Turf Breeze Greens Fan
The new Turf Breeze fans have arrived and are almost ready to be installed. The electric company has installed the power wires on 6 and 15 along with the meter base service poles. Once each site has been passed by Hendersonville Inspectors the fans will be ready to move some wind.
Boring the Fan Wires Under the Cart Path
Installing Fan Wires
Each fan is anchored to a ground pole that is concreted over 5 feet in the ground. Here is a picture of #5 ground pole hole that our golf course maintenance staff just completed.
Ground Pole Cavity
Many members knew we were installing fans but many don’t know the actual advantages of operating these fans. Typically fans are installed 15 – 30 feet outside the edge of a green and 3 – 10 feet off the ground in relation to the highest point of the green. The main goal of a green’s fan is to generate a 3 – 4 mph wind speed over the turfgrass canopy, which these fans can achieve up to 150 feet in distance. Green’s fans usually operate 24 hours a day to stimulate air circulation from stagnant air sitting over the green providing turf diseases a breeding ground. Normal operation can be from May through September depending on weather conditions. A green’s fan also assists in limiting excessive moisture in greens and assists in cooling the turfgrass canopies. Tests have shown turf canopies to be 10 degrees cooler with fans operating than the air temperature without a fan operating. When bentgrass greens become stressed 10 degrees can make all the difference.
We are considering installing several fans on our golf course, but some members have raise a noise concern regarding house close to greeens, is there any information on the noise level available?
Yes there has been allot of data collected regarding fans on noise, temperature reduction, and hours of operations. The USGA Greens Section and Turf Breeze Fan Company have useful data for the fans. In the past I had trouble with noise levels around homes and installed timers that would turn off the fans from 6-9am and 6-9pm for homeowners to enjoy their morning coffee and evening beer. Typically, depending on distance, a 52″ 5 hp fan wil range from 70-85 decibels. A normall conversation ranges from 60-70 decibels so they are generally pretty quiet. There are some tricks you can do like Rhino Line the outside screens of the fans that will lower the noise levels by about 3 decibels by reducing the vibration noise in the screens. Good Luck and feel free to contact me if you have anymore questions.