How much would you pay for a dead silent (or close) generator

[Jammer]

That's only 2400 pounds. You can fit those in your pickup bed.

I recommend flooded cell L16s as giving you more watt hours for your dollar though.

[Gringo]

Originally Posted by Darkspeed

Yes it would work as long as there were no overhead structures to reflect the sound. The real goal is convert sound waves to heat and then dissipate said heat. Shhhh....

Or just freeze the sound in blocks and use it inside your Igloo cooler where it only makes a little noise as it thaws slowly...

[Darkspeed]

Originally Posted by Jammer

That's only 2400 pounds. You can fit those in your pickup bed.

I recommend flooded cell L16s as giving you more watt hours for your dollar though.

L16's are a good choice. You could have a scaleable battery bank and only take with you what you needed for that trip.

If money was no object - supercapacitor

[lpatkins]

Originally Posted by BillTex

"Silent generator"=solar panels...

When I camp, the trailer is used to sleep in and store food/camping gear in, no tv, radio, coffee maker, air conditioning, xbox, blender, waffle maker etc. There to enjoy nature, family and friends, don't get me wrong I love my AS, but I spend as little time in it as possible!

[robwok]

I was able to source some thin copper sheeting. I first sprayed an acid gel on the airstream, and the layed the copper sheeting over the entire trailer. I riveted those together with copper rivets, and then riveted the copper to the aluminum using a plastic glass impregnated rivet. The copper airstream really looks beautiful. The weight has icreased by maybe 700 lbs, but it is distributed evenly.

I just attached electrical leads to the trailer and the copper cover and run that through a resistance circuit module from an old solar array to modulate the power at 12v.

It's been great. I'm not sure the exact output yet, but it will run everything I need. The metals seem to heat up a little, and there is some off gassing from the acid matt, but other than that it's been great!

I have also noticed the trailer seems to get lighter over time, but I'm sure that's just my imagination.

[Jammer]

Rob you gotta watch out for filiform corrosion with that setup.

[Gringo]

nuther acid freak.

[Wsmith]

Originally Posted by Gringo

What if.......the generator was sitting in a dish or box, attached to the top of the trailer (or TV) and the dish or box was sound insulated so that very little sound radiated to the sides, but was all reflected straight up. This would also allow heat to dissipate, and exhaust. But it should be feasible to make a baffle for the entire lower hemisphere of space below the generator so that people standing under it couldn't hear it.

Sounds like a little R&D and send off for a patten application

[Wsmith]

Noise canceling frequency generator.

[Wsmith]

Originally Posted by robwok

I was able to source some thin copper sheeting. I first sprayed an acid gel on the airstream, and the layed the copper sheeting over the entire trailer. I riveted those together with copper rivets, and then riveted the copper to the aluminum using a plastic glass impregnated rivet. The copper airstream really looks beautiful. The weight has icreased by maybe 700 lbs, but it is distributed evenly.

I just attached electrical leads to the trailer and the copper cover and run that through a resistance circuit module from an old solar array to modulate the power at 12v.

It's been great. I'm not sure the exact output yet, but it will run everything I need. The metals seem to heat up a little, and there is some off gassing from the acid matt, but other than that it's been great!

I have also noticed the trailer seems to get lighter over time, but I'm sure that's just my imagination.

Rob do you ever park under a high voltage transmission line for a quick charge? I bet a lot of induction would go a long way with your setup.

[Darkspeed]

Originally Posted by Wsmith

Sounds like a little R&D and send off for a patten application

We did a roof mounted compressor in an open top box lined with dynamat extreme and it worked great until it was parked next to a warehouse block wall, then it could be heard due to reflection.

[thecatsandi]

I would not pay $200 to quit a generator. They are engines. Getting them to be 35db would be almost equivilent to background noise.

[Nightwatch]

So far this thread has been really informative. I would have guessed that 75% or more would want a quieter generator. But honestly the majority of respondents have stated they are quite happy with the current noise levels put out by Honda's and Yamaha's. Guess that means we shouldn't expect them to work on this as there doesn't seem to be a demand - though the post about the other potential improvements included some nice upgrade ideas.

Appreciate all the honest feedback though so far.

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Originally Posted by Nightwatch

Well we all know that honda and yamaha generators are fairly quiet - around the 58 db range. But if you have ever gone tent camping in a campground with RV's/trailers you know that even these quiet generators create quite a bit of noise. Ideally - generators would run at about 35db in my opinion, which would allow people to run them at night without other campers really even hearing them at all. I can think of several instances where this would be nice - running AC, CPAP/Oxygen machines etc.

So my question is, what would you be willing to pay to lower your honda or yamaha generator to the 35db range?

Hi, although polls aren't always worded to reflect the feelings or thoughts of the posters, my polls included, I think that if the first question stopped at the first sentence, more people including me would have voted. I do think the Yamahas and Hondas are reasonably quiet, but I don't and wouldn't run mine all night long. Therefore I cannot vote for any of the choices given.

[Gringo]

ah, but if nobody could hear it at all, would you run it more?

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Originally Posted by Gringo

ah, but if nobody could hear it at all, would you run it more?

Hi, good question, but it would more than likely be wasting fuel, and have more exposure to theft and vandalism. [I can't hear my generator anymore; Has it run out of gas, or was it stolen?]

I wouldn't let my car run all night, I wouldn't let a camp fire burn all night, and I wouldn't leave a generator unattended or running all night either. All about the same thing to me.

[Gringo]

Well, you didn't exactly answer the question about whether you would use the generator more if it was totally quiet. I think you said that no, you wouldn't because it would be wasting fuel, and might get stolen in the dark without you knowing.



lots of truck drivers leave their engines running all night. But man, them are some noisy places.

[vswingfield]

Also, I don't think anyone is asking if you would run the generator at night just for the sake of running the generator. If the AC quit blowing cold air and you starting sweating like a pig, you would probably notice.

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Originally Posted by Gringo

Well, you didn't exactly answer the question about whether you would use the generator more if it was totally quiet. I think you said that no, you wouldn't because it would be wasting fuel, and might get stolen in the dark without you knowing.



lots of truck drivers leave their engines running all night. But man, them are some noisy places.

Hi, Gringo. Let me see if I can answer your question in another way. I only use my generator when I need it so the amount of noise [or lack of noise] isn't a factor. But I'm sure if I owned a contractors generator, It might effect how long I run it.

[Gringo]

Okay, I think I got it.

So, the way you're set up right now, if you were camping someplace in Arizona or Texas, and it was 100 deg. at two in the morning, and you wanted your air conditioner on, you would fire up your generator at 2 am, whether it made noise or not.

I am thinking that I would tend not to use a "conventional" generator in the middle of the night, whereas I would probably use one of the mythical silent ones that this thread is about.

Of course, this completely skirts the issue of air conditioner noise in and of itself.