Solar Power Systems: How To Reduce EMF Exposure Risks

Solar Power Systems: How To Reduce EMF Exposure Risks

The electricity that we use to power the devices in our homes and buildings can be produced by a variety of sources. Natural gas, coal (burned to make steam), heat from nuclear energy, hydropower (moving water) and wind (moving air) can all create motion to spin a turbine, which is connected to a generator.  The movement created by any of these sources spins the rotor in the generator, pushing electrons along a conductive coil, which interact with magnets to produce alternating current (AC) electromagnetic fields.  This electricity travels to our homes via the power grid, and is a resource produced far away from our homes, which we depend on for most of our household routines.

Since the invention of solar power systems, which have become more economically viable over time, we now have the option to produce our own electricity directly from sunlight. This can decrease our dependency on the external power grid, and even reduce or eliminate our electricity bill.  Most of us have plenty of sunlight where we live, at least during the warmer seasons, so in recent years as the components of solar power systems have become more affordable, this has become a viable option for home electricity.

The sun is a steady and reliable resource that most of us have direct access to.  While the upfront cost of the components are a significant investment, a home solar power system can be economically advantageous in the long run.


How do solar power systems work to generate electricity?

With solar power systems, sunlight directly excites electrons held in crystallize materials like silicon, generating direct current (DC) electricity.  This occurs on the surface of solar panels, also known as photovoltaic (PV) panels, which are placed in sunny areas like rooftops or open fields.  The term photovoltaic refers to the generation of electrical voltage when photons of light come into contact with a material.

This DC electricity needs to be converted into AC to be usable by the electrical systems in homes and buildings – this is done with a device called an inverter.  Inverters take the DC electricity and rapidly switch the direction back and forth, creating an “alternating” current – AC electricity.  The inverter also ensures that the resulting AC matches the grid’s voltage, frequency and phase (in the United States it’s usually 120 volts at 60 hertz), to safely integrate the electricity into the grid.  The end product from the harvest of solar energy generates electricity that’s identical to what’s produced by a generator powered by natural gas, coal, nuclear, hydro or wind.


Grid-tied versus off-grid solar systems – pros and cons

If a home solar power system is tied to the grid, this has several benefits and also some downsides.  Batteries are by far the most expensive component of a solar power setup. With a grid tied solar system, you don’t need a battery to store the solar energy for use at night or during rainy or cloudy days – your solar power is fed directly into the larger electric grid, giving you an electricity “credit” that you can use later when it’s needed, automatically balancing out the fluctuating and unpredictable availability of sunlight.  A grid tied solar system is far more convenient and flexible.

The main downside of grid tied solar power systems is that you’re still dependent on the electrical grid, even though you’re reducing your overall electricity cost by feeding your excess power into the larger grid.  If the grid goes down, your power goes out, unless you have a generator as a backup.  Another downside is that you’re almost certainly required to use a smart meter (unless your local area allows you to opt out), to accurately keep track of the electricity you’re sending to the grid and receiving back from it.  Smart meters produce high levels of wireless radiofrequency (RF) radiation, and contaminate your home wiring with dirty electricity.

An off-grid solar system, on the other hand, is a closed system designed to produce all the electricity needs for a given location.  This design requires much more forethought and careful planning, with enough solar panels to harvest sunlight energy for all household needs, a large enough battery bank to store power for use in times of the year with limited sunlight, and usually a backup generator for “worst case scenario” situations.  It also necessitates more discipline and careful timing of electricity use for those living at that location.  Another downside of an off-grid system is that since all power is produced at the location of use, you could be exposed to higher levels of EMFs from the storage batteries and the potentially larger quantity of total equipment used by the system. The benefits of a well designed off-grid solar system are energy independence from the external power grid, and not needing to use a smart meter.


Solar power system EMF exposure concerns & mitigation strategies

Both types of solar power systems will expose you to some level of EMFs, but understanding the EMF hotspots generated by each type of system will give you clarity about how to reduce and mitigate these risks. Solar panels produce a small amount of low voltage direct current (DC) electricity, and since they are usually placed a good distance away from living areas, the panels themselves aren’t much of an EMF concern.

The wiring that runs from the panels to the inverter and/or battery emits EMFs, and if you’re designing a solar setup, one way to minimize EMF output from the wiring is to ensure that all the wires – positive, negative, neutral and ground – are run side-by-side, tightly paired or twisted together.  If the wires are run separately, inches or feet apart from each other, a strong magnetic field will be created in the space between the wires.  When they’re close together, the magnetic field is basically canceled, reducing ambient EMF readings.

Every solar power setup uses an inverter to switch the DC power from sunlight into the AC power used by the grid.  Inverters create dirty electricity as a byproduct of this conversion, which enters your home wiring.  However, it’s important to realize that even with a conventional power system (and no solar setup), you are still exposed to dirty electricity from devices within and outside of your home.  Dirty electricity, a term that describes voltage transients, fluctuations or anomalies that “dirty up” an otherwise smooth and “clean” sine wave, is an issue for almost everyone who lives a modern, technology-rich life.

The difference in EMF exposure between grid tied and off-grid solar power systems is the presence or absence of a battery, and the presence or absence of a smart meter.  Off-grid systems must use batteries, and grid tied systems almost always use smart meters.

Solar batteries produce static magnetic fields, with the highest readings right next to the battery, quickly dropping down to zero as you move further away.  The extra exposure from a solar battery bank can be mitigated by having a dedicated power room or shed that’s separate from the house or living area where humans and pets spend time.  Your inverter can be in this room, as well, preventing exposure to the EMFs directly around the inverter.

The EMFs from a smart meter cannot as easily be mitigated by distance. If the meter is further away from the house, on the outside of a dedicated power shed, the radiofrequency (RF) transmissions the meter produces by sending and receiving data to and from the power company will be occurring further away from people, which will reduce wireless RF exposure to lower levels.  However, the smart meter will still contaminate the electrical system with dirty electricity, on top of the dirty electricity that’s already being added to your home wiring by the inverter.

We also need to touch on the different types of inverters used in solar power systems: string inverters and microinverters.  Microinverters are small inverters placed underneath each panel in the solar array, designed to convert DC energy from the panel into AC at the site of energy production, each inverter controlling a separate panel.  String inverters are installed at the end of a string of panels, controlling them all as one, and are usually further away from the panels, on the ground in a main solar system control area (like a power shed).

Microinverters can optimize energy production since they treat each panel as a separate system. String inverters group a whole string of panels together, where the limitations of one panel could end up affecting the entire string: for example, if one panel is in the shade, or is losing efficiency due to age or corrosion, that affects the power production from the whole group.  If each panel is controlled separately with microinverters, the high functioning and/or high sun exposure panels will not be limited by panels that may be converting less sunlight into power at any given time.  In installations with partial shading or panel mismatch, this can result in higher total energy production over the lifetime of a system using the same number of panels.

Using microinverters under each panel is generally considered safer, since it immediately converts DC to AC – DC power can be a bigger fire hazard under compromised conditions, whereas AC is easier to control.  However, that means the wiring on your roof would be running AC power, already carrying dirty electricity through the wires, potentially exposing you to more EMFs if any of your living spaces are close to the roof.  Microinverters are also more costly than string inverters.

One last note about inverters and radiofrequency (RF) radiation:  if you use an EMF meter (like the Trifield meter) to measure the EMFs coming from your inverter(s), you will likely notice a reading categorized as “RF”.  Radiofrequency or RF emissions are commonly assumed to only come from wireless communication devices that use frequencies in the megahertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz) range to transmit data wirelessly from one place to another with aerial antennas.  However, EMF meters will interpret any frequency in the low kilohertz (kHz) range and above as radiofrequency.

In the case of inverters, frequencies in the kHz-MHz range are produced as a byproduct of high-frequency switching electronics, in the form of a localized noise field.  These emissions are not transmitted via antennas and typically diminish rapidly with distance, often approaching background levels within a few feet of the device, similar to other localized electric or magnetic field sources.


Eliminate dirty electricity concerns by cleaning up the sine wave

Dirty electricity, or high frequency voltage transients, are bad for the health of your devices and appliances, generating high frequency spikes that wear out electronic equipment, reducing their longevity.  This high frequency “line noise” is also bad for your health, being potentially linked to cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic stress, brain and mood disorders, obesity, asthma, and electro hypersensitivity (EHS).

Whether you’re concerned about the effects of dirty electricity produced by your solar power system’s inverter, the smart meter that a grid tied solar system necessitates the use of, or even just dirty electricity produced by the regular electrical grid with its smart meters and devices/appliances that utilize power in complex ways, there is a way to “clean up” the sine wave.

The SineTamer device, which is wired into your main breaker panel, removes all the excess voltage transients and spikes from the sine wave, by absorbing the excess and converting it to heat to be dispersed through the ground wire.  Unlike the capacitance-based, plug-in dirty electricity filters that are widely available – which shunt the dirty electricity onto the neutral line, creating a strong magnetic field with equal or even greater health harms – SineTamer removes the threat completely.

The SineTamer also acts as a surge protector, which is an important component of a solar power system.


Comprehensive EMF protection for a variety of electromagnetic threats

While the SineTamer is an excellent solution for cleaning up the sine wave and therefore reducing the effects of dirty electricity, you still need to protect yourself from the ambient electric and magnetic fields produced by a solar power system, as well as wireless radiofrequency radiation from a variety of sources:  smart meters, Wifi routers, Bluetooth, cell phones, nearby cell towers, smart appliances, and more.

One additional concern that some people have is living near a commercial solar power plant, which can expose anyone living nearby to EMFs that are orders of magnitude higher than a home solar power system.  This situation requires considerably more protection than the relatively moderate electric, magnetic and radiofrequency fields that a home system would normally expose you to.

Blushield home and portable EMF protection devices offer comprehensive protection from all these radiation sources.  There are different models designed for differing levels of EMF exposure, whether you live in a rural area or small town, suburban area or medium city, or even a large city or metropolitan area.

If you have a solar power system with a smart meter or battery bank close to your living area, or if you live near a commercial solar production facility, a strong Blushield model like the C1 Ultimate Cube, EVO Cube or EVO Pyramid would be an excellent choice for optimal protection.

If your home solar power system is designed with plenty of distance between your living area and the strongest EMF sources – the inverter, battery and smart meter – one of our low to moderate EMF exposure models like the Phi 02 Plugin, Phi 03, or B1 Premium Cube would likely suit your needs well.

If you also need protection when you leave your house, from the EMFs in your vehicle, cell towers, and exposure sources at other locations, a Blushield portable device will ensure that you stay in your “protective bubble” no matter where you go and what you’re exposed to.

Solar power systems can be a useful and beneficial upgrade to conventional electrical systems, as long as you understand the unique EMF risks and how to mitigate them.

 

 

References:

 

 

 

← Older post

This post copyright ©2020-2025 Blushield USA. All rights reserved.

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission is strictly prohibited.