We’ve all got one. A neighbour that takes the night’s silence for granted a few times more than is necessary. Or perhaps, it’s your generator that’s making all the noise, utterly drowning your neighbour’s unheard pleas to keep the noise levels down. “But,” you think, “who cares?” And you’re right… to a point. At a certain stage, it becomes a choice to be hated by your neighbours. And besides, it’s pretty expensive to quieten a generator, right?
Not… really. Sure, it can run your pockets rather deep if you want to do the thing properly. Fortunately, doing the thing properly isn’t always necessary. There are some far cheaper methods that, when combined, can do a half-decent job to muffle the noise coming from your back garden. Not just for your sake, but your neighbours’ as well.
Most generators range between 50 decibels (dB) and 100 dB of noise, with the US National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders believing that prolonged exposure to noise above 85 dB can damage your ears beyond repair. That threshold is even lower according to the CDC, declaring that even prolonged exposure to 70 dB borders on being harmful if exposed to it for too long.
And when you live in South Africa, ‘prolonged exposure’ becomes second nature. That, uh, won’t be changing anytime soon.
Not using more than you need
First off, there’s no point in picking up the biggest, ugliest and loudest generator money can buy if you don’t need it. There’s a case to be made for the smaller, the better – especially if you’re coming from a household of one or two people. It’s worth knowing what you’ll need during a bout of load shedding, with smaller generators often being capable of keeping the WiFi going, your phones charged, and a TV blaring.
The general rule of thumb here is the more power a generator outputs, the louder it’ll be. If you only need it for a few creature comforts, you could get away with a smaller (and cheaper) model that’ll do far less damage to your ears. It’s those that mess around in the 3,000-to-5,000- watt range that can keep fridges on and microwaves spinning that would better benefit from the below silencing techniques.
Placement matters
If your only goal is to lessen the onslaught of sound to your own ears, placing the generator as far away from your house as possible should suffice – for the most part. Still, it won’t be “quiet.” Placement matters. Not just the generator’s distance away, but the surface it’s resting upon too.
Planting down your generator on wood, asphalt or stone won’t do you any good. All that’ll do is reverberate the vibrations and expel them outwards – towards your ears. Find a solidly flat patch of grass or compact sand, and you’ll achieve a 10 dB reduction in noise. At least, that’s what this study says.
It’s worth noting that while your generator’s exhaust pipe(s) aren’t the root of the noise, they can add some unneeded sound when facing the wrong direction. Redirect those pipes away from you – either in the opposite direction or facing straight up – and you’ll notice a minor change for the better. While you’ll notice some minor improvement, the main concern here is still the generator’s roaring motor and trembling chassis.
Be safe, use a rubber (foot)
If grass- or sand-filled base isn’t plausible – whether it be due to a lack of cover from the elements or what have you – then sticking on a few pieces of rubber under the feet is always a good idea (even if you do have a piece of grass or sand to rest it upon). Like that of a soft bedding of grass or sand, rubber feet will absorb the sound, rather than deflect it. It’ll keep the generator off the ground too, which will do something in the way of slowing down the shakiness of the motor.
You can either set out in search of a pair of rubber feet built for your generator, or you can make a rudimentary set of rubber feet yourself with a knife, some scissors, and of course, YouTube (a bit of rubber might help, too).
If all you’ve got is a rubber mat, use it. It doesn’t need to be cut to shape, either. Just stick it underneath the generator, and you’re good to go. Fine, it won’t do much in the way of deadening the sounds on its own. But it’s better than nothing, right?
It’s just a Deflektor
If you’ve got some plywood handy, and don’t feel like building an actual box enclosure (see the entry below), then a quick-fix solution to temporarily deflect the sound should serve you well. This is a rather simple solution that doesn’t take more ingenuity than owning a few pieces of plywood (and a piece of sheetrock if you’re feeling jazzy).
Once you’ve gathered your supplies, prop up your pieces of plywood against the generator and… call it a day. It doesn’t even have to look good – as long as the surface area of the plank covers much of the generator, at a slightly tilted angle, you’re golden. In fact, a slant is better here, to allow for proper airflow. The plywood will act as a reflector in this case, and halt the sound and send it in the direction of your choosing, possibly leading to a noise reduction of around 10 dB. Your neighbours might catch the worst of that one so keep that in mind.
Be warned: avoid plugging the exhaust pipe with plywood, as this could be a fire hazard. If it’s possible, replace that side with a sheetrock panel to achieve a similar effect. And, you know, not start any fires.
What’s in the box?!
Enclosure boxes (AKA baffle boxes) are the be-all (or end-all) of generator silencing techniques. They work just how you think they would. You take your generator and stick it in a box (usually made with sound-proofing materials and whatever type of wood you have at hand) that should muffle your generator’s noise. For the most part, you know.
Often though, they can cost a pretty penny or require a little more than basic handyman tools to get the job done yourself. If you do have the tools, patience, and capital and consider yourself a bit of a DIY kind of person, there are tons of YouTube tutorials out there that can get you started.
We get it. Weekends are for leisure time, not for building DIY enclosure boxes. Fortunately, there are companies that’ll do it for you. For a price, obviously, but done right. Money does replace time and effort rather well.