possibly on topic - standby generator noise

all of these are tradeoffs of price, efficiency, maintenence, noise, efficiency..

The basic Generacs are, as you noticed, annoyingly loud but you can get quieter ones with the same brand.

ditto for others, especilly if you get "inverter" models.

NOTE: you can retrofit sound baffles around them and thet can make a big difference.

We have the ten kw natural gas air cooled basic unit and it's loud enough to be annoying, but not too bad...

I have and old Power Boss half that size with a Generac generator and a BS engine. It is noisy as hell. A while back I thought I was going to have it replaced and looking up generators in the same price range it appeared all were noisy. It is basically in the muffler system and might cost double to get a quiet one.

I am surprised an installed Generac is that noisy. I had considered whole house but with no natural gas my will did not want a large tank of gas in the back yard.

Noise level partly depends on RPM's . Many generators run at 3600 RPM , some run at 1800 . Not only do the 1800's run quieter , they last longer . They also usually cost more .

I think the nice quiet little RV generators are 1800 < ? > Onan often. If I could have found a 1800 rpm home standby I certainly would have paid more for it .. and I could go with a smaller size perhaps

- I only went 14 kW because the next smaller unit was 1 cylinder. John T.