http://www.factoryfive.com/gtmhome.html

http://www.factoryfive.com/gtmhome.html

So I went down to the Capstone Turbine booth at the LA Auto Show this afternoon and talked with them about the noise (and a lot more). They said the turbine in the car will be slightly louder than the 65 dB of the stand alone microturbine—somewhere in the realm of 70 dB. Which is still relatively quiet. And yes, they said the the sound is like the whine of a turbocharger. I may have a chance to actually listen to it tomorrow, if they’re allowed to turn the car on that is. I’ll have much more info in a piece a I plan on writing in the next couple of days.

I love this idea and didn’t know how small they have shrinked the combustion turbine. The best parts are maintenance and fuel variety.

The worst parts are noise (I’ll bet that 65db has an annoying high pitch) and efficiency. If you look at the brochure Andy posted, it has a kW vs. heat graph that shows the turbine gets weaker as ambient temp goes up…and it’s a significant drop for temps we commonly see in the South (like FloriDUH).

I love this idea and didn’t know how small they have shrinked the combustion turbine. The best parts are maintenance and fuel variety.

The worst parts are noise (I’ll bet that 65db has an annoying high pitch) and efficiency. If you look at the brochure Andy posted, it has a kW vs. heat graph that shows the turbine gets weaker as ambient temp goes up…and it’s a significant drop for temps we commonly see in the South (like FloriDUH).

As I’ve also said a thousand times over, right now you’re using the comments section exactly as they should be used–to fill in where the blogger leaves out details. If I go by time spent vs. income (which isn’t everything, for sure), I had already spent way more time on the article than I should have. But, with the work you’ve now done, you have added value to the conversation and saved the time for me. I’m actually very appreciative. Seriously. But, don’t you think it would have been better for you to start there than to start with some harassing criticism about how I left out a detail on a car that is still in the prototype phase?

It sounds like you don’t read much of my stuff, if you did you likely wouldn’t care about the occasional article that may leave out a few details–for you would have an overview of a person who often spends a ton of time delving into the details (for little reward, I might add). You might then be less nitpicky and harassing when I purposely gloss over some details in an article, and you might feel like simply adding to the conversation with some important details (like finding a technical document on the microturbine) without the harassment.

Here’s the data that you guessed.

The turbine in its fixed install box version claims* a sound footprint of 65 dBA at 10m, which, according to an unsourced Wikipedia article**, corresponds to a passenger car at the same distance.

*http://www.capstoneturbine.com/_docs/CR30.pdf

**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_pressure

“…that is to say people who revel in their ignorance.” No, quite the opposite. I was complaining that your guess did nothing to remedy my ignorance. I would have known just as much about the sound issue without reading it, which I assume isn’t the intent of your blog.

The reason for my irritation is that you are blogging prospective technology. The whole nature of the conversation is whether it is viable. Sweeping past that with a hand wave is just so frustrating. It’s like announcing a cure for cancer. Does it have side effects and actually work without killing people? Let’s just assume not.

Here’s the data that you guessed.

The turbine in its fixed install box version claims* a sound footprint of 65 dBA at 10m, which, according to an unsourced Wikipedia article**, corresponds to a passenger car at the same distance.

*http://www.capstoneturbine.com/_docs/CR30.pdf

**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_pressure

“…that is to say people who revel in their ignorance.” No, quite the opposite. I was complaining that your guess did nothing to remedy my ignorance. I would have known just as much about the sound issue without reading it, which I assume isn’t the intent of your blog.

The reason for my irritation is that you are blogging prospective technology. The whole nature of the conversation is whether it is viable. Sweeping past that with a hand wave is just so frustrating. It’s like announcing a cure for cancer. Does it have side effects and actually work without killing people? Let’s just assume not.