Freedom Windmills dBa Levels

[anerce]

db and dbA are 2 different units. do the conversion before posting anything

[philbloomstein]

The meter is set to dBa. There is no conversion needed.

[micahd02]

Phil:

I'm with you in wishing that ALL the facts could be made public, honestly, before people decide on what goes in YOUR or MY backyard. But then I look at our voting process and the way people apply it, and all hope goes out the window.

Nuff with the soapbox, what I wish to know now is what software you were running in this video? I work with Science Fair students who NEED to do sound level testing, and this would be ideal stuff, if not too expensive.

[Okendra]

Hem, we hear nothing in the video. You just proved that it's not noisy. thanks.

[Blueyes1119]

It is outrageous that people in Freedom and Mars Hill, Maine and other places should have their lives ruined by shadow flicker, constant noise exceeding db levels, and vibroacoustic effects on health for a pitiful output of electricity.

[Blueyes1119]

Industrial wind sites are not about "green" energy. It is investors raiding the treasury for profit, using an inefficient, unpredictable energy source to justify it. Without all the tax equity financing,special 5year double balance accelerated depreciation, the production subsidy (2 cents per kwh)and the myoptic legislation favoring it, this industry would not exist.

[Teratornis]

OK, let's get the government completely out of the energy business and see what happens. Gee, that would mean no more superhighways to encourage urban sprawl and gaswasting, no more continuous war in the Middle East to protect oil supplies, no more $30 billion payments to coal miners with black lung disease, no more nuclear power, no more long-distance transmission lines, etc. Does it occur to you that government policies create every large-scale form of energy we have?

[Teratornis]

Did you also measure the sound output from your motor vehicles? I'd rather live right under a wind turbine than surrounded by snarling, roaring gaswasters. Without all the foreign oil we import, most wind-NIMBYs wouldn't be able to enjoy their unsustainable exurban lifestyles. Anyone who sends money to Saudi Arabia to drive a gaswaster has no grounds to whine about someone else's noise. Wait until we have gas rationing; then everyone will wish they had a wind turbine next door.

[spddemon250]

Good point.

[spddemon250]

11-16-08 was a very windy day, from the SE. This may not be typical for the area. This also brought foul weather with precipitation. The wind through the trees and precipitation could create noise levels such as this. Clearly the wind direction is right at the camera. Not the case in an earlier, less damning post. Didn't these just go on line a few days ago? Are you going to give it a chance or have you made up your mind? After looking at your other posts, I wonder if your glass is half empty?

[Teratornis]

Ask the farmers and ranchers who get paid to have wind turbines on their property if they mind the noise. By an amazing miracle, "wind turbine syndrome" magically vanishes when the "victim"'s name is on the check.

When railroads first came out around 1830, people were terrified of them as well. Some people suspected that humans could not withstand the severe stress of traveling at the unimaginable speed of twenty miles in one hour!

[philbloomstein]

We are willing to live with the turbines, but also want people to know there is an impact on those living near the turbines and it should be considered when developing sites. As far as my "unsustainable exurban lifestyle" does that include the well insulated energy efficient house my wife and I built with our own hands with much of the building materials coming from recycled wood or our own property, firewood we cut, the family garden, backyard composting etc.

[brugger1982]

Phil's point is more that more care needs to be made to choose wind sites that minimize impact on the current residences and the surrounding environment, not that wind power shouldnt be pursued. Remember that every decibel represents twice the volume level of the previous decibel. A 20 db increase in average sound 1000' away from the turbines represents over a millions times higher linear volume. This is a serious everyday disruption to everyone and everything living within that zone.

[Teratornis]

The decibel scale is logarithmic because that's how human ears evolved to respond to sound. We don't respond to sound linearly, so it is nonsense to mention the linear sound power increase. That argument will only fool someone who is ignorant of psychoacoustics. So how much sound does your gaswaster spew at everyone on or near the roads you use? You should not whine about a small amount of sound coming from a wind turbine when you ignore the vastly louder noise pollution you emit.

[Teratornis]

How much petroleum do you use?

Do you use more, or less, than the world per capita petroleum consumption?

What will you do when world petroleum extraction begins its irreversible deline, and the U.S. is no longer able to import nearly as much petroleum as it now imports?