How to Silence / Quieten a Generator

AlphaJohn said:
In fact I'll 1 up and attach my Drawings

If you interested. (Zip contains DWG + SVG)

Both battery and generator boxes in the file.
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Ooh beautiful! I may have a new project. Now I just have to find somewhere that supplies the panels - where do you get yours from?
 
AntiThesis said:
Ooh beautiful! I may have a new project. Now I just have to find somewhere that supplies the panels - where do you get yours from?
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We import our own but you can get from:
graphicsolutions.co.za

Graphic Solutions Digital

Premium digital printing and signage solutions for South Africa, delivering exceptional quality, reliable service, and bespoke design and production for businesses and retailers.
graphicsolutions.co.za graphicsolutions.co.za

Maizey Plastics | Signage Materials | Heat Transfer Vinyls

Maizey Plastics product range are used from signage, branding, interior design, architectural construction & custom engineered components.
www.maizey.co.za www.maizey.co.za

There are loads of other suppliers in SA but 2 above normally the cheapest.

Also dont need to use ACM, normal thin aluminium sheets you get from Builders will also work. Only reason I dont use wood is cause that kinda burns easy.
 
Sound can be problematic. When I was still renting, I had a really nice inverter generator. It was loud and hard to deal with. First thing you must remember is airflow. What I did was I put it in the garage with a fan blowing on it. I used aluminium flexible ducting that I got at Builders and placed it over the exhaust. Forced it over the small piece of the exhaust.

The people said it worked well, BUT found dead mice, rats and bats in the garage, so exhaust fumes were still leaking into the building and the ducting didn't do a good job. If you can solve that, it worked well according to the people that lived in the main house.

I gave the generator to my dad, but I am home now and is using it again. I got it from Adendorff it was a MAC Africa 3.2Kw inverter generator. I highly recommend it.

Full disclaimer I can't tell you how loud it was/is.
 
Grouter said:
A 12 kva 1500 rpm diesel, in a concrete block housing, surrounded by old mattresses.

View attachment 1464757

Exhaust down through the slab, running into two underground concrete mufflers.
A few old mattresses suspended above it with an old coolroom wall for a lid.

View attachment 1464759

The other side of that vibracrete fence, in the street, you can't hear the generator. Can't hear it in the house either. The 1 amp solar panel keeps the starting battery happy.

View attachment 1464763
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Cost overall in the end?
 
LCBXX said:
Cost overall in the end?
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About R7000 as I recall. I built it back in about 2008.

That was mainly for the masonry: concrete blocks, concrete slab (did it all myself) and the coolroom panel for the lid.
The radiator, some old foam mattresses, 15 metres of armoured cable to reach the DB, the stainless piping for the underground exhaust system, the fuel lines, the fuel tank, the primary fuel filter, the engine mountings, the mounting framework, and, of course, the genset itself was all free. All salvaged from what remained of a few old fishing boats in Plett.

Of course I could never have done it if I had to buy it all new - far too expensive.
 
Grouter said:
About R7000 as I recall. I built it back in about 2008.

That was mainly for the masonry: concrete blocks, concrete slab (did it all myself) and the coolroom panel for the lid.
The radiator, some old foam mattresses, 15 metres of armoured cable to reach the DB, the stainless piping for the underground exhaust system, the fuel lines, the fuel tank, the primary fuel filter, the engine mountings, the mounting framework, and, of course, the genset itself was all free. All salvaged from what remained of a few old fishing boats in Plett.

Of course I could never have done it if I had to buy it all new - far too expensive.
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Thanks. It's similar to what I was going to fork out, excluding a diesel generator, to get something that runs at a acceptable level of noise.

In the end I bit the bullet and bought a silent genny in the end, together with a solar and battery backup system, as opposed to a new car.
 
LCBXX said:
Thanks. It's similar to what I was going to fork out, excluding a diesel generator, to get something that runs at a acceptable level of noise.

In the end I bit the bullet and bought a silent genny in the end, together with a solar and battery backup system, as opposed to a new car.
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Yeah, Plett's fishing industry went belly-up around the same time loadshedding started. I saw all this lovely kit around me that I could pick up for nothing and thought it would be silly not to build a nice soundproof building to put it all into.

Here's a pic of some of the donor fleet, lying in the Keubooms river, all sadly gone now (RIP):

DSCF0004.JPG
 
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Now of course I have gas for water and cooking and a couple of Mecers for everything else so we really only use the genny to make toast these days.

:ROFL:
 
raind33r said:
I'm all for building such a box if i'm guaranteed 10dB less, but also don't want to spend the same amount as I paid for the genny on soundproofing.

Saw some vids on these boxes.
Needs proper fans to keep things cool inside.
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10dB is a huge amount. SPL measurement in deciBels is logarithmic, so 3dB reduction would be 50%. The difference between 70 and 60 is massive. It all depends too on what is creating the most noise in the frequency spectrum. It will be harder to isolate the lower frequencies as this requires mass absorption.
Assuming the BC have employed an acoustic engineer to do these tests, you’d have a challenge on your hands. It might be a plan to upgrade your gennie to a quieter Honda. That said, a 100mm rockwool bat has massive broadband absorption, so definitely explore the box idea before that as rockwool is cheap.
 
The Darkness said:
10dB is a huge amount. SPL measurement in deciBels is logarithmic, so 3dB reduction would be 50%. The difference between 70 and 60 is massive. It all depends too on what is creating the most noise in the frequency spectrum. It will be harder to isolate the lower frequencies as this requires mass absorption.
Assuming the BC have employed an acoustic engineer to do these tests, you’d have a challenge on your hands. It might be a plan to upgrade your gennie to a quieter Honda. That said, a 100mm rockwool bat has massive broadband absorption, so definitely explore the box idea before that as rockwool is cheap.
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Yip, I get that.
Hmmm, maybe rockwool lined hole with fans and pipes for intake and exhaust.
Or the box....decisions decisions.
 
Hi

im not sure where else to post this, this thread seems the most active.
I got a genny from Adendorff (MacAfric) on Friday been running perfectly this past weekend. I would like to find out what is the best way to turn off the generator, Adendorff says to turn off the fuel and let the fuel run out the carburettor until it turns off, but the manual says to turn it off at the key.
Doing some googling for long-term storage people say to turn it off at the fuel and let it turn off that way but it seems for normal use like load shedding where it's running a few times a week or more just to turn it off at the key fuel to off choke off repeat the process.

I don't think I need to do the first method I listed every single time?

Just a noob that is a bit lost....
 
adam_g said:
Hi

im not sure where else to post this, this thread seems the most active.
I got a genny from Adendorff (MacAfric) on Friday been running perfectly this past weekend. I would like to find out what is the best way to turn off the generator, Adendorff says to turn off the fuel and let the fuel run out the carburettor until it turns off, but the manual says to turn it off at the key.
Doing some googling for long-term storage people say to turn it off at the fuel and let it turn off that way but it seems for normal use like load shedding where it's running a few times a week or more just to turn it off at the key fuel to off choke off repeat the process.

I don't think I need to do the first method I listed every single time?

Just a noob that is a bit lost....
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Cut the fuel off. Just get into the habit of doing it that way. It's to prevent the fuel left in the carb from turning into a gel and clogging up the works.
 
1675070772601.png

^ O.O rest of the week

1675070801847.png

Still pick JHB

Edit: crap, just realised with all that cloud cover + LS.... this is on topic again cause Sounds of Africa gonna roar with em Gennies running all over the place. (See attached)
 

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The Darkness said:
That said, a 100mm rockwool bat has massive broadband absorption, so definitely explore the box idea before that as rockwool is cheap.
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Best place to buy rockwool? Dont see it listed at builder's and Takealot only has the grow medium
 
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