Electrical service panel and meter base

Field strength by distance

30 cm

10–100 mGMeasured range — Typical range within arm's reach of a residential panel under normal load.sources: niehs-emf, sbm-2024

1 m

2–20 mGMeasured range — Typical range at 1 m.sources: niehs-emf, sbm-2024

3 m

0.2–2 mGMeasured range — Usually indistinguishable from background by 2–3 m.sources: niehs-emf, sbm-2024

Mitigations, most effective first

Do not place a bed, desk or child's play area on either side of the panel wall.

Two to three metres of separation reduces the field to background; magnetic fields pass through walls unaffected.

Have an electrician check for net current on the neutral and for shared or crossed neutrals.

Wiring faults, not the panel itself, cause the elevated whole-house readings that do not fall off with distance.

Measure with

• ELF gaussmeter (power-frequency magnetic field)

Related records

• Building Biology SBM-2024 AC magnetic field bands

  Sleeping-area grades at 50/60 Hz: below 0.2 mG no anomaly, 0.2–1 mG weak, 1–5 mG strong, above 5 mG extreme.

  Exposure limits

• Household background magnetic field (50/60 Hz)

  Away from appliances, homes typically sit below a few milligauss; the WHO's epidemiological association with childhood leukaemia begins at a daily average of 3–4 mG (0.3–0.4 µT).

  Sources & emitters

Sources

1. niehs-emf Electric and Magnetic Fields — National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. government, link checked 2026-08-12.
2. sbm-2024 Building Biology Evaluation Guidelines for Sleeping Areas (SBM-2024) — Institut für Baubiologie + Nachhaltigkeit (IBN), 2024. ngo, link checked 2026-08-12.