Quiet, Portable Generator

How long does it have to run for. Would a battery bank and 120V step-up inverter option work instead.

Portable gensets are usually quite loud (even the specially designed quiet ones).

I would say, conservatively, at least 4 hours. I don't know if we could use a battery bank. How many batteries would it take to provide the power required? One requirement is portability. I don't know how portable the battery bank would be, or if we would have space for them. I guess it depends on how many there would be.

The buffalo will float when you find the correct answer.

Option 1: For maxium quiet and convenience, just plug it in. Measure the watt hours or amps multiplied by 120 multiplied by hours to be used. This will surprise you with a large number of amp hours required but no longer concealed.

Option 2: Quiet is a battery but heavy and costly. With the amp-hours determined above, the battery size you will find too expensive, too heavy, and not convenient.

Option 3: Borrow a $150, 1000 watt gasoline generator. It will run the known 800 watt but will surprisingly not run one fifth of all the other junk you plan to plug. If I am wrong, good for you. An auto battery with a $40 360 watt inverter will do just fine for several hours. Don't bet your lunch on it.

Option 4: Sound and water proof the sized generator set selected above. Plan to beg enough gifts to get a 6000 watt gen set or more. There are lights to run when the sun goes down. Never forget it always rains when a crowd gathers and the sun rotates beyond sight. The sound system will function no more after the first good drenching but the crowd delights in the darkness of night.

Option 5: Solar PV will quietly keep the battery charged if 800 watts is all you need, the sun never sets, and the rain never drops, or clouds never cross. Figure a double axle trailer to hold the solar plus battery plus inverter plus gen set when the sun goes down.

Option 6: Measure the amps needed as noted above. Get back with the total hours including prep time, set up, break down, and operation time. Reveal whether backup redundancy and number of available auto batteries including autos of those who help.

Could it be the $500, 6000 watt generator is not so loud after all? Build a light weight, rain proof, humidity proof, sound proof container of sorts to set over the generator in place. Expect sounds of 50 decibel or more to completely ostracize the crowd. Use distance no matter how inconvenient to quiet the noise. Find a way. The power supply will not be the greatest obstacle of the task. Keeping the band together and the crowd apart may make the cake walk no walk in the park.

Buffalo,

I've checked out a few of those "quiet portable generators" you mentioned. Most of them say they operate between 50 to 65dB. You also mentioned that you have no idea how to relate dB to real life sound levels.

I can't help you with the generator thing, unfortunately. However, I can give you an idea of what dB means.

This here's a table of dB levels. You'll find that 50dB is not quiet in the real sense of the word. There are other tables (Google decibels) that say 50 dB is the same level as a normal conversation or the inside of a quiet restaurant and 60dB is like a busy office.

Hope this info helps you.

Regarding what Vulcan said, there is no such "quiet portable generator". Or at least I stil do not find it :)

I sujest to do as follow:

1. Make a portabel and self soported frame in which you will hang 1, 2 or 3 layers of havy curtain.

2. Get the quiet portable generator you can be able to get.

3. Place this curtain between the area which you do not want to be noised and the generator.

Warning. Do not cover the generator with the courtain. It can be burned. Make as free as posible the generator and place the curtain as far as posible from the generator.

I hope it help you!

Delmar

This whole thing has got me thinking. Just what is it that makes all the noise from a portable generator? I would have thought that if we could quiet the exhaust noise that would take care of most of it. Are good mufflers really that expensive, or what prevents their use on a small engine? I have stood next to automobiles with much larger engines than are in a generator, and could easily carry on a normal conversation while it was at a high idle. I'll grant you that it wasn't running at 3600 rpm, it was close to it.

Water Buffalo, you got it. If noise is the only concern, install a large muffler on the generator of choice. Take care to mount the muffler to dampen external vibration of the muffler. The muffler may be longer than the generator. No two mufflers are identical so you may wish to try more than one muffler size and style before making a final selection. Some tractor supply places stock mufflers for ole Ford 8-n tractors for $15 each. Too large muffler and you will have a problem detecting whether the generator is running.

Look into the Honda generator's, they are expensive but very quiet. They advertise around 60 db, that is about how loud a normal person's voice is.