Please if you can share your opinion regarding a fully ESP Wifi Automation solution based.
i need to get an advice if the frequency of the Wifi is in someway can has an negative impact if it’s running 24/7 in our residence and used by around 20, 30 or more devices distributed in the house.
The very cheap solution can be done with ESP is very impressive with the limitless possibility, but the most important is to keep in mind if the huge amount of Wifi devices that can be installed in each corner in the house is good to our bodies (newborn, children or even adult)
Or if someone can advise if the ESP has an option to reduce the Wifi transceiver power if possible.
Hello,
There is no indications whatsoever that wifi radio frequency has any impact on health.
However, relying on wifi almost exclusively for home automation has it’s pitfalls. It can suffer from interference. Choose your wifi channel wisely. The esp is not able to encrypt data and therefore your data is being broadcasted for a determined atacker to read. The worst is that it can easily be jammed and any self respecting burglar nowadays would be carrying one off these:
On top of jamming devices, you have security issues since a flaw in wifi called KRACK was found around a year ago and many devices never get firmware updates. In the case of this flaw it only takes one device not to be patched to compromise your security.
I prefer non ip devices which are wired and use wifi for the devices which need them to be useful.
As for health this video is worth a watch if you want to hear the negative side. google
“catalyst wi fried” it is on YouTube.
Edit: there is a reason why I say to google it and not provided a direct link to YouTube.
The episode has now been removed from the ABC website and the journalist Dr Maryanne Demasi reported by the ABC to be suspended pending a review of the program.
I agree with Vincent regarding the safety. I’ve read no studies that have any convincing evidence that the frequencies of wifi cause health problems. Based on the physics (IIRC) it takes 1 electron Volt (eV) worth of energy to cause an electron to jump orbit and therefore break apart molecules. WiFi signals for consumer based routers (not talking about high powered microwave antennae) produce energies around 0.00001 eV of energy. That is way too little energy to effect molecular bonds (i.e. it can’t damage your DNA). That leaves danger from heat. WiFi 2.4 GHz operates at the same level as a microwave oven so can theoretically heat you and anything else with water. But the average output of a consumer grade wifi router is 1 watt. A microwave oven operates at 1000 watts. At 1 watt spread over a very wide area there simply isn’t enough energy to measurably heat anything. Cell phones, radio, and TV broadcast signals far outweigh the heating that would come from wifi.
I also agree with Vincent, from a technical perspective, I would avoid using these for any security sensitive systems. 20-30 wifi devices also seems likely to increase the latency and have other impacts on your wifi overall. Personally, I would run two APs, one for the ESPs and other home automation one for your other devices (computers, phones, etc). This will prevent all those ESPs from affecting your ability to use the internet. It is also a good idea from a security perspective.
But where possible, using wired is a good idea. It is more reliable and more secure.
I totally agree that a wired solution still the best in all cases. but when we are stuck on a retrofit solution where the possibility to pull a cable is not available, here a wireless solution is mandatory.
However, if we do a comparison between Wifi frequencies and ZWave frequency, we can say that Zwave is kind of healthier than Wifi ? Or as long as we talk about wireless frequencies the impact is same if there is any negative impact.
