Would you buy a house next to a small electricity sub station

[Janey3090]

As per the question in the title.

Absolutely adore the house, 10/10 location, but it has a small sub station right next to the back garden. I have a one year old, and would of course get an EMF survey done to check the health risks but just wondering if it’s something others would even consider?

Some information from a reliable source here:
https://www.nationalgrid.com/stories/energy-explained/is-living-next-to-substation-safe

Basically, once you are 1-2 metres away from a substation, the EMF is no stronger than that you have around your house anyway, so no risk is incurred from living next to a substation.

Even at the boundary of the substation, the EMF level would only be 1-2 µT - it is not until you get to exposures of around 100µT that you need to start being cautious.

Any company that will do an EMF survey of your house is just scamming you out of money, probably with an eye to get even more money out of you by selling you a bunch of 'mitigation' products that you don't need.

That would be a firm no from me. Of course National Grid are going to say it's safe; anything else would open the litigation floodgates.

I used to live in front of one (at the back of my very small garden) I never even have it a second thought other than we weren't overlooked at the back.

Probably depends how old it was and how often it broke down.

If the thing breaks down every 5 minutes and the electricity board want to come into your garden to fix it all the time it would not be great.

Sometimes they hum and sometimes they will pop and crackle as well if not working. This can happen for a long time before they finally break and someone comes out to fix.

The newer ones are probably better than the older ones. Mainly it is not efficient for these things to radiate large amounts of energy, so newer ones are designed with that in mind.

You cannot shield from them though (unless you literally use tonnes of metal), unlike phone signals from 5G masts that can be stopped by relatively thin sheets of metal.

No.

Yes we do. Lovely quiet, non messy neighbour! The maintenance crews are very respectful, quiet and tidy. Any maintenance is always done within 9-5 mon- Fri. Even the one emergency nighttime maintenance was done quietly and quickly, their emergency lights didn’t even disturb us. (Major town power cut) No noise unlike with overhead power lines either. Not going to be developed into anything else, so you know exactly what your ‘view’ is for the future. I guess the only downside is that they aren’t ‘pretty’.
I guess it does make me biased in that I am in awe of pylons….

I lived beside one briefly. I could hear the buzz it made.

We do and it's no problem. My husband researched it and found no issues. Been here 26 years .

I wouldn't be worried about anything but noise - I'd go and sit near it in the car at night to see if it was loud or not.

I had one on the garden and there were no problems. The cat used to sit on it as it was warm, and she never started to glow in the dark.

It was about the size of a two double wardrobes back-to-back, five feet high, and had a fence all around about one metre from it. I think the electricity people visited it maybe once a year.

Don't they all buzz? Even the faintest buzz would drive me demented...

No the one near us is quiet. (Have just been out to listen)

I grew up with one next to the rear garden and have lived now for years coincidentally with one in a very similar position. No issue at all. No noise. No bother.
Wouldn't bother me if the house was right.

Yes they're not pretty but we've grown ivy up it and it covers most of the facing walls.
Engineers never comment.

I once backed out of buying a house after the survey because of one of these. We were told that when we were in the house there would be no more radiation from this than from a microwave. I was pregnant at the time, with a toddler, and would not have dreamt of keeping a microwave in their bedrooms, so we backed out.

I'd be more worried about PCB contamination in the soil from transformers leaking. They're probably too new for that though.

Substations are an essential part of the electricity network though. If they were not safe we would just have to stop having electricity.
And if they were a genuine threat to health that litigation would already have happened. You can’t stop someone suing by saying they don’t have a case.

Substations are an essential part of the electricity network though. If they were not safe we would just have to stop having electricity.
And if they were a genuine threat to health that litigation would already have happened. You can’t stop someone suing by saying they don’t have a case.

Substations are an essential part of the electricity network though. If they were not safe we would just have to stop having electricity.
And if they were a genuine threat to health that litigation would already have happened. You can’t stop someone suing by saying they don’t have a case.

No, because in my experience they hum. Perhaps the newer ones don't. I have two friends who live very near them (80s/90s built houses) and I can hear both of them in their gardens.

We have one at the bottom of our garden, and the only time it has bothered me in the last 15 years is when it had to be upgraded recently. This required a mini digger going up and down the public footpath alongside the garden for a few days, some noisy (but very polite) workmen buzzing about, a few vans in the road and a diesel generator at the bottom of our drive for two days, supplying interim power to the neighbourhood (now THAT was noisy!). One week's disruption in 15 years is hardly an issue - apart from that, you'd never know it was there.

Yes we loved the house and we got it for a low offer but it was also harder to sell later.

I live next to one. It's basically my Nextdoor neighbour! Haha

Doesn't cause any issues, no buzzing, the maintenance people don't cause any issues on the occasions we see them. Much nicer than my neighbour on the other side tbh!

Can you hear it hum in the garden? That's what would put me off. That and difficulties with resale.

Thank you all, this is really helpful. Turns out this substation is disused and we'd have the potential to buy the land from them, so we're factoring that in to our decision!