🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Oct29.135558.1672@nrcnet0.nrc.ca> ORBAN@amt00.ime.nrc.ca (Peter Orban) writes:
>In our search for a home, we noticed, that in some districts the 
>homes are supplied by electric power from free standing cables,
>installed on wooden poles, running about 40 to 50 feet from the
>houses at the fence line in the backyard. In some other districts
>the power is distributed to the homes from ground cables, running
>again at the fence line in the backyard.
>I imagine both systems have about the same electric features, loading,
>voltages, transformers at every second homes, e.t.c.
>
>WE have heard a lot about living close to a power lines. I would be
>interested in knowing if there is much difference between the EM 
>radiation of the two systems, having that free standing power line
>constitutes the danger of living close to a power line?
>The local hydro company claims that there is no significant difference
>in radiation between the twoo systems.
>
>Any comments would be welcomed!

The power company is correct. There is no significant difference
between overhead and underground service in residential distribution
systems as far as EM radiation is concerned. That's because the radiation
level from either is insignificant compared to the radiation you receive
from the wiring in the walls of your home and from the electrical appliances
you operate in your home. EM field strength falls off with the square of
the distance from the source. So the power lines, being much further away,
produce much weaker fields in your home than the fields generated by the 
wiring and devices inside your home. A hair dryer held next to your head
generates a field 100,000 times stronger in your body than a distribution 
line a 100 feet away, buried or not.

Underground power is nice for other reasons, however. It is more immune
to lightning. It means there are no cresote treated poles, cresote is a
known carcinigen. And the power company doesn't come along and spray
herbicides along the right of way to keep vegetation from shorting the
lines. It can mean longer power outages when there is a system failure,
however, since crews have to come out and dig up your yard to find the
trouble.

Gary