D-400 vs. Silent Wind Generator?

[Roniszoro]

I'm looking at these two. The advertised performance is roughly the same for each. But interestingly the Silent Wind weighs 15 lbs and the D-400 weighs 37 lbs. But "silence is golden" for me. Can anyone provide me with thoughts, experience and or input?

Thank you in advance for doing so.

P.S. I already have solar.

[Mike OReilly]

I own a Silentwind, and have listened to a D400. Both are pretty quiet. I didn’t have them running together, in the same conditions, but my sense is the D400 is quieter.

It’s also a lot heavier and quite a bit more expensive (at least it was when I was looking). It may also have a different production profile being a five-blade turbine vs the three blade. My understanding is that most 5-blade turbines begin to produce amps in lower wind. My Silentwind starts moving at around 8 knots but really needs about 12 knots before it produces anything meaningful. After that the power output ramps up exponentially.

I am noise sensitive, but I find our Silentwind to be easy to live with. It sits aft and slightly higher than our cockpit. We easily carry on normal conversation with it running full tilt. It is not silent, but can’t be heard more than a couple of boat lengths away.