Re: ELF and construction
From: Rob Sandelin (robsanmicrosoft.com)
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 94 15:13 CDT
Right you are Deborah Behrens to clarify on appropriate ELF discussion 
on this forum. I felt the discussion of the biology and physics was 
sort of getting off track - I agree, construction issues around ELF, or 
other things of concern is very appropriate - I just get enough email 
so that I have to be selective, and it seemed the political, 
biological, physical issues of how ELF does or doesn't cause health 
concerns don't seem relevant to building cohousing.

At Sharingwood we put all our power underground which helps the issue 
tremendously, not to mention the esthetic.   We had a group come out 
and take ELF measurements at our two transformers.  At a distance of 2 
feet from either there was no reading. Our electric cables are in a 6 
inch thick concrete box and buried 4 feet in the ground.  The box has a 
large green metal cover with a bunch of warnings on it.  We 
specifically requested the green colored covers,(rather than white!) 
and they cost a little extra but they blend into the background 
shrubbery nicely.

We have 4 remote power kiosks which have 4-6 power meters on them. The 
kiosks are two large treated posts about 8 feet high, Three feet apart  
with a half sheet of plywood between them, then covered with a cedar 
shingle roof and front.  Each house runs an underground line to the 
closest kiosk.   We put all the power meters on the back of the kiosks 
(which makes the power meter reader grumble because she has to get out 
of her car to read the meters) and we use the fronts of the kiosks as 
outdoor bulletin boards.  The power kiosks are at the edge of the road, 
sort of out of the way and again, measurements for ELF dropped off to 0 
at 2 feet.

Having clusters of remote power kiosks was something we had to argue 
with the county planners about. They wanted power meters on each house, 
but when we asked them why, they all scratched their heads and could 
not come up with a reason why not.  We pointed out a couple example 
developments which did remote kiosks, and since that was "precedent"  
they dropped the issue.  We didn't tell them or the power company we 
were going to put the meters on the backs of the kiosks, but hey, they 
didn't tell us we couldn't!  Having the outdoor bulletin boards is 
nice. One of them is full of kids art, one is our entry bulletin board 
with info about our community.  The other two don't get used much.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood




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