Smart meters: radio waves and health
Updated 18 May 2026
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/smart-meters-radio-waves-and-health/smart-meters-radio-waves-and-health
This page has been created as part of a restructuring of the Electromagnetic Fields guidance webpages. The content reflects existing UKHSA advice and does not represent any new or revised position.
Smart meters use radio waves to allow remote readings to be taken from gas and electricity meters. Smart meters are expected to replace millions of manually read gas and electricity meters in homes and small businesses over the next few years. The systems are designed to record consumption of electricity and gas automatically, and relay the information to the utility companies. Consumers will also be able to access the information to help them manage their energy use.
More information about smart meters is available from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
Radio waves and smart meters
Smart meters use radio waves to communicate the information they collect. There are many other everyday devices that use radio waves for communications purposes and these include radio/television transmitters, mobile phones and wireless (wifi) computers.
The system that gathers information from the electricity and gas meters is made up of 2 main radio parts:
- Home Area Network (HAN), which links the smart meters with an in-home display that allows householders to view their energy use in real time
- a communications module that allows communication between the meter and the utility company and which in existing UK meters of this kind, contains a SIM card like those used in mobile phones
The communications are not continuous and only occur during short intermittent bursts when data is actually being sent.
Exposures from smart meters
The evidence to date suggests exposures to the radio waves produced by smart meters do not pose a risk to health.
Assessments made in other countries that use smart meters have found exposures that are low in relation to internationally agreed guidelines.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has carried out an extensive programme of research to assess exposures from smart meters as the technology is rolled out in Great Britain. The research had 3 elements:
- phase 1: quantifying exposure to radio waves from a selection of smart meter devices under laboratory conditions
- phase 2: calculation and mapping of the radio wave energy absorption in the body due to the signals from smart meter devices located close to the body
- phase 3: assessment of exposure in a sample of homes to determine exposures under realistic operating conditions
The results of this comprehensive programme are now published in 3 parts in the peer-reviewed journal of Bioelectromagnetics:
The results confirm UKHSA’s existing advice that exposure to radio waves from smart meters is well below the guidelines set by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP).
The study also concluded that exposure to the radio waves produced by smart meters is likely to be much lower than that from other everyday devices such as mobile phones and wifi equipment.
In light of the availability of smart meter devices operating at 868 MHz, UKHSA has extended its research programme to quantify exposure from these devices. The result of this study confirmed that the exposure contribution from smart meter devices operating at 868 MHz is generally lower than, if not similar to, originally developed devices operating at 2.4 GHz.
UKHSA considers exposure to radio waves does not provide a basis to decline having a smart meter.
UKHSA is an independent adviser to government regarding the health aspects of radio waves from smart meters and does not make decisions on whether to use this technology.
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