A quick couple of gennie "tests"

I live in Germany (for now). A couple of weeks ago we had a scout summer camp here in the area. At that camp we had a chest freezer and a 2500w generator. I'm not sure of the brand, but it wasn't something like Honda or Yamaha. More like something from Harbor Freight. So the generator was fired up and running the freezer and I decided to do an unofficial and unscientific sound check. The generator was under the trees and only blocked on the front side by the freezer. I started walking off to the side. I walked about 200yds down the road before I couldn't hear the generator anymore. Now, my hearing isn't greatest... something to do with jet engines, guns, explosions and tinnitus. But 200 yards is a long way. I went back and walked the other way. I got farther this time I figure right at 250 yards (downwind from the generator) before I couldn't hear it. So without any baffles or sound insulation, figure 250 yards in all directions for a basic generator. Two days later we had made a plywood barrier around the generator. Sound was significantly lower, I only walked downwind and lost the sound at probably 175-200 yards. Just something to think about...

Last week some workers on base here were using a small Honda 2k generator. I started counting steps and lost the sound at about 100 long paces. Now this was on base with a higher level of background noise but the Honda WAS significantly quieter than whatever the other brand was.

I only put this out as a thinking point about noise discipline, insulation, siting of generators etc.

If you have a generator that you plan on using during SHTF, you might want to conduct a walk-about with it running during the quietest time of the day to see what your noise boundary is. Then you might want to find anyway possible to reduce that noise level and distance as much as possible. I know I was very surprised to hear that 2.5k at 250 yards or so...

NGH

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A quick couple of gennie "tests"