A Building Biologist explains how your neighbour’s solar inverter can raise dirty electricity levels in your home. One of the most overlooked EMF issues in modern housing.
Most people assume that if they don’t have solar panels, they’re not affected by the electrical “noise” that solar systems can generate. Unfortunately, that’s no longer true in many suburban neighbourhoods these days.
What is “Dirty Electricity”?
Dirty electricity (DE), also called high-frequency voltage transients, is electrical pollution created when devices interrupt the normal 50 Hz sine wave of the power supply.
Solar inverters are one of the biggest contributors, because they convert DC energy from panels into AC energy for the home — a process that creates electrical “chatter.”
This chatter:
- travels along power lines
- leaks through shared transformers
- spreads through earthing systems
- and can enter neighbouring homes even if you don’t have solar
Think of it like noise travelling through walls — except it’s electrical noise travelling through the grid.
Why Neighbouring Solar Systems Affect You
There are three main reasons:
1. Shared Transformers
Most Australian suburbs use pad-mounted transformers or street units that serve multiple homes.
If a neighbour’s inverter is producing DE, it can travel:
neighbour → transformer → your home
2. The Neutral/Earth Pathway
Solar systems dump high-frequency noise onto the neutral and earth wiring.
Since your home shares these infrastructure pathways with surrounding houses:
their noise → becomes your noise
3. Inverter Activity Peaks When Solar Production Peaks
This means:
- Late morning
- Midday
- Early afternoon
…are the times your home may experience the most incoming DE — even if you’re not using much power inside your home.
Why This Matters for Your Health
Dirty electricity in susceptible individuals is linked in the research to:
- headaches
- sleep disturbances
- irritability
- concentration issues
- skin tingling
- fatigue in susceptible people
- increased stress response
As Building Biologists, we don’t claim DE causes disease — but we do recognise that it can be:
⚡ a biological stressor
⚡ a nervous system irritant
⚡ a contributor to EMF sensitivity
The more electrically “busy” a home becomes, the harder it is for sensitive individuals — especially children — to regulate and recover.
Signs Dirty Electricity Might Be Affecting Your Home
The best way to know if elevated dirty electricity levels are affecting our home is to have a trained building biologist out to check.
However signs to look out for include:
- solar-heavy neighbourhood
- sensitivity symptoms that come and go during the day
- poor sleep despite good sleep hygiene
- buzzing/whining sounds near outlets
- AM radio static near wiring (if you have a battery radio you can tune to 530 kHz and move around the house, crackling = dirty electricity)
- tingling or irritability in certain spots of the home
If this feels familiar — you’re not imagining it.
What You Can Do
Here are practical, Building Biologist-approved steps:
✔ 1. Reduce sources inside your own home
Turn off invertors, chargers, and switching power supplies at the wall when not in use.
✔ 2. Consider DE filters — but only after testing
In some homes, filters help.
In others, they make it worse. These filters can be placed at the wall outlet or a whole house filter (more ideal) can be installed
installed at the switchboard by a trained electrician. Always test before and after installing.
✔ 4. Improve grounding pathways
Electricians trained in EMF-aware practices can help here.
✔ 5. Book a professional assessment
A trained Building Biologist can map incoming and outgoing electrical noise, determine the source, and create a tailored mitigation plan.