The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Renewables => Topic started by: docsal on February 14, 2019, 01:01:28 pm
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We are on a very windy site and are looking to having a combination of wind turbine/solarPV and possibly ground or air-source heat pump.
Does anyone here have a turbine? We are specifically looking at the Kingspan one but it would need to be pretty close to the house and I was wondering about noise. From my reading a lot of the noise up close has historically been mechanical - gears etc. This model has a brushless motor and is supposedly quieter.
Has anyone got one or been up close to one?
Sally
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Hi Sally,
We have a 2kW turbine (MiniWind, not the Kingspan/Proven), about 20m from our house. It's a similar, downwind design to the Kingspan type.
There is some noise from it, typically a moaning noise, when going at reasonable speeds. Think of a large motorbike going fast on a distant road. I understand the noise is from the blade tips. It doesn't bother us as we have become used to it, and being very remote, have no neighbours to worry about.
Some friends of ours have recently installed the Kingspan model, and whilst I have not heard it operate, they report good energy inputs from it.
Hope this helps.
Dave
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Hello Sally
We have a 15kw CF15 and a NIBE ground source heat system. Turbine is about ~50m behind us on a ~21m mast. It isn't the same design as the kingspan, so you can hear the motor turning as it moves the head if the wind changes direction, but it's not particularly noisy. When it is turning generating power you don't generally hear much. What is typically more noisy is just the wind itself so the turbine isn't a problem. Normally if there is an audible noise during production then there is an issue with the turbine. Getting it serviced regularly generally helps prevent that, but I think the kingspan types are a most straightforward design. We've a neighbour with an early model kingspan and I don't recall it being all that noisy when we've been by but it's not been turning fast when we've been there.
The ground source heat system uses a lot electricity. It supplies heating for the house and hot water, I think it's a 7kw system. The turbine does cover most of this when it is working but there are times of the year when it isn't in production and the electric meter goes into overdrive! If you've a solar system too planned then that may cover the non-windy periods too.
Cheerio.
Dave.
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Thanks both - reassuring.....