Portable generators.

[Great-Kazoo]

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.

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.
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.

[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.
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.