Hi A client of mine has asked if I thought putting solar panels on her house would cause any heath issues etc to her and her family. The panels would be on the side roof of the house and the converter would be in the garage. Not sure which rooms would be below the panels. I do not know the answer to this one and wondered if anyone else had any experience
Thank you
solar panels
-
Grahame
- Site Admin
-
Proficient
- Posts: 1475
- Joined: Wed Jul 28, 2004 5:52 pm
- Location: Glasgow, Scotland
- Contact:
Re: solar panels
(It's amazing the topics that crop up when you're reorganising the forum...!)
The answer to this question is that, although PV solar panels produce clean, eco-friendly electricity, it is low-voltage direct current. If you are living completely off-grid with camping-style DC appliances, this will be OK.
The problems start when you have to convert the DC current to 120/240V alternating current (AC). The inverters that do this are basically sophisticated electronic switching devices that regulate the voltage by switching on and off very rapidly. This produces very large amounts of Dirty Electricity (DE), which is radio-frequency noise carried on the mains wiring of the house. It's the sort of thing you see on your TV when a large appliance like your fridge switches on or off - sometimes you see a short burst of interference on the TV signal. That's dirty electricity.
Because the wiring acts as a large antenna, this RF interference is actually radiated from the wiring around the house, and some electrically-sensitive folks find this problematic. You can also find this DE on the incoming mains power from a neighbour's PV solar panels, and also from wind turbines, if your power is supplied from a nearby wind farm.
Other appliances radiate DE too, but to a lesser degree - things like computers, dimmer switches, fluorescent lights, TVs... in fact pretty much anything that has a switched-mode power supply produces DE. Most of this is fairly low-level and can be fixed by a combination of mains conditioner strips and plug-in filters. However, solar PV inverters (and wind turbines) produce such large amounts of DE that you need industrial-scale filters that need to be hard-wired into the mains supply to deal with the problem. Naturally, these are not cheap; which is why your average solar panel installer is not going to include it as part of the job, as it will hike the cost of the install up by around 50% or thereabouts.
The one consolation point is that the PV panels are not producing at night-time when you are sleeping, which is the most important time to protect yourself from excessive EMFs, as that's when your immune system is repairing the damage of the day.
The answer to this question is that, although PV solar panels produce clean, eco-friendly electricity, it is low-voltage direct current. If you are living completely off-grid with camping-style DC appliances, this will be OK.
The problems start when you have to convert the DC current to 120/240V alternating current (AC). The inverters that do this are basically sophisticated electronic switching devices that regulate the voltage by switching on and off very rapidly. This produces very large amounts of Dirty Electricity (DE), which is radio-frequency noise carried on the mains wiring of the house. It's the sort of thing you see on your TV when a large appliance like your fridge switches on or off - sometimes you see a short burst of interference on the TV signal. That's dirty electricity.
Because the wiring acts as a large antenna, this RF interference is actually radiated from the wiring around the house, and some electrically-sensitive folks find this problematic. You can also find this DE on the incoming mains power from a neighbour's PV solar panels, and also from wind turbines, if your power is supplied from a nearby wind farm.
Other appliances radiate DE too, but to a lesser degree - things like computers, dimmer switches, fluorescent lights, TVs... in fact pretty much anything that has a switched-mode power supply produces DE. Most of this is fairly low-level and can be fixed by a combination of mains conditioner strips and plug-in filters. However, solar PV inverters (and wind turbines) produce such large amounts of DE that you need industrial-scale filters that need to be hard-wired into the mains supply to deal with the problem. Naturally, these are not cheap; which is why your average solar panel installer is not going to include it as part of the job, as it will hike the cost of the install up by around 50% or thereabouts.
The one consolation point is that the PV panels are not producing at night-time when you are sleeping, which is the most important time to protect yourself from excessive EMFs, as that's when your immune system is repairing the damage of the day.
Grahame
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it - Terry Pratchett.
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it - Terry Pratchett.
Re: solar panels
I dowsed the Cern Collider area to see what was going on there, and I picked up radiant energy coming from one building, that was the canteen which has solar panels on its roof, dont really know what to make of that.But I did mean to compare it to other houses with solar panels fitted, but never did for the moment, its a job in hand.
Re: solar panels
Grahame's answer pretty much covers the issue. The only thing I'd add is that nearly any home connected to high-voltage AC electricity will have the same "dirty electricity" problem he describes. The solution at our home has been to remain "off-Grid", generating and storing our own electricity from 4.4 kW of solar panels and about 19 kWHrs of lead-acid gel batteries. Most of the electricity we use, at least for all "critical" loads, is 12-volt DC. The remaining appliances that must have high-voltage AC run from a large inverter which remains switched off until an AC appliance is needed. And since electric fields from AC wiring emanate from any unshielded wiring, whether the ancient knob-and-tube type or the modern Romex plastic cable, we only use metal-covered wiring (BX, MC, or EMT). This grounds any stray signals from wiring but not from the AC appliances themselves, or from their cords.
Other sources of unswitched AC fields include voltage-reducing AC-to-DC power supplies ("wall warts"), appliance timers/clocks, and surge-suppressing AC power-strips, so it's always best to just leave AC power off when possible. Shielding areas individually can be really difficult since electric fields can generate magnetic fields in nearby metals. For my clients this has meant that any metals in their bed frames or mattress can be saturating them in fields produced by nearby unshielded wall wiring. I've also found it in plumbing pipes and metal heating conduits. While shielding paints and screens often help, the easiest solution is often just finding the electrical breaker(s)/fuse(s) that control wiring running near the bed and shutting them down at night. Or if it runs in nearby pipes or conduits you may need to find where they cross an unshielded wire and simply shield the wire (and ground it) at those points.
Other sources of unswitched AC fields include voltage-reducing AC-to-DC power supplies ("wall warts"), appliance timers/clocks, and surge-suppressing AC power-strips, so it's always best to just leave AC power off when possible. Shielding areas individually can be really difficult since electric fields can generate magnetic fields in nearby metals. For my clients this has meant that any metals in their bed frames or mattress can be saturating them in fields produced by nearby unshielded wall wiring. I've also found it in plumbing pipes and metal heating conduits. While shielding paints and screens often help, the easiest solution is often just finding the electrical breaker(s)/fuse(s) that control wiring running near the bed and shutting them down at night. Or if it runs in nearby pipes or conduits you may need to find where they cross an unshielded wire and simply shield the wire (and ground it) at those points.
"Develop an infallible technique, then place yourself at the mercy of inspiration." (from a craftsman, but it applies widely)