I’m just starting Day Seven of generator power and have been thinking about how I can make the noise more tolerable.
I’m wondering if two sheets of plywood on edge, connected at the 4’ end with door hinges and opened to a V shape, with the open end away from the house would redirect the noise. Thoughts?
Woody said:I’m just starting Day Seven of generator power and have been thinking about how I can make the noise more tolerable.
I’m wondering if two sheets of plywood on edge, connected at the 4’ end with door hinges and opened to a V shape, with the open end away from the house would redirect the noise. Thoughts?
I'm sure that would make a significant difference. Its super easy to test.
Small tractor muffler does the trick on mine. I heat wrapped it and it helped with the reverberation noise.
In reply to Woody :
This is pretty much what I’ve seen in videos. Breaks up the direct sound path without restricting cooling air. Worth a try for sure.
I have a 9500w off brand one and the thing makes a ruckus when running. I would bet that about 40 percent of the noise is from the generator and the rest is from the motor. .
I have two borla mufflers left over from my jag that I never got around to installing and I was thinking I would put them together in line and see if it helps at all.
Ran off a generator for 2 weeks in Connecticut due to a storm. I had a honda 7500. The neighbors all came over to check it out.. coudln't believe how quiet it was..
buy a honda..
In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :
What are the specs on that one?
Everyone talks about Hondas being quiet - what is it that Honda is doing to achieve their NVH reductions over everyone else? Has anyone ever pulled one apart far enough to figure it out? Seems like it shouldn't be that hard to duplicate unless it's something intrinsic to the design of their primary components.
My Honda (and my larger knockoff of it) are both quiet because they're literally enclosed in a foam suitcase. It's pretty crazy how simple the construction seems to be.
On construction sites we frequently use portable generators. It's very common (and effective) for us to build a makeshift sound wall out of any scraps of plywood, etc. We erect it (or lean it) between the unit and the work area.
Bounces a significant amount of noise away from the work area.
As stated, a 4 foot high plywood wall makes a huge difference. Wont win friends with the neighbors though.
The Hondas are heavily muffled as stated above and are also very heavy for their size. They have huge mufflers relative to the size of the unit. My Honda was damn near silent. If its a huge deal, wait for GeneratorPocalypse to end and pick up a nice used Honda from someone who doesnt want to store it.
For extra deadening glue house sheathing foam to the plywood. You may have to put it on the side away from the gennie to keep it from melting though. Paint something pretty on it to appease the neighbors.
Tom Suddard said:My Honda (and my larger knockoff of it) are both quiet because they're literally enclosed in a foam suitcase. It's pretty crazy how simple the construction seems to be.
I always thought the hondas were quiet because they don't have to blast away at 3600rpm all the time. But it turns out (thank you Internet) that in non-Eco mode, something like the EU2000 actually runs at 4300rpm! They idle at 3000.
I've wanted the little Harbor Freight inverter-generator for ages and finally picked one up on Monday, 24hrs before losing power for 3+ days. I put it on my deck, close to the kitchen. I found myself thinking it was louder than it should be - then I started up my 5500w Generac to run my sump pumps. Oh, right...
With modern lighting and computers, you can get away with very little power. The little 1600W HF was giving me 10+ hrs/gallon. 3X the efficiency of the 5500 pushing the same loads.
I saw a 3000 W Honda on sale at the local hardware store the other day, they wanted over $2,300 bucks for it. I’ll grant you probably not the least expensive place to buy one but close to 5X what I paid for mine. If I was always using it, maybe? For once every 3 years or so, I’m good.
I was thinking about this thread this afternoon while sitting in a house without any power while listening to our neighbors' generator. They always offer power to us, though.
Tom Suddard said:My Honda (and my larger knockoff of it) are both quiet because they're literally enclosed in a foam suitcase. It's pretty crazy how simple the construction seems to be.
And overheating isn't an issue? How does it get airflow?
In reply to Tom Suddard :
Are those inverter generators? Those seem to come in a molded shell, while more conventional units are usually open - no idea why.
In the military we would recess the generator in the ground some and surround with sandbags higher than the generator. Worked very well keeping 24 hour ops going without completely disturbing the camp. Do have to make sure the hole is big enough to allow air flow for cooling. We had big 15KW generators. Noisy.
In reply to Woody :
It was an old version of that.. Might be a 6500. ANyways. It was great. Liquid cooled, over head cam. 2 cylinder.. so quiet.
We're lucky in that we have a massive field behind our house, so we put the generator behind the house and pointed the exhaust into the abyss. So long as the windows are closed on that face of the house, it was tolerable for the 3 days we needed it last week.
I'm going to try a sound wall next time a big storm comes if it's hot enough to open the windows.
We have a 6500W Subaru (not the good kind) powered generator.
Tom Suddard said:My Honda (and my larger knockoff of it) are both quiet because they're literally enclosed in a foam suitcase. It's pretty crazy how simple the construction seems to be.
Can confirm. We've been using a pair of Honda 2000s to run the equipment and AC in our work trailer. Noise is very tolerable standing next to them. Can't hear them at all once you get in the trailer and close the doors. This works fine for a rooftop AC unit and some fiber splice machines. Not sure I'd want to run a whole house off of this setup though.
It's the enclosure that makes the Hondas so quiet. My Wacker generator has the same GX390 engine as the Honda EU7000, but mine is louder than hell. At least half of the noise is from the generator unit, the sound it makes is travels quite a bit. The exhaust is probably the least noisy part.
When doing the plywoodshield thing rather than foam sheets on the outside try mineral wool insulation facing the gen-set. It's both a heat and sound insulation and can take heat without burning or melting. Better than fiberglass in all respects, it just costs more.
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