# Wi-Fi router (2.4 / 5 / 6 GHz)

> A consumer access point radiating roughly 100 mW EIRP per band, giving about 8,000 µW/m² at 1 m and 80 µW/m² at 10 m in free space.

- Canonical URL: https://emfbase.com/emitters/wifi-router
- Collection: Sources & emitters
- Record id: `emitters:wifi-router`
- Status: verified
- Last verified: 2026-08-12
- JSON: https://emfbase.com/api/emitters/wifi-router
- Also known as: wireless access point, WLAN router, modem router

## Key values

- **Category:** radiofrequency
- **Emission bands:** 2.4 GHz ISM; 5 GHz U-NII; 6 GHz U-NII (Wi-Fi 6E/7)
- **Environments:** home, workplace, school
- **Transmit power:** 0.1 W EIRP — Regulatory value — legally enforceable — 100 mW is typical for consumer access points. 47 CFR Part 15 permits up to 1 W conducted power in the 2.4 GHz band for some configurations, so high-power or multi-radio units can be an order of magnitude higher. [fcc-part15]
- **Duty cycle:** Beacon frames transmit continuously at low duty cycle even with no clients; duty cycle rises with traffic. Peak-hold readings therefore exceed time-averaged readings substantially.

## Field strength by distance

- **30 cm:** 88,400 µW/m² — Computed estimate — S = EIRP / (4πd²) with EIRP = 0.1 W, d = 0.3 m — Within one wavelength at 2.4 GHz (12.5 cm) treat this as indicative only. [fcc-part15]
- **1 m:** 7,960 µW/m² — Computed estimate — S = EIRP / (4πd²) with EIRP = 0.1 W, d = 1 m [fcc-part15]
- **3 m:** 884 µW/m² — Computed estimate — S = EIRP / (4πd²) with EIRP = 0.1 W, d = 3 m [fcc-part15]
- **10 m:** 79.6 µW/m² — Computed estimate — S = EIRP / (4πd²) with EIRP = 0.1 W, d = 10 m [fcc-part15]

## Mitigations, most effective first

- **Move the router out of bedrooms and away from desks; distance dominates everything else.** — Power density falls with the square of distance: 3× the distance is 9× less.
- **Use the router's schedule feature to disable the radio overnight.** — Removes night-time exposure entirely without affecting daytime use.
- **Run Ethernet to fixed devices (desktops, TVs, consoles) and disable unused radio bands.** — Cuts both router and client transmissions; client devices are usually closer to the body than the router.
- **Reduce transmit power in the router's admin settings if supported.** — A drop from 100 mW to 25 mW is a 6 dB reduction, equivalent to doubling your distance.

## Measure with

- Broadband RF power-density meter
- RF spectrum analyser

## Related records

- [FCC general population MPE, 1.5–100 GHz](https://emfbase.com/limits/fcc-public-power-density-above-1-5-ghz): 1.0 mW/cm² power density averaged over 30 minutes — the band that covers most cellular, Wi-Fi and 5G frequencies in the United States.
- [Building Biology SBM-2024 RF band: extreme anomaly](https://emfbase.com/limits/building-biology-rf-extreme-anomaly): Above 1000 µW/m² peak from a single RF source in a sleeping area is graded 'extreme anomaly' and triggers a remediation recommendation.
- [RF room survey](https://emfbase.com/protocols/rf-room-survey): How to measure radiofrequency exposure in a room so the result is reproducible: peak and average, at body positions, with the dominant direction identified.

## Sources

- `fcc-part15` U.S. Government Publishing Office (eCFR). *47 CFR Part 15 — Radio Frequency Devices (unlicensed transmitter power limits)*. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/part-15 — regulation, link checked 2026-08-12
- `arpansa-wifi` Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency. *Wi-Fi and health*. https://www.arpansa.gov.au/understanding-radiation/radiation-sources/more-radiation-sources/wifi — government, link checked 2026-08-12
- `itu-fs-relations` International Telecommunication Union. *Free-space path loss and power density relations (ITU-R P.525)*. https://www.itu.int/rec/R-REC-P.525/en — standard, link checked 2026-08-12

Data licence: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Dataset version 2026.08.1. Retrieved from EMFBase, https://emfbase.com.

This record is reference data, not medical or legal advice. Regulatory limits, scientific guidelines and precautionary values are labelled separately and answer different questions.