Would you buy a house with an electricity sub-station attached???

[artichokes]

This morning we viewed a lovey house. It is everything we want in a house but it is on the market for about £150k less than similar houses in our neighbourhood. Partly this reduction is because the sellers are desperate but in teh main I suspect it is down to the attached electrivity sub-station.

The sub-station looks like an attached garage from the street - the only difference is that the garage door has bars in front of it and a sign saying "DANGER OF DEATH". Its depthis half that of a garage and apparantly nobody ever goes in or out except for 6 monthly short inspections. it makes no noise so other than the sign you would never know it was there.

However, I know some people are worried about the effect of electricity generators on children and this would be below the DDs' bedroom windows. What are those worries based on? Is there evidence of damage to children from electricity generators.

I am personally worried it puts the house at increased risk of fire/explosion. It might also put future buyers off when we come to sell.

What would you do? The house is perfect in every other sense.

No. We used to be able to hear a sub-station humming even though it was about four houses away! The re-sale aspect would put me off, too.

No, we nearly bought somewhere similar several years ago and I did lots of research, reading reports, calling numerous organisations and obtaining reports and the most worrying thing to me was that whilst nobody would actually say there was a definite danger, I couldn't get a statement from anyone confirming it was definitely safe either. From what I remember, the issues were supposedly completely eliminated outside of a one metre radius or if you had a reinforced wall of some sort but I wasn't totally convinced. I was pg at the time and the risk to very young children/developing brains was highlighted in terms of pylons, etc and presumably sub-stations too.

As far as resale is concerned, it would definitely make things more difficult - I think that's apparent from the fact that the owners have had tests done.

Sorry to put you off your dream house but it's not worth the risk imo - if any of your family became ill, you would always wonder if there was a connection. Good luck with finding somewhere else.

Will the sub station always be there? Are there any plans for it to be moved? Worth checking out.

In a buyers market you do not need to accept any potential downside to a property IMO - another lovely house without this problem will be out there and also at a bargain because that is what the market is doing now..

I'm not sure, I would have to do some very careful research first, maybe have my own tests done. The 150k reduction would be tempting though!

Artichokes, what have you decided to do?

Hi, what did you decide? We're in a similar position, saw a great house, but hum from sub-station and the security risk put ne off, being down an alley close to the house meant someone could climb on the roof and getting into the back of the house.

For anyone else stumbling on this thread, sub stations don't give out radiation, they emit electro magnetic fields (EMFs) which as far as I'm aware once you are 5 meters or so away from the fence surround it, levels are negligible. Also if it's an open type sub station ie. Not in a building of its own with a roof etc. Then even if someone's children were to find a way in, so long as there are no over head lines coming out it, would require cutting off padlocks before any danger to them could happen. As all conductors are usually in a secure locked cabinet. There is a very small chance of an explosion. But probably more chance of an aeroplane crashing into your house lol. Do some googling on EMFs