Spatial and temporal assessment of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields emitted by smart meters and smart meter banks in urban environments.

Spatial and temporal assessment of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields emitted by smart meters and smart meter banks in urban environments. Environ Res. 2020 Feb 04;183:109196 Authors: Aerts S, Van den Bossche M, Vergara X, Odie S, Verloock L, Martens L, Joseph W Abstract This paper describes radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic field (EMF) measurements in the vicinity of single and banks of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) smart meters. The measurements were performed in a meter testing and distribution facility as well as in-situ at five urban locations. The measurements consisted of gauging the RF environment at the place of assessment, evaluating the worst-case electric-field levels at various positions around the assessed AMI meter configuration (spatial assessment), which ranged from a single meter to a bank of 81 m, and calculating the duty cycle of the system, i.e. the fraction of time that the AMI meters were actually transmitting (12-h temporal assessment). Both in-situ and in the meter facility, the maximum field levels at 0.3 m from the meter configurations were 10-13 V/m for a single meter and 18-38 V/m for meter banks with 20-81 m. Furthermore, 6-min average duty cycles of 0.01% (1 m) up to 13% (81-m bank) were observed. Next, two general statistical models (one for a single meter and one for a meter bank) were constructed to predict the electric-field strength as a function of distance to any configuration...
Source: Environmental Research - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Environ Res Source Type: research