Assessment of radio frequency fields in the 2.45 GHz band produced by smart home devices

• Published in: Bioelectromagnetics Vol. 45; no. 4; pp. 184 - 192
• Main Authors: McKenzie, Raymond J., Iskra, Steve, Knipe, Phillip
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.05.2024
• Subjects: electromagnetic fields; EMF; human exposure; internet of things; IoT; smart devices; smart homes; internet of things; electromagnetic fields; smart devices; human exposure; smart homes; EMF; IoT
• ISSN: 0197-8462; 1521-186X
• DOI: 10.1002/bem.22492

This paper describes the assessment of the electromagnetic fields produced by consumer “smart” devices used to control and monitor everyday equipment and appliances in a modern “smart” home. The assessment is based on the careful measurement of fields produced by a range of such devices in a laboratory environment configured to operate in a condition simulating high user activity. All devices included in this study operate in the 2.4 GHz band utilizing either Wi‐Fi or Bluetooth connectivity. Overall results indicate very low levels of electromagnetic fields for all IoT smart devices in terms of human exposure safety standards (typically much less than 1%) with very low duty cycles (also less than 1%) resulting in even lower time‐averaged exposure levels. These low levels of exposure, along with rapid reduction of levels with distance from the devices, suggests that the cumulative effect of multiple devices in a “smart” home are not significant. Highlights This paper provides a detailed assessment of the radiofrequency electromagnetic fields produced by a range of consumer “smart” devices that may be present in a typical “smart” home. Results of these measurements indicate such devices produce very low levels of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields at even close distances of exposure, together with very intermittent operation reducing such exposure even further. Such low exposures, along with rapid reduction of fields with distance from the devices provides confidence the that cumulative effects of multiple devices in a smart home are not significant for human exposure.