Jane and Julian Davis and daughter Emily had been moving between their home and a "safe house" in Spalding on a daily basis whenever they found noise from the Deeping St Nicholas wind farm unbearable at night.

Now they say they cannot go through another summer of interrupted sleep and are leaving the family home to live long term at a rented house until the situation improves.

Mrs Davis said: "We have been living a transitory lifestyle, lugging bags backwards and forwards each day.

"We can't go back to that.

"You just get to the point where you have to regain some control over your life."

At 10pm each night they would look out of the window to check on the wind direction.

If it was directly behind the row of turbines then they say that a phenomenon known as aerodynamic modulation would take hold, amplifying the existing noise and low frequency vibration and causing sleepless nights.

Now acoustic experts can move into the empty house to set up a laboratory to measure the noise as part of an ongoing investigation by DEFRA and the DTI.

Since testing at the house last year acknowledged problems, the number of wind farms in the country affected by similar problems has risen from just five to 15.

And for the foreseeable future the family's life has been put on hold, as they were planning to extend their home.

Mrs Davis said: "Julian's family have farmed the land for decades and we had not planned on doing it up to sell – we always wanted to live there.

"We desperately hope we can move back at some point – we have to hope, otherwise there would be no point."

Trevor Gait, operations manager at operators Fenland Windfarms, said: "From the outset, Fenland Windfarms Ltd has taken this matter very seriously and is sorry that the Davises have felt the need to leave their house.

"Our relationship with our neighbours is very important and since Mr and Mrs Davis first came to us in July last year we have worked with them and undertaken a series of investigations into the problem, including an independent comprehensive noise monitoring study, both inside and outside the property.

"To date, these investigations have not been able to identify precisely the noise issues in question but we plan to continue our investigations towards a conclusion and hope that Mr and Mrs Davis will continue to assist us in that endeavour.

"If we can determine a specific link between the reported noise and the wind farm we will take whatever remedial action is necessary."