Please share your generator baffle designs.

[xhoosier]

This is good info!! I need something to run my cooler without bothering the group!!

Happy Burning Man 2010-Can't wait!!!!

[Captain Goddammit]

I'm about to fire up my new generator for the first time, this old topic has come in handy for some sound dampening measures, but I'll take the time now to apologize for not being able to afford an ABSURDLY priced quiet generator.

That's what everyone thinks BEFORE they own a generator or two.
Your cheap LOUD set is no bargain because it doesn't make any electricity at all when you and everyone else can't stand to listen to it running!
NONE of us want to spend more $$ than we have to.

[Captain Goddammit]

I'm about to fire up my new generator for the first time, this old topic has come in handy for some sound dampening measures, but I'll take the time now to apologize for not being able to afford an ABSURDLY priced quiet generator.

That's what everyone thinks BEFORE they own a generator or two.
Your cheap LOUD set is no bargain because it doesn't make any electricity at all when you and everyone else can't stand to listen to it running!
NONE of us want to spend more $$ than we have to.

[phil]

> is it really as quiet as the reviews say?

I will assure you they are _not_ as quiet as the reviews say. It's like saying a motorcycle is quieter than a fighter jet taking off with full afterburners. It's _still_ not quiet.

What brand is this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/civex/3912177249/

Anybody know? Always nice to have the generator kick in at 6:30 AM.

[rodiponer]

Aww, Phil, you cut the video short-- I wanted to see your conversation with the guy...

[phil]

It's Burning Man. He gets to run his generator where he wants, when he wants. I just nodded hello and went on my way.

[ygmir]

wasn't that in hushville?
I was just down the block on the other side of the Jots.

[sambojones]

hay sambojones,

can I ask how much you paid and is it really as quiet as the reviews say?

thanks

i think i got it for something like $780 shipped brand new and i might have gotten some extra bing cash back as well it's so long ago i can't look up the transaction but i remember it being around $600 or so after i got all my money back from bing... it really is as quiet as everyone says i can stand exactly 1 foot away from it running at full blast and have a conversation without really raising my voice its just kinda a low hum almost a pleasant sound if ya got used to it not like the noisy clatter of the cheaper ones that sound like a room full of ppl banging metal pans together... i took full advantage of when microsoft was giving like 25-30% cashback on ebay purchases and it helped me out with a bunch of my gear for the burn now bing cashback is about to be extinct at the end of july so that avenue of getting a deal on the hondas is gone

[Captain Goddammit]

OK I watched the video... that was NOT a nice quiet EU-series Honda!
That's an example of the loud-ass sets everyone hates.

Yes, the EU Hondas are a LOT quieter than that. Why else would people pay for them? Not just for the brand name or reliability, Honda also makes open-frame loud units similar to what you showed that are cheaper per watt.

[Captain Goddammit]

OK I watched the video... that was NOT a nice quiet EU-series Honda!
That's an example of the loud-ass sets everyone hates.

Yes, the EU Hondas are a LOT quieter than that. Why else would people pay for them? Not just for the brand name or reliability, Honda also makes open-frame loud units similar to what you showed that are cheaper per watt.

[Kiro]

That's what everyone thinks BEFORE they own a generator or two.
Your cheap LOUD set is no bargain because it doesn't make any electricity at all when you and everyone else can't stand to listen to it running!
NONE of us want to spend more $$ than we have to.

I could just about afford $700 for a 5500 watt generator on sale on Amazon (usually $1200) but I can't afford $4200 for a Honda one. It's an OHV CARB compliant engine but, yes, it's noisy. We're going to try and dampen that as best we can, and we'll only use it when our battery needs charging.

It's our first burn and I hoped to be able to sleep or offer new friends an air conditioned room and a drink during the day, but now I know I'm just a selfish poor person for not buying the best products on the market.

It's Burning Man. He gets to run his generator where he wants, when he wants.

Good to know, and I'll happily promise we won't have the generator running at a time like that.

[sambojones]

Just do the best u can it's all any of us can do... I'm sure ppl will appreciate ur attempt to baffle it as good as u can. it just sux when ppl don't try at all and that's the only time I get pissed... part of it is prolly that I stay up all night so when I crank on my Honda and my ac in the morning and then some guy fires up his ultra loud gennie right next to me it makes me grumpy

[phil]

> wasn't that in hushville?

Yeah, he was across the street.

AND on another note:

> I'm sure ppl will appreciate ur attempt to baffle it as good as u can.

I won't. If your generator isn't quiet enough for you to have in your shade structure while you're in there with it, it isn't quiet enough. Failed attempts to baffle it are failed attempts.

Do or do not. There is no try.

[Kiro]

> I'm sure ppl will appreciate ur attempt to baffle it as good as u can.

I won't. If your generator isn't quiet enough for you to have in your shade structure while you're in there with it, it isn't quiet enough. Failed attempts to baffle it are failed attempts.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww, poor guy.

[Captain Goddammit]

I could just about afford $700 for a 5500 watt generator on sale on Amazon (usually $1200) but I can't afford $4200 for a Honda one. It's an OHV CARB compliant engine but, yes, it's noisy. We're going to try and dampen that as best we can, and we'll only use it when our battery needs charging.

Now that just doesn't even make sense! If you're only gonna run your generator to charge your battery, why do you even want a LOUD unit that makes 5500 watts? Battery charging takes many hours, and I know goddamm well you haven't got a battery charger that draws 5500 watts. You'll regret that loud thing. Spend the $700 or so on a quiet set even if it's smaller.

My first burn, I brought an open-frame loud generator, a Honda EM2500. I arrived late, wanted lights to get camp set up and fired it up. Immediately the neighbors asked "How long are you gonna run that thing?" It sucked.
I sold it as soon as I got home and got one that I could actually USE!

Seriously, you will regret getting a LOUD generator. I've owned more gennys than I remember... Hondas, Onans, Robins, on and on. I've tried everything to hush the noisy ones. I've welded car and motorcycle mufflers on them, even run the exhaust into a garbage can full of water. I've put boxes around them. They are HEAVY, and too fucking noisy to wanna listen to.

Let me repeat what I said because it isn't humor, it's real: Your cheaper but LOUDER set is no bargain because it makes NO power when you and everyone else can't stand listening to it!

[Captain Goddammit]

I could just about afford $700 for a 5500 watt generator on sale on Amazon (usually $1200) but I can't afford $4200 for a Honda one. It's an OHV CARB compliant engine but, yes, it's noisy. We're going to try and dampen that as best we can, and we'll only use it when our battery needs charging.

Now that just doesn't even make sense! If you're only gonna run your generator to charge your battery, why do you even want a LOUD unit that makes 5500 watts? Battery charging takes many hours. You'll regret that loud thing.

My first burn, I brought an open-frame loud generator, a Honda EM2500. I arrived late, wanted lights to get camp set up and fired it up. Immediately the neighbors asked "How long are you gonna run that thing?" It sucked.
I sold it as soon as I got home and got one that I could actually USE!

Seriously, you will regret getting a LOUD generator. I've owned more gennys than I remember... Hondas, Onans, Robins, on and on. I've tried everything to hush the noisy ones. I've welded car and motorcycle mufflers on them, even run the exhaust into a garbage can full of water. I've put boxes around them. They are HEAVY, and too fucking noisy to wanna listen to.

Let me repeat what I said because it isn't humor, it's real: Your cheaper but LOUDER set is no bargain because it makes NO power when you and everyone else can't stand listening to it!

[rodiponer]

Yes, it would have to be HUGE air conditioner to need 5500 watts. You can run a normal sized window air conditioner off of a 2000 watt generator, and a very small one off of a 1000 watt one...

[Kiro]

Now that just doesn't even make sense!

We're virgins and have virgins coming with us, we bought an RV on the advice of veteran burners and the air conditioning is hungry for electricity. So yeah, we need a generator.

Seriously, you will regret getting a LOUD generator... blah blah moan moan I hate poor people, wouldn't it be great if everyone was rich like me, la dee da

Are you offering to buy me a better generator? That's so kind. Paypal admin@infectedlogic.com about $4000 and I'll donate this one to the DPW. Thanks so much, that's incredibly nice of you.

[Kiro]

Yes, it would have to be HUGE air conditioner to need 5500 watts. You can run a normal sized window air conditioner off of a 2000 watt generator, and a very small one off of a 1000 watt one...

It's an old RV, the air conditioning only needs about 2500 watts while running but is hungry to start, and the 5500 watt generator was an incredible deal that beat all other deals by $500 or more.

[capjbadger]

Hey Captain... any opinion on the Yamaha gennies? Looks a LOT like the Honda models, and rated only a BD or 2 higher.


http://www.yamahagenerators.com/yamaha_generator_ef1000is_pr_1.html

-Badger

[sambojones]

i did a shitload of research before buying my honda eu2000i and the yamaha's do look really good and have great reviews as well but they are almost the same price as their honda counterparts so i decided to just go for the honda

[motskyroonmatick]

Costco has a "honeywell" 2000 wat generator for sale now I think it is 499 or at least near 500$. It looks very Chinese but is advertised to be quiet. It was tempting but seems to not have the capacity to link with another one for double the power. I will be waiting to buy the honda EU at some point.

I run a huge 10000 wat generator at the burn for welding. It is super loud and just running it occasionally for a short time is a disruption. The area that is affected by the noise is at least 100 feet in all directions even with it in the back of my box truck. Needless to say I run it only for welding. I have a very old quiet honda generator for running the grinder, sawsall, battery charger and such.

Sometimes these older generators can be had for really cheap off of craigslist. It might be worth it for the battery charging side of things. I use mine for charging batteries every year.

Good luck with the baffle and make sure to ventilate the box because it is easy for a generator to overheat or stall (due to lack of oxygen) in a contained space. Test it at home.

[Captain Goddammit]

Yes, it would have to be HUGE air conditioner to need 5500 watts. You can run a normal sized window air conditioner off of a 2000 watt generator, and a very small one off of a 1000 watt one...

It's an old RV, the air conditioning only needs about 2500 watts while running but is hungry to start, and the 5500 watt generator was an incredible deal that beat all other deals by $500 or more.

Have you actually put a wattmeter on your power cord? There's absolutely no way your AC needs 2500 watts running. Check it yourself. It won't even be 1000 watts while up and running.
Why do you keep quoting $4200 for a Honda that will run your AC? It sounds like you aren't looking at the right set. $1700 will get you an EU3000 that ought to handle your RV, or for about the same you could have a pair of EU2000 that will make 4000 peak and weigh under 100 pounds total.
I use two EU2000 Hondas on the playa and I run a large AC and microwave simultaneously with zero issues, and I can run my 13k BTU AC on a single EU2000 if I shut off the other high-power-draw stuff when it's trying to start up.
The quiet Yamahas are excellent units too. The big Honda advantage was that you could connect more than one EU-series Honda together but some newer Yamahas can do it too. Yamahas also have this cool circuitry that uses a battery to provide temporary extra boost to start up ACs and such without having to have a bigger unit.

Ask anyone who's been there/done that. The cheap sets are attractive in the catalog but wait 'til you and your former friends have to listen to it. It's not about being an elite rich guy (I'm certainly not!) it's about getting anything for your money. In this case, the $$ you spend on a fucking loud generator is wasted because you and everyone around it will hate it.

[Captain Goddammit]

There's more to generator specs than price and watts. There's usually a sound level rating, but the number doesn't explain everything. They usually don't specify the distance from the unit that the sound level was measured. You also need to understand that the dB scale isn't a linear measurement. 80dB is not twice as loud as 40dB... twice the percieved loudness is only a difference of about 3dB. When one set claims 63dB, it is NOT almost as quiet as one that makes 59dB.
The other issue is the type of sound. Those shitty sets you're looking at run at 3600 RPM ALL THE TIME! The speed of rotation is where they get their 60Hz timing to make 60hz 120 AC power. That's another reason they sound so irritating.
The good quiet sets like the Yamahas and Honda EU-series have circuitry that electronically generates 60Hz AC power, so the engine can throttle down to idle speed, only speeding up as the load requires. They also use a LOT LESS fuel. Cost of the gas isn't that big a deal but carrying and storing it on-playa is a bit of an issue.

Just the fact that the cheap set you're looking at has to run throttled up ALL the time is the biggest thing you're gonna hate about it when you're running it. The catalog doesn't explain this stuff. That's why guys like me who aren't any richer than you are trying to keep you from throwing your hard-earned money away on something you're NOT gonna be happy with.

[much2naughty2]

Kiro, I'm bringing my 3500 watt generator, and it's not nearly as loud as the video Phil posted. Even at that, other than using for AC in the afternoon, our only use is battery as well.

That's why I went on ebay and bought a 110 Watt solar panel and controller. More than enough to keep the battery charged for almost any use. At Labor Day, by the specs, it should produce about 7 amps X 12 hours. At least we won't have to run the genset until the day heats up.

The panel was $225, and the controller was another $50.

[Token]

Btw newbs, most 1 ton AC units that are common on RVs need about 4KW to run at playa elevation. Depending on how old the RV is it could be more since there is no way to run the AC without running the house charge controller and all the other safety gizmos in the RV.

Just saying.

[Kiro]

I use two EU2000 Hondas

Okay, if (big if) I get enough money, our first non-virgin year will feature better generators and I'll donate this one to the DPW.

For now, I am building a baffle box, which is why I searched for a thread like this. For all the other people that have been or will be in my position, a little more understanding and a little less pompous indignation would be helpful, and, you know, nice. <3

[Kiro]

Btw newbs, most 1 ton AC units that are common on RVs need about 4KW to run at playa elevation. Depending on how old the RV is it could be more since there is no way to run the AC without running the house charge controller and all the other safety gizmos in the RV.

Just saying.

Yeah, this is what we were warned by everyone who knew what we were talking about, and a 4000+ watt Honda generator was 7 times out of our budget. Ho hum, them's the breaks.

[Token]

Bullshit on the 7 times more.

Two EU2000 Hondas can be had for under $1800, and thats retail price from the honda website, but whatever you need to do to make yourself feel better us fine by me.

[much2naughty2]

I hate AC, so if it won't run on 3.5 KW, I'll have a good excuse to lay naked under shade with my spritzer bottle. But then we did buy the smaller AC unit, since we don't live in the SW and rarely use AC.

Kiro, I've seen several suggestions on here, including a plywood box lined with egg cartons and a fan to cool the genset. There is also some sources for egg carton sound insulation, but that costs a lot more. Lowes, HD and others have a foil covered insulation that is fairly rigid, up to 2" thick. I'm going to try that and also glue egg carton inside for addition sound deadening.

Also, don't give up on eplaya because of a little snarkyness. You can get a lot of good advice on here, even from some of those that were critcal. It just depends on whether their panties were twisted this morning when they got up.