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Comment by gambiting | Hacker News Reader

I used to think it's all nonsense and people just complaining about nothing, but now I have a wind turbine about 500m away from my house and I can absolutely hear it at night, just constant low frequency droning combined with a whooshing sound of the blades.

Like, I've gotten somewhat used to it now, but I'd lie if I said it doesn't bother me. And again, I don't want to come across as someone against green technologies, we should be building lots and lots of these everywhere.....just maybe not this close to housing.

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I live about half a mile from an expressway, and I can hear loud vehicles all night. My neighbor has a small pool with an aboveground pool filter than also hums all day. I’ve lived in condo buildings where you can hear a general “hum” of the city from down below.

Genuinely, should I not be hearing these things? Are the turbines dramatically different?

I think the low frequency and period nature could make it quite different.

But I guess the expressway would already have been there when you bought the property?

The problem is making changes that will significantly affect nearby property values without the permission of the owners of those properties nor any compensation.

So is this a property valuation issue or a quality of life issue?

To NIMBYs, there is no distinction.

Isn’t quality of life correlated with wealth? Isn’t most people’s wealth tied to their property value?

It doesn't have to be one or the other.

It can be both.

I live by an airport. I knew it when I moved. No complaints from me.

But, my house backs a golf course. It's zoned permanent green space. A developer bought the land at a discount (because it shouldn't be possible to redevelop it) and it sinking millions into buying local politicians to open the zoning up to condos and commercial use. Damn straight I write my local representatives about that. This isn't just putting a bigger building where one already existed - this is taking a giant green space and bulldozing it all for profit. I'm all for redeveloping underused plots and increasing density where buildings already exist. But removing all the parkland is a no-no to me.

With good windows, you probably shouldn't hear them.

I live under the approach to IAD (DC suburbs) and have jumbos passing overhead much of the morning. They're loud when I'm in my yard, but I barely hear them when inside. Same with the evening outbound jumbos - they don't pass overhead, but we can hear their engines run up for take-off if we're on the deck, but not in the bedroom.

Same for the Dulles Toll Road. I can hear it outside, but inside it just blends with general suburban ambient noise.

And both were here well before I bought the house, so I'd be a right dickhead to complain now (not that that stops many locals from doing so).

Agree. Maybe they can put a wind turbine at 1km vs. 500m from an occupied residence, there's certainly enough open space for that in many of the turbine-heavy areas.

however - and i get all the behavioral econ that could back up why this is - but however, it really feels like we're going to NIMBY our way into total failure to address climate because of the 1,000 and 1 small inconveniences the changes will cause.

We live in Seattle, right under the flight path for our major airport. I hate it, its annoying enough to wake me up at times; one benefit of the early pandemic was much-reduced air traffic.

There are trains a few miles away that are fairly loud when the weather turns cold. Also wakes me up at night.

Noise pollution sucks, and if windmills are put up 500m from your house I think part of that process should involve the local homes is if all is that is true.

OTOH we live in a noisy world, are windmills any different?

you need better windows! try triple pane windows

Would you say it’s worse or better than living near a highway without sound barriers?

It's different - I used to live next to major road, and yeah it was louder in intensity, for sure, but at least it would die down quite a lot during the night, and you'd only ocassionally get a car/motorbike with a loud exhaust passing by. This really bothers me because it's just constant and completely unchanging, I keep lying in bed and hearing the whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.....with cars I'm just like ok, there was a loud motorbike but it's gone now. With a wind turbine I know it won't change, and either I have to get used to it or....well, move out I guess, and that sucks.

YMMV but I for the past few years I have been sleeping with Bose QuietComfort earbuds with active noise cancelling and they've significantly improved my life. Loud noises that would have woken me in the past are dampened enough that I can sleep through them, and annoying hums or whatever while traveling are just completely gone.

Yeah so actually I use my Sony WF-1000XM3 headphones often when falling asleep, or I just put on some rain sounds on my phone next to me - that's usually enough.

Interestingly I can not keep headphones on (in ear, over ear does not matter) as after a while I begin to experience discomfort and after 1-1.5 I go mad.

If a motorway was built next to my house I'd have a problem with that too

Hah, I wish everyone who vehemently says they're very quiet could live near one.

I'm definitely not saying "stop building them", though.

On a side note, that's very similar to what tinnitus sounds like. Sometimes drives me mad.

I guess it could an issue of people living in an area that is too quiet. I live close to a highway. If you would put up a wind turbine at 700 meters (distance mentioned in the article) then it would be impossible to hear it.

Compared to city noise, wind turbines are extremely quiet.

Though I can imagine that if the sound of the wind turbine is the dominating sound (and probably people sleep with their windows open). That it could be extremely annoying.

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