how harmful are Electric Sub stations if very close to a house (not in use for few yrs now)

[likeatonneofbricks]

are they still radiating stuff when not in use for few yrs, if one is underground literally on parallel street. and what kind of harm can they cause - is there any point measuring something?

I'm not in basement/ground floor, I should add.

if it's not in use, they do nothing.

There can be some electro-magnetic interference when they are on, but unlikely to be as great inside your house as you get from the cables running around it. You might hear it on a portable radio.

Ordinary cables, which have L+N in parallel with E running between them, emit very little, because the fields cancel each other out. Underground cables, where the E is wrapped around the L, cancel out even better. An ordinary electricians clamp meter is unable to detect the current at all, unless there is a fault.

Cables running from pylons, where the voltage is higher and the cables are not wrapped around each other, do emit more. They are usually very high and don't often pass close to houses.

Tests have been done with high-voltage cables and laboratory animals to try to find ill effects, but have failed.

Wherever you live, there is likely to be a substation within a few hundred yards of your house.

Why is this one underground? Is it in the basement of an industrial building?

thank you PJ! sounds good, I've been told the sub station is 25m from house, not sure why it was there, nothing industrial there now. I assumed sub stations ARE underground, but that's what i've been told also.

some electrical installation for London Transport tube lines are underground, but substations need ventilation so should have grilles or a vent shaft.

otherwise UK substations are usually either in a small cabin about the size of a garage, or in a small enclose with a fence round it.

PJ, I've never looked at it, it just showed on the enviromental map in searches when buying. Thre aer a few it seemd in the nearby area but most are inactive. Would this cabin or enclose be aming the houses, as this one shows as if on parallel street - I assumed it's underground as that's what the agent said andpossibly it des have a grill. If it's among houses wouldn't they knock it down once inactive? is it still harmless if it's that close?

*seems

A disused electric substation on the next street is completely harmless. I think you need to look elsewhere for the reason you shouldn't buy this property -- the substation isn't it!

thanks Casper, that's one worry off te list. Still a bit woried an=bout radon and mobile masts near house. But I have moved in now anyway,