Because of the way the world is going, I just bought a portable generator for emergency power. It's a Chinese clone of the Honda eu2000i . I measured about 70dBa from two car lengths away.
I will be running this to power my ground-floor apartment but I'm concerned about the annoyance it will cause the neighbors. Running it in the backyard the noise is very obvious and I'm sure it travels up to where all the neighbors are (there's 5 floors of apartments above mine).
I have a small brick outhouse in the yard (small meaning 1m wide, 1.8m long and 2m high - about the floor area of three washing machines). I've considered locking the generator in there and plumbing the exhaust outside, but I'm concerned that it will overheat since there's no ventilation and the walls are 20cm concrete block. The door is aluminium with glass panes, about 90cm wide and 1.9m high. Is this room too small to passively handle the heat from a 2kW generator?
Another option I considered is a quiet box. I previously built one for my dad's generator (a 4kw open-frame non inverter). We used plywood lined with foam and put two intake and two exhaust baffles, plus a centrifugal blower for forced ventilation. It reduced the noise of that generator from 77dBA to about 67dBA, but the box is massive and weighs about as much as the generator (30kg). Is there some way to construct a quiet box that's also lightweight and cheap? The generator cost €500 so I'd rather not spend $1200 on a professional quiet box.
Last option I've considered is running it in my garage that forms part of the underlying garage complex, but then it would be running relatively unattended, and the fumes and noise would be getting dumped into the common parts of the garage complex which might cause more problems.
Thoughts?
I will be running this to power my ground-floor apartment but I'm concerned about the annoyance it will cause the neighbors. Running it in the backyard the noise is very obvious and I'm sure it travels up to where all the neighbors are (there's 5 floors of apartments above mine).
I have a small brick outhouse in the yard (small meaning 1m wide, 1.8m long and 2m high - about the floor area of three washing machines). I've considered locking the generator in there and plumbing the exhaust outside, but I'm concerned that it will overheat since there's no ventilation and the walls are 20cm concrete block. The door is aluminium with glass panes, about 90cm wide and 1.9m high. Is this room too small to passively handle the heat from a 2kW generator?
Another option I considered is a quiet box. I previously built one for my dad's generator (a 4kw open-frame non inverter). We used plywood lined with foam and put two intake and two exhaust baffles, plus a centrifugal blower for forced ventilation. It reduced the noise of that generator from 77dBA to about 67dBA, but the box is massive and weighs about as much as the generator (30kg). Is there some way to construct a quiet box that's also lightweight and cheap? The generator cost €500 so I'd rather not spend $1200 on a professional quiet box.
Last option I've considered is running it in my garage that forms part of the underlying garage complex, but then it would be running relatively unattended, and the fumes and noise would be getting dumped into the common parts of the garage complex which might cause more problems.
Thoughts?
. I still am not sure why nobody tries. I suspect it's because the Chinese just clone Honda, and Honda are content being cautious and aiming for absolute reliability rather than cutting-edge performance. I find the older I get and the more experience I get of how the average user treats the product in the field, the more I realize why some carmakers design cars that will keep running without an oil change in 10-years...