quietrevolution are frequently asked for advice, design input and budget costs for a wide variety of highly innovative architectural projects. Most of them are extremely interesting and we wish we had the internal resources to properly engage with all of these projects.

To date, due to lack of resources, our feed back to the design teams on these bespoke projects has been far less than we would ideally like. This page is to help define a bespoke project and to provide some initial advice on the quantity of work that is required to either alter the standard product, design a turbine of specific size or to design a turbine to go into a specific environment.

It is very difficult for quietrevolution to know which projects are most likely to proceed and which are more theoretical. In an attempt to ensure that we provide input into those projects most likely to progress, we have now set up a consultancy service.

For those projects that are more theoretical in nature we would be very interested in seeing your proposals.

What is a bespoke project?
A bespoke project at its simplest may be a specific mounting structure or a request to add lighting or other small element to the standard product.

A simple bespoke project would not involve any changes to the rotor size, materials, electrical connection or environmental parameters. Complex bespoke projects are those where significant investigation and design work must be undertaken before a fixed cost can be provided.

Examples of complex bespoke projects include:

• turbines mounted on the sides of buildings
• turbines mounted between buildings
• dramatically increased turbine density
• ducted systems
• stacking or hanging the turbines
• any change in size of the turbine, however small the change may appear
• designing for environmental conditions beyond current parameters, including extremes of cold and heat, dust and sand. We design for coastal sites, but not offshore.

Time and indicative costs of bespoke projects
A simple bespoke project may only require 50 or 100 hours of someone’s time at quietrevolution, and in these cases we might consider progressing these projects without charge if there was likely to be sufficient volumes to justify the cost to the company. An example might be a specific project where 35 standard turbines are required but on a specifically designed mast. A small bespoke project may have a lead time of 4 to 6 months.

Projects where there is a requirement for alterations to the rotor in any way will involve considerable expense. In almost all cases, items 4 to 7 listed above would be defined in some way as a rotor alteration.

As soon as there is a requirement to alter the rotor, even if it is for environmental reasons, we have to investigate the design of the carbon composite materials, the lay-up, the materials and processes. Even without an alteration to the size, a cost of £250,000 or more may be incurred to design, verification and testing of the alteration.

A change in rotor size [however small] will require a redesign, verification and testing, in addition to new tooling, new lay-up processes etc. A minimum likely cost for new size is likely to be £500,000 and for much larger rotors [e.g. 15x existing swept area], could easily be £2,000,000 GBP.

The costs listed above are design and verification costs only, the cost of the rotors would be in addition. A redesign of the rotor, including verification and testing would take a minimum of 12 months and potentially as much as 30 months, depending on scale and complexity.

Cost of consultancy service
We propose a fixed fee of £500.00 for a half day to assess the projects viability, provide feedback on the project as well as any changes that might improve turbine performance and an indication of the likely scope of work.

We have been sent illustrations of many projects that have been progressed to a reasonable level of detail at considerable cost to the Architects in question that are not viable applications for our product. We strongly recommend that if you are embarking on a project with 'fully' integrated wind technology, that you contact us as early in the design process as possible.

Should you wish for us to attend a design workshop with your design team, these would be charged on a daily or half day basis.

For further information please contact consultancy@quietrevolution.com

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