I just got back from a vacation, and my neighbor mentioned that my son's generator is too loud. I'm wondering if there is a way we can make it not so loud. build a wall, buy maybe some igloo thing, with a exhaust fan, or something like that...Any help is appreciated
If you put it inside a shed or trailer that should do the trick. Of course you don't want to spend any time inside the box with the thing upon penalty of death. When i was on the crew we used to put our noisy air compressor inside the work trailer. You could barely hear it. We never bothered to ventilate and it worked fine. Carbon monoxide is colorless, odorless, and quite deadly. You have been warned.
Do a google newsgroup search of alt.energy.homepower and you will find a recent extensive discussion on quieting generator noise.
Ventilation, ventilation, ventilation! And then put a decent muffler on the thing.
I saw a guy in a state park a couple years ago who had built a styrafoam box to enclose his generator. He had fans on two sides, one blowing in and the other blowing out. On those sides that had the fan he had a double wall, spaced about 6 inches apart, where the fan blew air down between the two walls to exit on the side. Kind of like this
______________ | >air flow>
|^ __________ | ^ | | Generator | |__________ ^ | > Air Flow> ^ | _____________ |
The idea was to keep the sound contained inside the box and not allow it to exit through the ventilation.
The whole idea seemed kind of silly to me. I would have just invested in a replacement exhaust system with a good muffler.
Nate
Sooo, was it quiet?
Phil
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Not any more quiet than my factory installed Onan. But certianly quieter than it was before the box was built. When he lifted the lid it was noticably louder.
Nate
I put a small car muffler on a 4kw Coleman and it helped, but if you need to really quiet it down completely, you need the "box." On the Coleman, anyway, there is a lot of other noise besides the popping coming from the exhaust. Some of it comes from the engine cooling fan.
The city has had a gas-driven sump pump going outside our house for a few months here after a storm drain collapsed. They built a wall around it out of bales of straw, excellent sound deadening.
Go to groups.google.com and enter the phrase "rec.outdoors.rv-travel generator quiet" and you'll find a couple hundred messages about your subject. Some know what they are talking about. Check for "neon john". Another fellow, I've forgotten his name, is a sound engineer familiar with motorhomes. I'll copy another that was informative.
Steve
The major flaw in your plan is that moving the genset away from your rig puts it close to your neighbors, who probably won't appreciate it.
In my professional life before I dropped out of the rat race (the rats were winning) I did a lot of work with VIP airplane conversions of airliners. We made the first-class area of a 747 so quiet that the customer bitched about the noise from the cooling fans in the entertainment cabinet.
The main "trick" is to put absorption curtains around the source, and to isolate the curtains from the vehicle structure. The most successful scheme was to make an enclosure with acoustic tile mounted on honeycomb wall board and then hang the enclosure on bungee cords from the ceiling of the compartment in which the noise was being generated. The basic principle is that the sound energy goes into holes the acoustic tiles and rattles around in there while the softly suspended enclosure isolates the sound from the vehicle.
For an RV, where cost is more critical than weight, you could do the same using gypsum wallboard as the enclosure walls, with acoustic tile applied to the inside surfaces. I have used this technique in a townhouse where a new furnace was far too noisy for its location at the top of the stairs. I figure we reduced the noise by about 70 percent.
By all means, use the best exhaust muffler you can afford, but for mechanical vibration, an acoustic enclosure with noise-cancelling mounts can work very well.
The ultimate solution would be an active, noise-cancelling audio system, but that can get into mucho dollars. The concept has worked very well on some turbo-prop airplanes. It produces opposite phase, electronically generated noise which cancels out the source. The drawback is that the electronics have to have about the same power as the sound levels that penetrate the sensitive areas. Again, adequate insulation is the key to making one of these systems work, otherwise you need electrical power of similar magnitude to the source of the noise.
There are many sources of information available on the Internet for anyone wishing to pursue more details.
Frank Damp Anacortes, WA
Hook up to the grid????
Try
mass and travel paths of sound are key to blocking sound. Best would be a concrete bunker. Not ideal for sure. You may be able to build a shed like structure out of concrete or concrete block (Solid is better) put on a roof and a little ventalation and your all set. Even w/o the roof it will cut down a lot. Could make it blend with the house.
Yes it is. I've written extensively about this in recent years. You might want to try the google archives.
If you want a quick tip, look for marine acoustical treatments. They're much more advanced than RVs.
You might also want to look at the photos here:
John
The noise on a noisy generator tends to come as much from the engine block and related areas as from the exhaust. The world's biggest muffler won't help that.
Brian Elfert
Based on what John experienced I changed out my broken Onan (SEE BELOW) with a QuietPak 55G and am AMAZED at the difference ... as is the neighbor. The generator compartment is next to his side door. During blackouts he mooches electricity but otherwise he'd of complained about the Onan. The Generac isn't hardly noticeable.
NOW! If they'd tighten the darn screws. The warranty shop that had to tighten my screws said they are notorious for leaving the shop busted.
No matter, there is no competition. I wouldn't go with any other.
Steve
FOR SALE: One Onan 6k that works great, starts quick, and is otherwise in perfect shape except for the voltage being at about 80 volts. It is probably a shorted winding. I understand many models of Onan have the same winding. Asking ... I don't know ... CHEAP! PICKUP ONLY near the real Cleveland. Not far from the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame, Cedar Point Amusement Park (much better than those other parks), etc.
Basically, that is what he did, put the generator inside a muffler. It's pretty much the same principal that a muffler works with, using baffles to absorb the sound vibrations.
Was the generator free standing or mounted in the RV?
What is the sound level rating on those? Onan has 66db as about the quietest that they carry.
and related areas as from the exhaust. The world's biggest muffler won't help that.
Buy a better generator.
Lon
What is the sound level rating on those? Onan has 66db as about the quietest that they carry.
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