a tepee, not one of those dangerous houses."
            The point is, the chance of the figures being right is *not* 3%. The strength of the magnetic fields is small, especially compared to all the electrical equipment you already have in your house. I would worry about incidence of meteorite strikes in the area before power lines.
            • There is a huge difference between living in a teepee and not living under a high tension line. Living in a teepee is doing a HUGE concession on you quality of life. Not living under a high tension line is not. What is the freaking big deal? Why don't no one get it? If you are to choose between two houses, why not taking the one not under a high tension line? You have nothing to loose.

              I'm not saying, take no risk. But rather measure them. Why taking a risk for no reason? Even if the risk is small, or tiny?
              • Living in a teepee is doing a HUGE concession on you quality of life. Not living under a high tension line is not.

                High tension lines in the back yard can mean a huge difference in the price of a house, mainly due to people thinking like you. This price difference can easily mean the difference between your three children having to share a bedroom or not. That's a pretty serious quality of life difference.
          • Life is at stake in everything you do every day. Choose your risks.

            Let me put this risk in perspective: Do you use an electric shaver or a hair dryer? Do you use headphones? Do you use electric heaters? Do you ride a subway or electric train? Do you watch TV? Do you use a toaster or an electric stove? What these things have in common is that they all will present at least as much EMF as those power lines and in some cases orders of magnitude more.

            In other words, the risk of close proximity to high
            • Let me put this risk in perspective: Do you use an electric shaver or a hair dryer? Do you use headphones? Do you use electric heaters? Do you ride a subway or electric train? Do you watch TV? Do you use a toaster or an electric stove? What these things have in common is that they all will present at least as much EMF as those power lines and in some cases orders of magnitude more.

              Some problems with your point.

              First, if I use any of those things (I do) I don't use them ALL THE TIME I AM HOME, while the p

              • Long term exposure to high levels of ionizing radiation and RF radiation are generally agreed to be harmful to humans, but I don't know of any definitive studies that have been done.

                Well, I don't know of any definitive studies, either, but I DO know of a shocking number of studies done with poor controls and later demonstrated as irreproducible.

                Please understand, I don't disagree with your assessment of ionizing radiation. However, besides the well known and well defined effects of thermal heating from

          • Even if there is, let's say, a 3% risk of all this stuff to be true, what is the point in taking this risk?

            While that makes sense in individual cases, it becomes folly when extended to everything in your life. What if I said that whatever you're having for dinner has a 3% chance of givnig you cancer if you keep eating it? What if I said your specific model of car has a 3% chance of having a rather dangerous, undiscovered defect?

            The problem is that there are very few things in life that have been tested

            • Dude, I am tired of people answering my post and not reading it. I am not going to live under a Teepee in northern oregon because of high-tension lines!

              Can you read my post once again (or, say, once)? I am saying that if I have a choice between two houses and I am in doubt, then I'll go with the one that is not under a high tension line. That's all, it's that little thing that will help me decide, it's not anything that will drive my life.

              You are also mentionning dinner. It's not like I could avoid having
    • I was just disappointed when I found out EMF didn't stand for what we all think it does. One of their song had lyrics that went like:

      E - Ecstasy
      M - Mother fucker, Mother fucker
      F - From us to you

      I went from thinking they were maybe a little geeky to knowing that they picked the name cause it sounded cool. Sorta like AC/DC.
      • The funnier part about AC/DC is that in addition to being an electrical term, it was slang for being bisexual at the time, and the band had to keep denying they were a gay band (like queen!)

        • The funnier part about AC/DC is that in addition to being an electrical term, it was slang for being bisexual at the time, and the band had to keep denying they were a gay band (like queen!)
          Tell me about it!

          We had the same problem in high school when we started our band, "Man-on-Man Action" (it was obviously a reference to melee combat).

    • That and buying a Jesus Jones album are my two great regrets from childhood..
      "Right Here Right Now" is the feature song in K-Mart's current advertising campaign (the same campaign in which Martha Stewart is the featured felon).

      The lesson here being, for recording artists, there is a fate worse than obscurity.

  • Well... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Zelet ( 515452 ) on Wednesday October 22, 2003 @09:27PM (#7286674) Journal
    Sure - I'll die a slow and painful death from cancer, but will my TVwork? :)

  • Health (Score:2, Informative)

    by daigu ( 111684 )

    You may want to ask how it might impact your health. Google it to find articles like this one in Wired [wired.com].

    • Well I would personally look in peer reviewed medical Journals not Wired. Wired is an OK magazine, but they are not experts in public health.

      • Some links (Score:3, Informative)

        by Gudlyf ( 544445 )
        Fine, how about this one [ca.gov]?

        There's also a site called Power Line Facts [powerlinefacts.com] that may be helpful. Like they say, go buy a power meter [powerlinefacts.com], then do another house inspection. If the meter's reading 4mG or higher, run away. Fast.

        And what's Power Line safety without a blog [blogspot.com]?

        • I for one would not trust California's government website either. There are government mandated signs all over the place saying "The State of California has determined that..." and then make a wide varity of claims regarding cancer, health risks and moral issues.

          Science by legislation is one of the more worrisome aspects of California.

          Remember, this is a state that has billboards all over the place proudly proclaiming that they are "nuclear free". My SO and I joke that that's a very very negative statem


          • The CA department of health (or OSHA, I'm not sure what's called what there anymore) started requiring restaurants and other hospitality industries to put up visible signs saying something to the extent of,

            The State of California has determined that this facility contains chemicals and substances which could potentially cause reproductive harm.

            Great. Why not say "substances which could cause heart disease" (hamburgers), "substances which could cause liver failure" (wine), etc.

            The Golden Gate Restauran

          • They should set up signs next to those that read "gun free".
        • Before you read too far into the Power Line "Facts" site, you might want to consider that the Earth's static magnetic field is on the order of .2-.6 G, depending on where you live. The field varies 0.1 G on the timescale of a day simply as the result of the Earth rotating under the magnetosphere. There are high frequency variations in the field on the order of tens of miligauss just from interactions with the solar wind on the magnetosphere, and much larger variations from solar flare events.

          If you are

  • Kokomo Hum (Score:2, Interesting)

    by MacBrave ( 247640 )
    Residents of Kokomo, Indiana have complained of a hum for years. Supposed causes ranged from power lines, to defective machinery, to just stress.

    Mysterious Kokomo Hum [go.com]

    I grew up near Kokomo and still have relatives that live there. However none of them have ever complained of the hum.

    • Actually it's the boredom there..

      Just kidding ;-)

      If I remember, a local tv station in Indianapolis (WISH - 8) said it had to do with the big metal foundry near the center of town. They were somehow emmitting large amounts of ELF (extremly low frequency) noise that made other objects vibrate at other frequencies. Hence the "humm".
      • Kidding? I spent 3 days there for a work a couple years back. It was 30 degrees and rainy the entire time, and I swear I never saw the sun. I'm from Florida dammit! Climbing above the clouds in the jet as I left that place was one of the greatest feelings ever =D.

  • At the old house (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MImeKillEr ( 445828 ) on Wednesday October 22, 2003 @09:38PM (#7286753) Homepage Journal
    Our first house was in close proximity to overhead powerlines. They were less than 200 ft away. More like less than 50.

    The three years we lived there, we didn't notice anything strange health-wise.

    I recall seeing some people do the following (not sure if this is indicative of possible health issues):

    1.Take a florescent light bulb - like the overhead lights in most garages and offices. Make sure its dark out.

    2. Stand under the powerline.

    3. Grab the light fixture with both hands - one at either contact point (the metal ring around the outside, not the pins).

    4. See if the light glows.

    The theory (I guess) was that this indicated power/voltage/whatever was 'bleeding' from the powerlines. The folks who did this swore this was proof that the area wasn't safe to live in.

    YMMV.

    • Re:At the old house (Score:5, Informative)

      by Trelane ( 16124 ) on Wednesday October 22, 2003 @10:33PM (#7287133) Journal
      Inductance. An AC (alternating current) electric line will generate a changing magnetic field (magnetic field first goes in one direction, then the other).

      You have a changing magnetic field. You create a circuit (albeit one at several megaohms) when you touch the light like that. Indeed, you make a big loop.

      You can find the equations for inductance in any elementary physics book. Essentially, the faster the change in magnetic field, the larger the loop the circuit forms, the larger the magnetic field change per unit time (e.g. larger oscillating magnetic field), the higher the electromotive force (voltage) induced.

      Note that emv ~ dB/dt * A (B and A are vectors). That is, assuming your circuit is a 2D object (e.g. circle), then you should orient your circuit such that the magnetic field is perpendicular to it. This will give you the maximum effect.

      Again, refer to college physics textbooks for more information on the subject.

      Synopsis: good for scare-mongering (but remember, scare mongering's Good when you agree with the goals of the scare-mongering (e.g. nuclear power dangers) and Bad when you don't (e.g. Bush's terrorism stuff)!) but otherwise fairly pointless, unless the induced voltages and/or B/E-fields are scientifically proven to be dangerous to humans. To my knowledge, it's currently a wash. Note that statistical data for a region is questionable, since many factors enter in! (The prime exampe for correlation-does-not-prove-causation amongst my professors is the study that showed that, the more electric poles per square mile, the higher the murder rate. (Of course, the primary factor is that the denser the electric poles, the more densely populated the region)).
    • How can a post with "power/voltage/whatever" be given a +5 rating? And one with "The theory (I guess)" in it as well? The parent was simply an argument from ignorance!
    • While he was getting his Phd he mentioned to me that he had seen evidence that claimed that whether power lines had an effect depended on whether they run north-south or east-west. Something about an interaction with the earth's magnetic field. I have no idea how this would work.

      Of course I can't remember which one was bad and which was harmless. He even insinuated that the power companies knew this and that they would selectively choose areas for study where the lines ran in the harmless direction, th

    • this indicated power/voltage/whatever was 'bleeding' from the powerlines.

      Heh, you want to see power bleeding from the powerlines, check out the transmission lines alongside US 1 in the Florida Keys. (My in-laws have a place down there).

      Partly due to the moisture in the air, and the salt buildup on the insulators, and for all I know they're running the lines something above original design voltage to get power to Key West, but if it's quiet you can hear the crackle, and at night you can see 6-inch (at le
  • If you can light sabre duels in your backyard with flourescent tubes that may be a clue that the house may not be safe...

    but then again, given the overall attitude you may think thats a selling point...

    I just hope you don't have any small children... And if not, get a vasectomy
    • And if you live in Northern Canada, beware going outside at night. If you can see the sky spirits glowing red, that is a clue that they may be very angry with you.

      In other words, when you have a peer-reviewed scientific study to show us, then you may start criticising people for doing something that may or may not be unsafe. Until then, your baseless superstitions are just that: superstitions.
    • nice FUD there...

      electrical fields EVEN very strong ones dont harm you.

      Why is there no change in cancer rates or health problems with high voltage electricians and linesmen who work mere inches for extended periods of time fro mthe wires and therefore are in a field that is 10,000 times stringer than anyone else is in.

      why is there no increase in medical problems with people who live near or under power lines? sorry, the govt cant be covering it up too many people live near/under power lines everywhere i

  • Yeah.... (Score:4, Funny)

    by cybermace5 ( 446439 ) <g.ryan@macetech.com> on Wednesday October 22, 2003 @09:41PM (#7286772) Homepage Journal
    ...I do. And the third hand is indeed as useful as many seem to believe.

  • Resell Value (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Hungus ( 585181 ) on Wednesday October 22, 2003 @09:41PM (#7286777) Journal
    BIggest issue I see is resale value. How long you plan to stay will affect things also. You may well be convinced that there are not problems with the power lines but it will be difficult to convince someone else to take it off your hands in x number of years.
    • Yep, the actual effects will most likely be less than the potential imagined/assumed effects in the mind of the next buyer.

      If that sentence makes sense.

  • I have (Score:4, Informative)

    by slothman32 ( 629113 ) <pjohnjackson&gmail,com> on Wednesday October 22, 2003 @10:05PM (#7286921) Homepage Journal
    I lived 15 years or so 200 feet from high voltage lines. And 500 from a substation. My family and my neighbors are fine. Of course I post on Slashdot so I guess that answers you question. I don't think anything happens from being near them. I didn't even care about it when I found out something might happen.
    • I had the same experience, only with a longer period of time. I grew up about a hundred to a hundred and fifty feet away from an O+R easement with some huge, high-power powerlines running through it (they brought electricity down to NYC from upstate). The towers are a good two hundred feet tall, maybe taller, with several layers of high-power cables on them, spread out over about a hundred feet. I mean these towers are HUGE.

      Anyway, growing up I never noticed anything weird. Our radio reception and TV recep

  • do an experiment (Score:3, Funny)

    by jayrtfm ( 148260 ) <jslash@sophontCOFFEE.com minus caffeine> on Wednesday October 22, 2003 @10:26PM (#7287083) Homepage Journal
    1) purchase house
    2) purchase rats
    3) in a spare room build 2 rat cages, one that is also a faraday cage.
    4) treat both groups of rats the same. no fair giving extra snuggles to the ones in the faraday cage
    5) every year, have a vet check both groups of rats. If there is no difference, then chances are you don't have a problem. If the group NOT in the faraday cage has more health problems, move asap.
    • Why not build a Faraday cage around the whole house? If only for the coolness factor... As an additional bonus your mobile phone doesn't work in your home so your boss can't find you there!

  • Real life induced charge (Score:5, Interesting)

    by chrisatslashdot ( 221127 ) <spamforchris@@@yahoo...com> on Wednesday October 22, 2003 @10:35PM (#7287143)
    I worked my way through college installing sprinkler systems for lawns and landscapes. We used a 16' metal trailer with an expanded steel deck, a steel pipe rack, and several metal lockers. On one job we parked the trailer under high voltage powerlines and got a sizeable shock if we touched the trailer with damp boots or sweaty hands.

    I have also head of people filling a 55 gallon drum with coils of copper wire and stealing power from high-tension wires.

    • Re:Real life induced charge (Score:5, Interesting)

      by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) on Wednesday October 22, 2003 @10:58PM (#7287279) Homepage Journal
      I have also head of people filling a 55 gallon drum with coils of copper wire and stealing power from high-tension wires.

      Very clever - I'd heard of 'clothes lines' but not drums full of coils. If they were burried with just the ends exposed they'd be pretty hard to track down.

      So, what kind of electricity do you get out of such a drum? Is it clean enough to run through an inverter onto your home grid? Heh, in a reverse-metered state you could sell it back to the electric company (install a solar panel for cover).
      • Conditioning the power to a useable form would probably be a big problem. IAMENAEE (I am a mechanical engineer not electrical engineer) but the barrel of copper would essentitally act as a transformer with the single pass of transmission wires acting as the primary coil and the drum acting as a secondary. You would also have to deal with 3 phase power on the primary side. Maybe if the lines carrying each phase were physically separated enough you could position the drum to work off a single phase. I would a

        • I work for a power company.

          Not only is it illegal and stupid, but if there's a ground anywhere on the line (happens pretty frequently) then there will be a "fault," which means a huge surge of current through the line, which means a huge induced current in your hill-billy (i.e. son of the soil) setup, which means meltdown and other Badness. Just say no.

  • Electric fence? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by TheSHAD0W ( 258774 ) on Wednesday October 22, 2003 @10:45PM (#7287199) Homepage
    It was a particularly cold night in winter and I was walking out to open the gate to the yard; there'd been a sleet and the fence was coated with ice. Except... When I walked up to the lock, I noticed that one length of chain between the gate and post was free of ice. When I touched it, it was noticeably warm.

    I went back to get my meter, unhooked the chain, and measured the voltage between the gate and post; it measured a wonderful 2.7 volts. Silly me, I then switched the meter to measure current. What as I thinking, using a cheap multimeter across enough current to heat up a heavy metal chain? Luckily I only blew its fuse.

    I called the power company and told them about the stray voltage problem; within a few days they'd established a new ground and my fence is now down to 1/2 volt.
    • One could deduce current from voltage... as a matter of fact, any voltage across a heavy chain is going to be huge amounts of current. A heavy chain 2 feet long has practically zero resistance; so if the power is coming straight from a low ESR source to the chain, the current is going to be limited by the power source's ESR. If it has to go through a length of wire or something first, that will be the limiting resistance...

  • Do the math (Score:3, Informative)

    by Coppit ( 2441 ) on Wednesday October 22, 2003 @10:57PM (#7287277) Homepage
    Back when I took electromagnetics as a physics undergrad, we actually computed the effect of a powerline about 20 feet from you. In the end, the thermal noise in your cells drowned out any EM effect from the powerline.

    Despite all the people who want to sue to make a buck, there is *no* scientific evidence that living near power lines, using cellphones, or sending your kids to a WiFi enabled school will hurt anyone.

    • Maybe the electromagnetic radiation from power lines won't hurt you, but in much of the US, there are risks from living near power lines because of herbicides used to keep the right-of-way clear underneath them. Maybe they've backed off on that, but it used to be very common.

      On the other hand, that doesn't affect WiFi-equipped schools, unless they're built on chemical waste dumps like the school that cause the Love Canal problem.

  • The hype would make you believe that power lines harm plants and the like. I've seen with my own eye someone who planted a nice garden in the base of a high tention power line. It did very well, limited only be the care the owners gave it.

    There was a lot of worry about power lines 10 years ago or so. Many studies have been done, and the conclusion is always there is no statistical harm. Ignore the alarmists, and buy the house if you like it. If the lines give it a lower value enjoy your lower house p

    • crappy anectodal evidence I know, but one of my best friends has high tension lines running through his backyard, about 40 feet from his house and has been living there for about 15 years (They get tax incentives and power discounts). It is a running joke that the grass directly underneath the four corners of the tower is a perfect neon green almost year round(In reality, its really crabgrass). But to throw in my two cents on health problems, the mother had a stroke a few years ago, but the rest of the fam

  • I've had real life EMP experience, though.. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by pedro ( 1613 ) on Wednesday October 22, 2003 @11:11PM (#7287366)
    A few months ago, during a rather spectacular thunderstorm, we a lightning strike _very_ close to our house.
    Most of our NIC cards' and our router's ports got toasted, while leaving the internal circuitry of our computers utterly untouched.. they ran flawlessly both before, through, and after the incident. No reboots, no power glitches.. nada. The cards passed diags fine; the router would boot up ok, too.. except..
    None of the lights indicating CAT5 connectivity lit up. Some component substitutions eventually revealed that all of the rj45 interfaces had been smoked.
    A final, glaring clue that the lightning bolt's EMP was indeed the culprit was the fact that a 30" tv that had been on in the room at the time now exhibits _severe_ orange and green casts all the way out to the corners of the crt at right angles to each other. The mask is now MAG-MO-TIZED in a major way.
    I'm gonna need a really muscular degausser. :)

    • Incidentally, these days APC guarantees lightning protection on even their smaller UPSes. If you have a lot of lightning strikes I highly recommend picking some up and protecting all the equipment you care about with them. I'm skeptical about their ability to protect hardware from lightning but if they don't, APC will supposedly give you a bunch of money :)
    • It's probably the optoisolator right in the front end, between the rj-45 jack and the rest of the card. A similar thing happens to modems, the little isolation transformer blows out. When I used to do ISP tech support, every time a line of thunderstorms would roll through we'd get a half dozen calls from people who's modems were acting perfectly normally except that they suddenly were getting "No Dialtone". That transformer gets popped and thats what happens.
    • a 30" tv that had been on in the room at the time now exhibits _severe_ orange and green casts all the way out to the corners of the crt

      Aha!

      A couple months after moving into our present place we had a lightning induced surge that tripped all the GFIs, fried a couple of phones and zapped my wife's computer mobo and internal modem. Also the garage door opener.

      Around that same time, I noticed a magnetized area on the screen of an old 26" TV monitor that we only occasionally use. I never made the connec

  • 802.11b (Score:2, Informative)

    by keldog728 ( 571023 )
    I live less than 200 feet from high tension power lines and have never experenced any problems with the wireless network in my house.

    The only real problem I had was putting an addition on my house. In my town, it is against bylaws to put a permanent structure closer than 100 feet from power lines. When my wife and I were in the process of putting one on we had to have our yard surveyed four times, and even then we had to change our plans. The foundation of the new addition is now 100' 1" away from the lin

  • Radio interference from power lines (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    As a amateur radio operator I have heard people that have found radio interference being generated from overhead power lines. Most of the interference has been in the lower frequencies, low as in AM broadcast radio, HF amateur, maybe up to TV and FM broadcast. The causes were something like failing insulators, damaged transformers, and branches falling onto the wires. In most cases a call to the power company would result in a quick fix. It is unlikely to affect higher frequency devices such as WiFi, sa
  • I spent the majority of my childhood in a house about 40 feet from a lot-sized 45kV to 120V transformer substation. The 45kV lines went above my front yard. I never noticed any ill effects health-wise (but then, with the amount of pollution-related health problems in Southern Ontario I'm not sure I ever would've noticed anyway)

    Never had any problems with EMF or anything either. Several TVs, fluorescent lights, a few miscellaneous wireless devices (outdoor temperature monitor for example) and none of them e

  • Easement and noise (Score:3, Informative)

    by semanticgap ( 468158 ) on Thursday October 23, 2003 @12:22AM (#7287736)
    If the powerlines run over that property, then most likely the power company has an easement, which roughly (I'm no lawyer) means that should something happen, they can wheel a crane into your backyard to do work, and you will have to live with it. And if they have to take the fence down, or nock out part of your house to get there, they will. (Though they will fix it later). You will really have to check this out with the local government, and it may not be that simple.

    Another thing is that power lines make noise. It may not seem like much during the day, but it may drive you nuts at night.

    I'd stay away from it for just those two reasons.
    • Another thing is that power lines make noise. It may not seem like much during the day, but it may drive you nuts at night.

      Moreso when it's rained. At least, the power lines behind our old house did.

      Quite annoying.
    • And if they have to take the fence down, or nock out part of your house to get there, they will. (Though they will fix it later).

      no they wont.

      if you build on an easement and they need to destroy something to use it... your fault for building where you were not supposed to.

      been there, dont that.. they drove the bulldozer over a freinds fence and destroyed his pond,sprinkler system and grass.. when confronted, he was handed a paper with legal information and the power companies lawyers info that basicall

    • The noise thing is VERY IMPORTANT. Here's why:

      Right now there's a powerline in NW WA state that used to carry 230kV. It was rated for 500kV, and the transmission company had an easement for 500kV. For years they ran it at a lower voltage, because they could. Now they have some congestion issues, so they bumped up the voltage to 500kV. Bam, "lots" of powerline noise. It's the same amount of noise as any 500kV line, but the people nearby moved in while it was being run at 230kV, so they think that t

  • Life examples (Score:3, Interesting)

    by GiMP ( 10923 ) on Thursday October 23, 2003 @12:39AM (#7287821)
    I don't know what the science is, but I know the following:

    My aunt, uncle, and cousins lived next to (what I believe was) a cellular-phone tower. My aunt died of breast cancer, my cousin developed a beign tumor on his chest, and my uncle now has cancer (I believe testicular).

    Then again, it could be coincidence.

    • Life "examples" (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Gothmolly ( 148874 )
      And do they smoke? Drink lots of caffeine?
      Eat meat?
      Excercise?
      How's your family history of this?

      -1, FUD
    • Wow. That's amazing.

      I do know the science, and I also know the following:

      My parents, sister, and myself have never lived near any high voltage wires. My father died of liver cancer, my mother is recovering from breast cancer, and my sister has had severe arthritis since the age of 35. Oh, and I have a benign lump on my thumb.

      Maybe that whole "coincidence" thing has more to it than you know.

      Or it could have something to do with other lifestyle habits -- I'm sure my father's smoking two packs a day didn't
    • Jane in Austin, Texas, deleted this mail without forwarding it to any of her friends. Two days later she was involved in a head-on collision with a tractor trailer. She died after five days in the burn unit.

      Bob in St. Louis, Missouri, forwarded this mail to sixteen friends. Five days later he won sixty million dollars in the lottery.
  • My dad used to study EMF all day at the local power company. This continued after being bought out by a bigger power company in the region, and then stopped when a overseas power company purchased them. Basically his job was to know what EMF was proven to do.

    I can't recall all the details now, he doesn't do that anymore, but near as anyone can prove, it doesn't really effect you. There are no health risks that can be linked specifically to EMF. A lot of people throw up EMF health risks to prevent new p

  • This may be an urban legend but it was recounted to me by my university lecturer.

    A while ago here in blighty there was a court case which involved a gentleman who lived under a power line. The gentleman in question was accused of stealing electricity from the power company and they were trying to prosecute.

    He had facilitated the alleged theft by placing one half of a step down transformer in the loft(attic)of his home and fed the output into his electricity supply. He had been gleaning free electricity l

    • As someone mentioned about SCO, the court will want to see that you've taken steps to protect the thing you've lost. So if you came into my court I would say "Mr. Power Company, did you know he could get free power like that just by living there? Did you attempt to purchase the property? No, then have a nice day"

  • I read recently - possibly in a New Scientist magazine - that some researchers had discovered something frightening about EMF radiation. They said that the radiation itself doesn't appear to cause cancer directly, but that when the body is exposed to EMF radiation, it stops repairing damaged DNA sequences so vigoroursly.

    Sorry I don't remember too much more about it.

    If I were you, I would err on the side of caution and stay right away from the damned things.
  • OK, DOE did a lot or research on this. After all, we have kids. Some of us live near power lines and power plants. Some of us work around this power distribution equipment all day long...

    It all started with one scientist who claimed he had evidence back in the '80s that the EMF did cause problems. So, lots of studies have been done. Tons of studies. All of them came up with the same results: Nada wrt EMF. No effect at "safe" distances.

    To qualify "safe": That means you're far enough away that


  • If you enjoy amateur radio or shortwave listening, the RF 'hash' coming from the lines will swamp weak signals.

    The power company probably has an easement across your property, and can demolish any obstacle in the way of fixing their lines. On the other hand, I know some folk who have effectively gotten the power company to pay them for the loss-of-use of their land.

  • I seriously doubt you'll have any problems with satellite reception, TVs, or anything else. The power drops off squared with respect to distance. Others have pointed out more realistic issues with buying such a house though -- the biggest is easements and easement access (I once considered a home that had many easements on it, and they were a major reason for why I didn't purchase. That and the fact that cutting a 12" hole into an engineered wood I-beam violates the manufacturer's guarantees), one of the ot
  • Have you ever discharged a little static and zapped yourself or a friend? Well, if you live under the power lines, you better wear a rubber suit everywhere you go in your house, becuase if you let *that* electrical current out... *BZZZZAP* ... and there wont be much left of you, or your new house.

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