A farm close to us has put in a planning application for two 20m wind turbines which would be sited on the other side of a small rise about 1/2 mile from our house.
Not wanting to immediately revert to NIMBY mode if not necessary, does anyone have an idea of the noise levels turbines of this size can produce?

very litle , compared to the sound of babies crying, car repairs, doors slaming and a motorway.

sod all

I’m not an expert but I had a ride up around one of Europes largest windfarms last year and blogged about it here . It was blowing a fairly stiff breeze and the wind noise was negligible – even standing right under the blades.

Any wind turbine experts around?

sod all

about right..

Just get some cables out and bung the lads building it £50….

20m blades, or 20m high? What model? The Proven ones are surprisingly noisy in a very strong wind, but it isn’t a bad noise, not like a busy road, I just wouldn’t want one right outside my bedroom window.

I’m sure UKIP can come up with some thoughtful and well-informed information for you which is all fully provable.

If its anything like the ones I have seen put up, it will mostly be motionless.

not an expert, but we’ve got one in the carpark at work that makes a 20m jobbie look like a tidler.

when it’s very windy, it makes a quiet muffled thumping noise, but the rest of the time you’d hardly notice it.

I had one on my boat and you heard the vibration not the blades- obviously not that size

IMHO you wont ever hear it – may be noisy when really windy but by then you will be hearing the wind anyway and not the turbine

I ride past the ones scotroutes mentions on many road rides including my commute, you can’t hear them till you’re right up to them. You certainly can’t hear anything from half a mile away.

There are two within half a mile of my house. The collective piss of half the village boiled when the planning application went in.

Can’t hear ’em.

There are stringent planning requirements relating to the noise, so no it won’t be a problem for you

It isn’t so much the size of the turbine but the power it produces. There is also the consideration that some turbines have tonal qualities which can make them more annoying.

Even a single turbine will need a planning application which should include a noise assessment. The assessment should be done in accordance with ETSU-R-97 and any noise impact modelling in accordance with ISO 9613. It might be worth looking on the Council’s website to see if you can find the assessment.

Generally there are two options for a noise assessment, the simplified method where there noise impact from the turbine operating at a wind speed of 10 m/s is calculated and if the impact is below 35 dB(A) it is deemed to be acceptable. Depending on the background noise level at your property this limit may result in the turbine being audible.

The full assessment compares noise impact against wind speed, generally at low wind speed the turbine isn’t doing much so there is no noise impact and at high wind speed the wind noise provides masking, the middle ground at around 7 m/s is generally where most problems arise.

I have looked at noise assessment where there are multiple turbines in closer proximity to residential properties than 1/2 mile and the noise impact is acceptable but it certainly depends on the type of turbine installed and the existing background noise level.

Just looking through an email I was sent in error a few years back, objecting to a local planned wind farm, it would appear a 500m noise barrier was built in to the application, so any turbines would be 500m from the nearest residential property.
The other big issue was shadow flicker caused by the sun and the turbines.
Me personally i’m in favour of them, we have a few within a 5-10 mile radius of our house, if they wanted to build some closer like the proposed site I mentioned above, I wouldn’t have an objection as it’s better than a nuclear power station.

Me personally i’m in favour of them, we have a few within a 5-10 mile radius of our house, if they wanted to build some closer like the proposed site I mentioned above, I wouldn’t have an objection as it’s better than a nuclear power station.

does your electricity cut out when there is no wind? if not then you benefit from the nuclear power station

the big ones on Scout Moor are surprisingly noisy, especially so when they go up in flames 😉

The other big issue was shadow flicker caused by the sun and the turbines.

Shadow flicker is grossly overemphasised apparently, the actual conditions it can occur problematically exist for a very small time window each year.

does your electricity cut out when there is no wind? if not then you benefit from the nuclear power station

the big ones on Scout Moor are surprisingly noisy, especially so when they go up in flames

obvious troll is etc etc etc

My wife’s uncle lives next to a wind farm, with the closest one about 1/2 mile from his house. They are 217ft with 77ft blades and he complains about the noise all the time. I can’t hear them when I am there though…

obvious troll is etc etc etc

why? the gear boxes screech on most of them, never mind the harmonics from the blades and one of them has burnt down. What was a quiet moor with just the sound of skylarks and the odd illegal motocrosser now isnt.

this has been scientifically verified by riding past them 😉

I didn’t say I was against nuclear just I’d prefer turbines to a nuclear power station local to me, saying that their was a nuclear power station closer to my house than any turbines but it’s currently in the process of being decommissioned.

Bigjim, it’s ’20m to the hub’ according to the application.
Thanks all, a little less concerned now but will fully investigate to make sure.

If its anything like the ones I have seen put up, it will mostly be motionless.

🙂

Just had 8 put up near us, you can see the buggers for miles. Must be about 1/2 – 3/4 of a mile way from the house.

Can’t hear them at all, I quite like them TBH

There should be an assessment for noise and light flicker. I know Garrad Hassan has software to do it but not sure what size turbines/installation they normally get involved with.

So these are 40m diameter? Not a bad size but certainly not a monster. We worked on some 4x that the other year. Quite impressive when you consider that each blade is as long as an A380 is wide!

So these are 40m diameter? Not a bad size but certainly not a monster. We worked on some 4x that the other year.

Not unless they are going to be mincing every sheep that comes along! 20m to hub is going to be a small turbine.

There should be an assessment for noise and light flicker. I know Garrad Hassan has software to do it but not sure what size turbines/installation they normally get involved with.

Resoft Windfarm does it too, but isn’t much fun to use. I’ve not done it for years and can’t remember when it is/isn’t done any more.

A 20m windturbine will be about 10-20kw with a blade span of approx 11m. Unless it has a noisy gearbox or bearing issues, you will not notice it.

does your electricity cut out when there is no wind?

No, but a coal/gas/biofuel peak load station could stay off line when the wind is blowing.

Poor bit of trolling there Paul. 2/10 😉

Not unless they are going to be mincing every sheep that comes along! 20m to hub is going to be a small turbine.

ah that’s the height. Thought it was the blade to hub measurement as they were trying to make them seem smaller than they are by giving the radius rather than the diameter.

Now I know why I post on here for stuff like this, a real font of knowledge, thanks.
I must get round to asking that question about my next set of tyres soon…

Really depends on whether your downwind from it… Some full size big beasties on the hills behind me. If your upwind, you can get quite close before your hear them, downwind and it’s a loud dull swoosh they make at full tilt.

I reckon you would be ok.

Your local council will have a regional planning framework. If you access that you will be able to see if they have any constraints. Have a look at EIA(environmental impact assessment)applications in your area, they should give you an idea of what is going on. Contact the developer as an interested party, they have to include public debate as part of the process, and annoy your local politicians – let them do legwork for you.

EWEA give a figure of 35.9dB(A) at 400metres, I would do a calc but I’d need to dig out my acoustics notes and need a bit more info: not quite as simple as halving that dB figure though, the topography you mention will certainly influence the noise level. FWIW a general busy office is approx 60dB..