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You really have to cover your ass when installing a generator to run the house. First thing is a three way switch so you don't back feed the grid with electricity. You shock a lineman and folks will come looking for you, and they'll know it's you because youre the only dude with lights and a/c on the grid. I know a very good electrician that can get you lined out, and he's a gun guy too! Pm me if you want his info.
So if I'm doing my math right, that little guy could power a standard refrigerator? My fridge draws 6amps at peak, which is 720 watts. Normal load from the fridge would probably be closer to 2-3 amps or 240-360 watts.
How noisy is it?
It's rated at 800W with a 900W max, so as long as your fridge doesn't surge past 900W at anytime, you should be GTG. It also has a built in circuit breaker. One online user stated he tested the noise level to be about 79dBa at idle from 10' away. That "sounds" about right to me!
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Originally Posted by HoneyBadger
Would it be safe to put something like this in an insulated box? Run the exhaust through a muffler? I'm just interested in keeping sound to a minimum.
Excellent question. You might run into cooling issues if your box is too insulated. Seems like a muffler exhausted outside, and the generator inside a garage would be pretty quiet. <-- I only say that because my neighbor has some family living in an old RV in his driveway, and I occasionally hear them crank up a generator. The generator sounds as old as the RV looks, and I would never hear it from inside my house.Quote:
Originally Posted by HoneyBadger
I'd guess no. This little sucker gets plenty hot, and not just at the muffler. Honestly, I was standing about 10' away, with the muffler pointed right at me, and I could have carried on a conversation without raising my voice any more than normal. Now the bigger one is pretty loud, but not so loud that it's ever been an issue either.
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Originally Posted by HoneyBadger
Not unless you had a cooling fan. These units need air to maintain safe op temp. Minimize or restrict air flow and you have problems.Quote:
Originally Posted by HoneyBadger
I looked at a few options to mask generator sound and came to the conclusion, no matter how quiet, lights in your dwelling is a dead give away.
If you want to keep noise to a minimum save your money and buy this unit. The Honda Eu2K runs forever on 1 gal of gas, unless you are standing real close, you'd be hard pressed to hear it run.
http://www.hondaenergy.com/product.php/38/honda_eu20i
Yamaha has a comparable unit
http://www.electricgeneratorsdirect....tor/p2785.html
The Eu2k is the flagship of portable "quiet" generators. They like the yamaha allow use of sensitive equipment like, pc's laptops etc.without needing to worry about damage to them.
Whew! For $1000 I'm sure I can rig up some sort of muffler for the $130 generator... I'm thinking as long as the air intake leads to fresh air, the exhaust could go through a baffle lined with heat resistant low density foam to bring the noise down to about 50db or less. I guess the only way to find out would be to try it and I'm not really in a good place to try that right now. Don't have the right tools and I'm living in a rental house.Quote:
Originally Posted by jim
It's not the air intake that's the problem. These engines are air cooled, the heat sink fins on the cylinders are the only way it has to cool itself. If it was a liquid cooled engine, it wouldn't be a problem because you could just hang the radiator outside the box. Unless there's cool air circulating directly around the block itself, it will burn up. If you want to build something super quiet, you'll either have to spend too much money, or connect the generator head to a liquid cooled engine.
An insulated box with some decent fans blowing in/out would circulate enough air I think. You'd have to build about a 4'x4' box to stick it in so it has plenty of breathing room, but can't you direct the exhaust away from the engine and through a sound deadening baffle? Am I talking crazy here? I'm thinking I could build this type of box for about 50 in materials if I had the tools. (circular saw is necessary, nailer would be nice)