Introduction
How long has it been since you’ve been close to nature? With the development of times, modern people are becoming more and more tired of the fast-paced lifestyle, so it’s really necessary to go out for outdoor adventures or activities after one week of hard work. For many people, camping outside is the most relaxing way, it feels great that many friends or families sit down and chat and drink on weekends. As we all know, portable generators are camping essentials when we talk about camping outside, They continue to provide us with a steady supply of electricity power, and we need it for lighting at night, charging cellphones, and even cooking. However, portable generators are generally accompanied by a lot of noise in use, which can make camping an unpleasant experience. Today, our article focuses on this problem for you, please read on it.
Introduction to Generator Noise
Before we talk about the way to make a generator quiet, the generator noise level should be known to you guys, it’s from 80dB to 95dB or above. However, to ensure sleeping quality, the noise level should be kept from 53 dB to 45 dB(Reference), you can check the information from the picture below:
| Degree of hearing loss | Adult hearing thresholds (dB)* | Description |
| None | 0–25 | Hearing within the normal range |
| Mild | 25–40 | Difficulty hearing distant or faint speech |
| Moderate | 41–55 | Difficulty hearing conversational speech |
| Moderately severe | 56–70 | Difficulty hearing most speech |
| Severe | 71–90 | Difficulty hearing loud speech and environmental sounds |
| Profound | >90 | Difficulty hearing even very loud sounds |
From the picture and the table data, we can know clearly about the noise level of generators, but we cannot avoid them when we go out for camping. So now, we will introduce some ways to help you quiet the generator for camping, please keep reading on.
1. Choosing the Right Generator For Camping
When you plan to select a generator for camping, we suggest you choose those models designed for quiet operation, such as an electrical power bank or a closed-frame inverter generator, with the features of noise-reducing enclosures, mufflers, and sound-dampening technology. However, these types of generators will cost a little more than traditional generators, but they can provide you with a steady supply of power and lower noise, which can make you sleep well at night. Trust me, they are worth the price.
2. Regular Generator Maintenance
The topic of maintenance is always being talked about, just like some mechanical transportation, such as cars and airplanes. One of the simplest ways to keep your generator quiet is by maintaining it regularly, also it is the best way to reduce your generator failure rate. So, we often only need to clean or replace the air filter, check the oil levels, and tighten any loose components. Then, we can come to this conclusion, a well-maintained generator is not only more efficient but also quieter during running.
3. Placement Of The Generator
Talking about the placement of the generator, we should focus on two factors, one is that keep running generators as far away from our campsites as possible, I think it is quite simple to understand why we should do it like that. Two is putting your generator on a softer surface. Studies have shown that where your generators run has a big influence on the noise level, some hard surfaces will make a louder noise such as concrete and wood. So, go ahead to find some soft surfaces to reduce your generator noise, such as grass and dirt.
4. Use Anti-vibration Pads or Rubber Feet
We can get the knowledge that generators’ noise can be reduced efficiently by putting on softer surfaces. But, sometimes it’s hard to find a soft place outdoors, then we can use the anti-vibration pads as an alternative, it will be used like a generator running on soft surfaces. The same principle applies to soundproofing with rubber feet, all to avoid the generator making more noise on harder surfaces.
5. Use An Acoustic Enclosure Box
Using an acoustic enclosure box is also a good way to reduce the noise, but we need to know firstly, what is an acoustic enclosure box? It can also be called a baffle box, which mainly is designed to isolate the noise from outside. You can purchase some soundproofing materials, then measure the size of the generator, and design an enclosure box by yourself, it’s pretty simple if you do it.
6. Muffle Your Generator With Water
Maybe you will feel doubt about that, how can water reduce the noise? Studies have shown that water is an effective noise-reduction medium. So you can follow our instructions step by step. First, you need to prepare a bucket of water near the generator, then find a hose or pipe to connect to the exhaust port of your generator, and put the end of the hose or pipe into the bucket of water. Then you can see the mute effect of this method.
Conclusion
For all of the methods we described above, you need to pay attention to safety and caution when operating, and not all methods are suitable for you, please make a good choice based on your real situation.