Safer EMF Solar Installations
- Safer EMF
- Apr 24
- 10 min read
Updated: May 14
Solar systems emit extreme levels of the 4 most common types of EMF and these EMF's can cause significant health effects.
We recently installed solar and wanted to share some tips on how to plan a safer EMF solar installation to reduce your families exposure to the extreme EMF's that they emit.
EMF's that emit from solar systems
Firstly let's start with understanding which EMF's typically* emit at extreme levels from each component of a solar system.
Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) | ||||
Dirty Electricity | Magnetic Fields** | Electric Fields** | Radio-Frequency | |
DE | MAG | ELEC | RF | |
Solar panels | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Solar panel antennas | Yes*** | |||
Inverter | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Inverter antenna | Yes | |||
Batteries | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Battery antenna | Yes | |||
Solar wiring | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Home wiring | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Smart meter antenna | Yes | |||
* We say 'typically' because solar panels, inverters and batteries come in a wide range of brands and models with varying functionality and specifications. These variations may create extreme EMF's not indicated with a Yes for 'typical' systems as outlined above. This is why we always recommend measuring with an EMF meter to be sure.
** Some components of a solar system will be emitting both AC & DC EMF. The most common consumer and professional meters do not measure DC EMF. When a safe distance cannot be measured with an EMF meter, we recommend taking the precautionary approach and move the components further away from areas used by your family.
*** Some solar panels have micro inverters and these typically contain built‑in RF antennas. These are used to send operating data (power output, faults, status) to a monitoring system.
Dirty electricity on home wiring
In our opinion, the greatest and most misunderstood risk from solar systems is the Dirty Electricity (DE) created by the inverter and pushed onto your entire home wiring circuit. This EMF radiates out of the wiring of your home and out of your appliances. DE affects your body which is also a complex electrical system. When it comes to DE It doesn't matter so much where you install the panels, inverter or batteries because the DE will find its way onto your electrical wiring and radiate throughout your entire home and it can also affects your neighbours wiring If you have solar you have extreme levels of DE.
Dirty electricity (DE) is a deviation from the standard 50 Hz electrical wave in wiring. DE is high frequency voltage transients on electrical wiring and devices. DE is also called Electro Magnetic Interference (EMI).
Exposure to high levels of DE has been linked to potential health effects such as the increased risk of cancer, neurological effects, cardiovascular effects, reproductive effects and impact on sleep. We believe that exposure to high levels of DE in our previous home, from neighbouring solar, significantly contributed to us developing Electrical Hypersensitivity (EHS) / EMR Syndrome.
When we first turned our newly installed solar on it was emitting extreme levels of DE and I became unwell in less than 12 hours with chronic headaches, dehydration and what felt like a hangover. The levels of DE increased from below 40mVp-p to over 400mVp-p, with the highest reading over 1,200mVp-p (with no filters). So we turned off the solar for 3 months and waited for a fix to be installed.
The best consumer meter for measuring dirty electricity from solar systems is:
Solutions for reducing dirty electricity
The most effective and simplest solution for reducing dirty electricity on your existing home wiring is to install dirty electricity filters. Dirty electricity filters reduce the high frequency voltage transients.
We installed medium duty DE filters a couple of years back to reduce the DE from our inverter airconditioners. The new solar system added significant amounts of new DE that the existing filters were not designed to filter, so we needed to upgrade to a heavy duty filter for solar.
Marco Simeoni, from Spectral Design recently installed a heavy duty DE filter for our solar. The levels of DE are back down to safer more tolerable levels less than 40mWp-p. Stay tuned to our Safer EMF Social Media on Facebook and Instagram for the more technical details of this installation and an exciting launch of a new range of DE filters for Australian homes!!!
Where to install solar panels, batteries and inverters
Q - Does it matter where I install my solar panels, inverter, battery, solar wiring and smart meter?
A - Yes the location of your solar panels, inverter, batteries, solar wiring and smart meter is very important and each comes with their own EMF risks, safer distances and solutions to reduce exposure. With the right pre-planning you can usually eliminate or significantly reduce the amount of EMF your family is exposed to.
Solar panels
Solar panels (without microinverters) can typically be installed on any part of a roof with a low risk of EMF from the panels themselves. This is because the EMF's they emit typically only radiate short distances and the occupants of the home are usually not within that distance from the panels. In areas that are used for long periods, we recommend the minimum distance from the solar panels (without microinverters) to any family member should be at least 3 metres.
To reduce this risk further, we recommend installing them on garages, alfresco, sheds and other rooms not frequented for long periods by your family. Avoid installing panels over bedrooms because the EMF from solar panels is typically very low when the sun goes down but they do activate early in the morning before many people rise and some people including young children and babies have day sleeps in their bedrooms. If you are considering installing over a bedroom be sure to measure the distance from the bed to the closest panels because the slope of the roof could decrease the distance and make it unsafe. Also consider how close the beds are to the roof, like a top bunk bed, a bed next to the window or attic bedroom could be 1 to 2 metres closer to the roof and panels thereby increasing the risk of exposure to EMF's.
If you have installed solar panels with microinverters you likely have radio-frequency (RF) antennas inside every panel on your roof and those RF antennas could emit much further than 3 metres. If they do have RF antennas, it does matter where you install these and they may be safer much further away on a detached garage or shed. If you have a metal roof it should block the RF, however, RF will come straight through a tiled roof. To block this you may need to install shielding in the entire roof space. We recommend measuring the RF with an EMF meter before and after shielding, because you might not need shielding and you want to be sure it's done correctly if you do shield.
We installed ours over our alfresco, laundry, home office and front entry. Ideally it should not be over the home office however the distance from anyone seated in the office chair to the panels is over 3 metres and we've measured with an EMF meter to ensure the EMF's from the panels are not affecting the home office. We were unable to put them on the garage as that part of the roof is often shaded.
We highly recommend measuring with an EMF Meter to be sure the levels are safe in areas frequented by your family** The best consumer meters for measuring AC Magnetic and AC Electric Field EMF's from solar panels are:
If you have microinverters, the best consumer meters for measuring the RF EMF's are:
Inverters
Inverters are best installed as far away as possible because they often emit radio-frequency (RF) radiation which can travel over 100 metres or more. With some models, this can be eliminated with ethernet cabling and disabling the RF antenna. It is possible to shield RF-EMF, however we recommend shielding the home rather than the antenna itself.
We installed an inverter that offered the option of ethernet cabling back to the modem for monitoring the solar system. If you do ethernet cable your inverter be sure to measure the RF with an EMF meter because the RF antenna might still be emitting, even though ethernet cabling has been installed and the wireless communications is turned off. This happened with ours and we'd never have known had we not measured with an EMF meter or become unwell over time. To stop ours from emitting RF we had to make contact with the overseas manufacturer's tech team 4 times and they released 4 software updates to ensure the RF turned off correctly, we measured with an EMF meter. The first 3 software releases failed and they finally disabled the antenna with the 4th software update.
We also chose an inverter that claimed to have lower Total Harmonic Distortion (THDi) emitting from the inverter compared to other brands. That should in theory reduce the amount of Dirty Electricity, however, we still found that the Dirty Electricity emitted by our solar inverter was too still high for us to tolerate and caused significant health issues. We are very sensitive, so the solar was turned off for 3 months until a heavy duty DE filter was installed. We don't know if they are rolling out that software for all their existing or new inverters or just ours, so don't rely on that being a fix for yours.
We recommend installing inverters away from bedrooms and any space often used for long periods by your family like home offices, living rooms, playrooms and kitchens. This is because inverters also emit extreme levels of magnetic fields, electric fields and dirty electricity which typically radiates at extreme levels up to 1-3 metres from the inverter, sometimes further. It is possible to shield these EMF's but it's incredibly expensive and complex to shield magnetic fields, so we always recommend installing the inverter as far away as possible for starters or relocating it if already installed.
We highly recommend measuring with an EMF Meter to be sure the levels are safe in areas frequented by your family. The best consumer meters for measuring RF from inverters are:
The best consumer meter for measuring RF, AC Magnetic and AC Electric Field EMF's from inverters is:
The best consumer meter for measuring AC Magnetic and AC Electric Field EMF's from inverters is:
Batteries
Batteries should be installed at least 3 metres away from bedrooms and any space often used by your family like home offices, living rooms, playrooms and kitchens. This is because batteries emit extreme levels of magnetic fields and electric fields which typically radiates up to 1-3 metres from the battery, sometimes further. It is possible to shield these EMF's but it's incredibly expensive and complex to shield magnetic fields, so we always recommend installing the battery as far away as possible for starters or relocating it if already installed.
Some batteries will also have an RF antenna for wireless monitoring and if so they should be installed as far away as possible because the RF radiation can travel over 100 metres or more. With some models, this can be eliminated with ethernet cabling and disabling the RF antenna. It is possible to shield RF-EMF, however we recommend shielding the home rather than the antenna itself.
Also, the energy in the battery needs to be inverted from DC to AC which creates Dirty Electricity on the home wiring. We understand it's challenging to filter DE when batteries are installed so we have no plans to install one just yet.
We highly recommend measuring with an EMF Meter to be sure the levels are safe in areas frequented by your family** The best consumer meter for measuring AC Magnetic and AC Electric Field EMF's from batteries are:
The best consumer meters for measuring RF from batteries are:
Solar wiring
Solar wiring will need to be installed to and from the panels, inverter, battery and the main electrical panel. These should be installed at least 3 metres away from bedrooms and any space often used by your family like home offices, living rooms, playrooms and kitchens. This is because solar wiring also emits extreme levels of magnetic fields, electric fields and dirty electricity which typically radiates up to 1-3 metres from the battery, sometimes further.
For our installation we asked that the solar wiring be routed away from the areas we frequent. Using shielded wiring is another option to reduce the electric field and dirty electricity..
We highly recommend measuring with an EMF Meter to be sure the levels are safe in areas frequented by your family The best consumer meter for measuring AC Magnetic and AC Electric Field EMF's from solar wiring are:
Smart meters
Smart meters required by the electricity provider for solar are installed in the main electrical panel so there is usually not much choice where that gets located. It is very important to measure the RF EMF's emitting from the smart meter because they emit radio-frequency (RF) radiation which can travel over 100 metres or more.
We installed a smart meter in our main electrical panel and have found that it only emits infrequently, maybe once a day. This is not the same for all smart meters. We have measured meters that emit extreme levels of RF constantly and others less frequently. For us the calculated and actual risk of RF EMF from the smart meter was low because our home is already shielded with metal external cladding, wall foil insulation behind, it's on the outside wall of our garage which is only used for storage, there are no windows nearby and the external area it emits into is not frequented by our family.
If the main electrical panel is located near bedrooms and other areas frequented we recommend relocating the panel. It is possible to shield these EMF's but it's incredibly expensive and complex to shield magnetic fields which emit from the electrical panel and wiring.
We highly recommend measuring with an EMF Meter to be sure the levels are safe in areas frequented by your family**. The best consumer meters for measuring RF from smart meters are:
The TF2 will also measure RF. AC Electric and AC Magnetic Fields:
We hope this helps you make more informed decisions to keep your family safe from the EMF's that emit from solar installations.
More questions....
If you have more questions about your own solar installation please book a consult with Safer EMF
DE Filters, Wiring Designs, Assessments and Shielding
If you'd like to order a whole home DE filter, low EMF wiring design, EMF assessment or need EMF shielding please contact Spectral Design
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