Resistance is futile!
Posted on 12/28/2006 5:17:17 AM PST by GQuagmire
A North Attleboro man faces financial ruin because he built a new home so close to dangerous high-voltage transmission lines that fluorescent bulbs inside the house light up without even being plugged in. The electric currents running through the two-story home are considered so potentially harmful that the town’s fire department has strung “caution” tape around the house while an electrical inspector has refused to issue a final permit out of fear someone might get electrocuted. The home’s metallic door knobs and exterior shingles give off mild electric jolts when touched, while flowing currents are strong enough to light up fluorescent bulbs on their own, the homeowner and experts agree. “I spent everything I had,” said Chris Zagami, who invested up to $70,000 of his own money and took out a $290,000 construction loan to build the 1,700-square-foot home just 27 feet from giant overhead 345,000-volt transmission lines owned by National Grid. Zagami, 30, whose bank is now threatening to call in its loan, blames the fiasco on others, including the town of North Attleboro for issuing him a building permit and National Grid for allegedly constructing one transmission tower years ago too close to his property.
“Financially, I’m so in over my head that it’s ridiculous,” said Zagami, a phone-company technician who grew up only 50 yards away from his new home on Lindley Street in North Attleboro.
The building inspector who issued the permit no longer works for the town. John Rhyno, a town selectman, said he wants to know why the town issued a building permit in the first place, though he maintained there’s nothing in state statutes that sets guidelines for building homes close to transmission lines.
“You would think common sense would have prevailed” before construction started, he said of everyone involved, including Zagami.
A spokeswoman for National Grid, which owns the transmission lines, said Zagami has no one to blame but himself for proceeding with construction last year without getting the company’s permission.
Debbie Drew, the spokeswoman, said Zagami built his home on National Grid’s easement and ignored its repeated warning to stop.
Zagami, who is single and whose now largely completed home sits abandoned, said his surveys show that National Grid actually built one transmission tower off of its easement years ago.
“My life is being destroyed,” said Zagami, of the financial crunch he’s now facing. “I was trying to live the American dream and now I’m getting killed.”
my attempt to answer your actual question......
1. magnetism makes electricity
2. electricity makes magnetism......both statements are true
power lines are surrounded by magnetic fields, which induce "electricity" into conductive objects.
an ignition coil or common power-pack/transformer is one example of induction at work.....i.e. no actual physical connection
If you constructed your half of the xfmr on their easement, yep your stealing, if the equipment is on your property, the issue may not be so clear cut. You are in essence just receiving a signal they are broadcasting onto your property.
Transmission lines are not insulated at all. But that is not the problem. The problem is caused my the magnetic fields surrounding the conductors which is huge on the high voltage lines. If you remember from science class, to generate electricity you need a moving conductor and a magnetic field or a moving magnetic field and a conductor.
Because the power lines are AC the magnetic field is building, collapsing and changing direction with every cycle of the current.
Huge, strong, moving magnetic field + stationary metal objects and wiring in the house = generated electricity
Not necessarily. The power company's easement may include a buffer to account for the maximum allowable field strength. They "could" have built on the edge of the easement, creating a hazard that extends beyond the easement itself, in which case they would have to indemnify him. From the account, (they warned him several times) it sounds like the homeowner got something past the building inspector, but now he's up against the laws of physics, and Maxwell wins everytime.
Correct. But that seems to be a disputed point. As in the claim the tower and/or wires are not properly on the easement.
NICE! no electricity bills- if he can just figure out how to turn things off.
Mr.Zagami clearly is a dope.
Website for appraisals will come in handy.
Interesting senario this guy has gotten into. There is a National Electric Code which specifies recommended clearances between wires and structures.. Most governing agencies that have code enforcement in their venue incorporate some form of a National code if not the NEC itself.
I can't see how he got a building permit, passed rough in inspections, got a loan without a survey showing easements and encroachments, etc. I suspect there is much more to this story than is being presented in this article....
As a practical mater I could understand why the power companies would have to win.
I would like to see a setup that actually worked, just for kicks.
Resistance is futile!
It does work...
No full body pic?
Much better!
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