I was asked to expand
my prior article on
wind turbine infrasound.
Part 1 is here:
https://elonionbloggle.blogspot.com/2019/06/wind-power-is-loser-intermittent.html
Part 1 is here:
https://elonionbloggle.blogspot.com/2019/06/wind-power-is-loser-intermittent.html
Infrasound occurs
where large masses
are in motion, such as
avalanches and
earthquakes.
Infrasound in industry
can come from
very large machines,
such as automotive
sheet metal presses,
and from dynamite blasting.
Unfortunately, wind turbines
also generate infrasound
when their blades rotate.
Turbines also make
other annoying noises,
kill lots of birds and bats,
provide expensive electricity,
and intermittent electricity.
They are "total losers",
as President Trump might
have said, compared with
nuclear power.
This long-time
( since 1965 )
audiophile says
there's a serious
infrasound noise
problem facing
the leftist dream
of huge increases
in the numbers
of wind turbines,
that is being ignored.
MY PERSONAL
EXPERIENCE
WITH INFRASOUND
INSIDE HOMES
Infrasound is defined
as frequencies below
20 cycles per second,
or 20 Hz.
My extensive experience
designing, building, testing
and equalizing subwoofers,
since the early 1980s,
results in a different
definition: Below 30 Hz.
As frequencies decline
below 40 Hz., you will
increasingly FEEL the sound
with your body, more than
you HEAR it with your ears.
At 30 Hz. what you
actually "hear"
will mainly be the
harmonic distortion
at 60 Hz. and 90 Hz.,
not the 30 Hz. test tone.
Rooms inside a home
have bass resonances
at frequencies related to
the room's dimensions.
The bass resonances
inside rooms are usually
called standing waves,
-- they include
positive feedbacks
that amplify certain
low frequencies.
The lowest resonance
frequency in a room
will be from reflections
between walls
will be from reflections
between walls
of the room's
largest dimension.
The walls do not
have to be parallel.
In a larger room,
one room resonance
is likely to be
below 30Hz.
For homes
with a relatively
large interior
open space,
perhaps a kitchen,
dining room,
and living room,
the three room area
can resonate at a
specific frequency --
likely to be in the
infrasonic range.
The whole house,
if made of wood,
can resonante
at one specific
frequency.
The whole house,
if made of wood,
can resonante
at one specific
frequency.
As a result,
measuring outdoors,
measuring outdoors,
where the measurements
usually take place, can be
very deceptive.
The noise inside a room
can be FAR MORE annoying
than outside the home.
Low frequencies
from OUTSIDE
the home
from OUTSIDE
the home
can excite
one or more
one or more
standing waves
inside a room,
amplifying the
exterior noise
problem.
problem.
This could be more
annoying if outdoors
infrasound was
a pulsing sound,
a pulsing sound,
like the sound from
a wind turbine.
I've had a ridiculous amount
of experience with infrasound
frequencies inside a home,
from the mid-1980s
to the mid-1990s,
as part of a southeastern
Michigan audio club, where
building self-designed
subwoofers was encouraged.
With these monster subwoofers,
club members soon found out
few compact discs had the
deep bass and infrasound
they wanted to show off
their great designs.
they wanted to show off
their great designs.
Audio consultant Dave Clark's
company measured and found
a few CDs with ultra low bass
so club members could show off
their do it yourself subwoofers.
During one audio club meeting,
I was driven out of a home
by infrasound from the biggest
displacement subwoofer
designed by any
displacement subwoofer
designed by any
audio club member, using
twelve 15" bass drivers,
shown in the picture below:
An earlier version, with 'only'
eight 15" bass drivers, was described
shown in the picture below:
An earlier version, with 'only'
eight 15" bass drivers, was described
in a 1999 audio magazine article as:
"The Subwoofer That Shook The World".
I don't think audio consultant
Tom Nousaine would have
appreciated me responding
to his subwoofer by throwing up
to his subwoofer by throwing up
inside his large listening room !
So I rushed outside, feeling weak
and nauseous, from my internal
organs getting "all shook up".
A few other audiophiles
had moved outside too,
and we were surprised
the loud bass / infrasound
did not seem to affect
the other club members.
We all had experienece with
deep bass, but not with
high energy infrasound.
We all had experienece with
deep bass, but not with
high energy infrasound.
While outside, a few of us
began wondering if
began wondering if
infrasound could ever be
used as a military weapon.
But we knew deep bass,
especially infrasound,
is omnidirectional
-- so we had no idea
how you could aim it
at the enemy, without
harming your own troops.
And it seemed that most people
in the club were able to tolerate
infrasound energy, at least
as part of "music", which
added up to a not very
infrasound energy, at least
as part of "music", which
added up to a not very
effective military weapon.
U.S. MILITARY INFRASOUND
WEAPONS EXPERIMENTS
Colonel John B. Alexander,
headed a department that
developed unorthodox weapons,
including an infrasound weapon:
Colonel Alexander said this
about an experimental
infrasound weapon,
after it was rejected:
"There were some people
who were physiologically
affected. They were nauseous.
They would get dizzy."
"There were some who had
psychological issues, fear
factors, inability to think,
kinds of things".
"We found that some people
are affected dramatically.
"Some people are affected
a little bit, and others not at all."
"From a weapons perspective
... ( we need to ) know exactly
what the effects are going to be."
The US military gave up
on an infrasound weapon
after 2000, because
its effects on people
were too random:
Some targets were
seriously debilitated;
others not much.
Just like my own experience
during that audio club meeting !
WIND TURBINE
NOISE PROBLEMS
IN GERMANY
"Wind farms" have existed
for more than two decades.
Germans know a lot about
wind turbine noise problems,
because they have 30,000+
industrial wind turbines !
Some of their wind farms
border on residential areas,
and some people there
are having trouble sleeping.
It took a long time
for people to realize
their health problems
were being caused
by wind turbine noise.
Doctors believe between
10% and 30% of people react
negatively to infrasound.
Problems include Insomnia,
heart problems, perception
disorders, and dizziness.
Germany’s Max Planck Institute
identified sub-audible infrasound
as the cause of stress, sleep
disruption and more.
A Swedish group showed
the pulsing nature of
the low-frequency
wind turbine noise
( ‘amplitude modulation’ )
was responsible
for sleep problems.
In Germany,
health problems
ramped up a lot after
small, old turbines
were replaced with
bigger, more efficient
models, a change
promoted by the German
Environment Agency.
But German officials
were not concerned about
infrasound coming
from wind farms --
they claimed that
beyond 700 meters,
the wind turbine
infrasound noise
was drowned out
by other outside
sources of
infrasound noise.
I'm confident
that conclusion
was caused by
two errors:
(1)
The great difficulty of measuring
outdoor infrasound with conventional
sound measurement equipment, and
(2)
What matters much more
is what people hear inside
their homes, where they spend
most of their time, and where
they try to sleep eight hours
a day.
THE FIRST ACCURATE
INFRASOUND OUTDOORS
MEASUREMENTS
The Federal Institute
for Geosciences and
Natural Resources ( the BGR ),
operates a measuring station,
called the I26DE, for the
German government.
I26DE is part of an international
monitoring network designed
to ensure that terms
of the nuclear test ban treaty
are observed.
They measure infrasound
very close to the ground,
because wind noise can trick
any measurement device.
Their measurement system
is a few meters underground,
using garden hoses to conduct
the infrasound signals from
the various inlets, to a
very sensitive micro-barometer.
A problem developed:
Infrasound from wind farms
could affect measurements
taken by the I26DE Station,
so in 2004 the BGR
decided to measure the
infrasound emissions
from a single wind turbine.
Every time the
wind turbine blade
passed the tower,
large air volumes
were compressed
and sheared.
This signal produced
an infrasound signature
called: "blade pass
harmonics".
The blade pass harmonics
clearly emerge from
outdoor background noise,
with a higher acoustic
pressure level.
The wind turbine
studied in 2004
was very small unit,
barely 0.2 megawatts.
For bigger wind farms,
the scientists developed
a model for calculations.
Their model says that
a five megawatt wind turbine,
could generate a detectable
infrasound signal from a
distance of 20 kilometers !
20 kilometers is MUCH longer
than the German Environment
Agency claimed -- they said
the infrasound emissions
from wind energy plants,
were lost in the background noise,
at a distance beyond 700 meters !
The huge difference is
from measuring broad bands
of frequencies, rather than
individual frequencies
that would clearly capture
the specific blade pass
harmonic frequencies.
The broad frequency bands
obscured the power of the
specific blade pass harmonics.
HERMANN OLDEWURTEL
Mr. Oldewurtel lives
700 meters from
a Finnish wind farm,
with a few dozen
wind turbines
that function even
at low wind speeds.
Oldewurtel said:
"If you sleep here
for four or five days,
you feel like you’ve
been out drinking
for a whole week."
"It’s that bad."
"You get those total
mental blank outs."
"It’s even happened
to me on the phone."
"I couldn’t believe it,
but if I’m out and about,
or if I go away for a few days,
I’m as right as rain again."
Oldewurtel commissioned
measurements by expert
Sven Johannsen,
after the government
refused to do measurements.
Johannsen used microphones
and vibration sensors to measure
the home's interior and exterior.
And a micro-barometer to record
minute air pressure fluctuations.
His measurements showed
powerful home vibrations, and
extremely high infrasound levels
inside the home -- even higher
acoustic pressure levels
than measured outside the home !
A noise survey done
by the government
perhaps using something
like the DIN 45680
( the German Standard ),
would have ignored
infrasound frequencies.
INFRASOUND TRAVELS
FOR MANY MILES
I was stunned by the studies
showing how many miles
wind turbine infrasound
can travel.
I had expected no more
than one mile / 1.5 kilometers.
Infrasound should travel
in all directions
( omnidirectional )
from a wind turbine,
not just down wind.
The Finns have found
the safe setback distance
from wind farms to homes
is 15,000 meters, not the
1,000 meters planning rules
typically permit.
A team of German researchers
tried to find out what their fellow
countrymen are being exposed to
at distances of over 20 kilometers !
Government rules
to use a lot more
"renewable" energy
in the future,
are overwhelming
the "little people"
suffering negative
side effects from
the noise, especially
from infrasound noise.
But then ...
Why should governments care
about infrasound, that no one can
hear with their ears, when they
don't care about the high cost
of wind generated electricity,
or its intermittent electricity
output !
2016 FINLAND STUDY DETAILS:
From a translation of the
Finnish Association for
Environmental Health (SYTe)
study in spring 2016:
The damage caused by
infrasound from
wind power plants will only
decrease significantly
more than 15 kilometers
away from wind turbines !
The data were collected
from Satakunta and
Northern Ostrobothnia,
mainly from areas
where wind turbines
were built 0.5 to 1.5 years
before the interview.
Fifty families,
with about 200 people,
were studied.
The basic research question
was whether the family
had noticed changes in health
status in the last six months
to a year.
Interviewees were NOT
told in advance about the
possible connection
with wind turbines.
Most respondents
were unable to name
a change in their
overall health status.
But there were
many mentions of
sleep disturbance,
changes in the need
for more sleep, fatigue
and various pains.
Few respondents
had ever considered
the wind turbines
as a possible cause.
Harmful or severe
health symptoms
were three times
more common
near wind turbines.
Symptoms decreased
significantly only over
15 to 20 kilometers
from the wind
power plants !
After the construction
of wind power plants,
the majority of people
in the nearby vicinity
are having symptoms,
mainly related to stress.
In 2017,
additional infrasound
measurements,
made in different
parts of Finland,
found out that
15 to 20 kilometers
is a typical maximum
distance where the
infrasound pulses
of wind turbines
could be measured.