About the problem:

Honeywell Residential Generator Enclosure – A homeowner named Jim contacted us.  He was looking for help to quiet the noise from an electrical generator. We decided to build an enclosure around the generator and line the enclosure with both our patented Acoustiblok and Quietfiber materials.

About the work:

“I have pretty much finished building my generator enclosure. The finish work will take a bit longer.  I still have to paint and put a reflective/sound attenuating coating on the roof. A more complete set of build photos will be available in a few days, but here are some samples. We have also recorded a couple of videos of the actual sound and db readings and I will forward those to you as well.

The generator was at about 75 db when I ran my initial tests while it was completely unshielded. But now, with the installation pretty much complete, it is down to about 55db.  That is about a 75% reduction in noise level! With the doors open, it is at about 69 db. Very happy with it.”

About the enclosure:

The housing is 4’ x 8’ x 6’2”, sloping down to 6’ in the rear. All 4 sides and ceilings are layered with plywood, Acoustiblok and QuietFiber.

I was originally going to leave the top open. But, having gone through all of this trouble, I decided to cap it off. The roof has two 6” vent caps, and I am painting it with Roof-Tec elastomeric roof coating. Roof-Tec has some additional sound attenuation properties, in addition to reducing heat buildup on the roof.

Each of those doors weigh over 100 pounds. We covered the openings above the doors and on the sides are with Acoustiblok material on the inside, to minimize sound leaks.

We covered the ground, which is compacted sand, with Acoustiblok that had drain holes drilled through it. To minimize vibration, we remounted the generator on top of a 3/4” rubber anti-vibration pad. I am able to see the generator status LED through the small porthole on the side, without having to open the enclosure.

When complete, the enclosure will be hidden behind tall Japanese Yew plants, like the ones to the side of the statue. When fully grown, these will provide some additional sound attenuation.

Regards – Jim