This posting and attached images are more for thinking about than providing any new information.
In the Spring of 1987 I purchased a Kawasaki GA1400A portable generator. Along with the generator I also purchased a GE Porta-Cool 5000 BTW air conditioner. My plan was to take the 1400 and the air conditioner with us to the West Virginia State Fair (the 1400 was not powerful enough to run the rooftop air conditioner on the camper).
There was an outside hatch in the 22S Wilderness camper we had at the time that allowed placement of the air conditioner so that cool air was circulated if I opened the cabinet doors under the bed.
The system worked extremely well allowing us to not only cool the rear bedroom area but the entire camper.
In 1998 we purchased a 30โ Mallard. No slides โ rear queen bed. The bedroom had one of those pop-out escape windows. Thus, I made out of 3/4" plywood a filler for the window that hooked over the sill and allowed me to mount the window air conditioner (which I carried in the back of the TV). Again, we had cool air in the bedroom even when we had no hookups. It was during this period that I discovered that the small air conditioner could also be powered from a 1,000 watt inverter (I no longer own that inverter - one pictured is a 1,500 watt) for at least an hour from a single battery. This was long enough to cool off the bedroom after a hot day without running a generator.
As our subsequent campers became larger and power needs increased, the GA1400A was retired in favor of the Champion 40008 we now use.
I still have the little GA1400A. It is a direct drive NON-INVERTER generator that has sound abatement panels. The design of the generator is such that cooling air is drawn in from the engine fan and exhausted over the muffler โ much in the manner our Chinese gensets do.
While the engine on this unit is much smaller than the 200 CC units on our 3,000 watt Chinese gensets and will naturally produce less noise, considerable reduction in noise is noted from the use of the panels. I have measured this unit at 62 dB with a load. Removing the panels increases the noise to 65 dB โ a difference of 3 dB.
You will note from the photos that the muffler is NOT isolated as I suggest for the Chinese gensets. On a smaller unit it may not be necessary. On our units I still believe it would be best to isolate the muffler.
Also note the bottom is open as I described in an earlier posting as a possibility for a sound enclosure on one of the Chinese gensets. Additionally, the panels are not insulated.
This design could easily be adapted to one of our Chinese gensets to reduce noise. Yes, Bob, we can do it without an additional fan.
In the Spring of 1987 I purchased a Kawasaki GA1400A portable generator. Along with the generator I also purchased a GE Porta-Cool 5000 BTW air conditioner. My plan was to take the 1400 and the air conditioner with us to the West Virginia State Fair (the 1400 was not powerful enough to run the rooftop air conditioner on the camper).
There was an outside hatch in the 22S Wilderness camper we had at the time that allowed placement of the air conditioner so that cool air was circulated if I opened the cabinet doors under the bed.
The system worked extremely well allowing us to not only cool the rear bedroom area but the entire camper.
In 1998 we purchased a 30โ Mallard. No slides โ rear queen bed. The bedroom had one of those pop-out escape windows. Thus, I made out of 3/4" plywood a filler for the window that hooked over the sill and allowed me to mount the window air conditioner (which I carried in the back of the TV). Again, we had cool air in the bedroom even when we had no hookups. It was during this period that I discovered that the small air conditioner could also be powered from a 1,000 watt inverter (I no longer own that inverter - one pictured is a 1,500 watt) for at least an hour from a single battery. This was long enough to cool off the bedroom after a hot day without running a generator.
As our subsequent campers became larger and power needs increased, the GA1400A was retired in favor of the Champion 40008 we now use.
I still have the little GA1400A. It is a direct drive NON-INVERTER generator that has sound abatement panels. The design of the generator is such that cooling air is drawn in from the engine fan and exhausted over the muffler โ much in the manner our Chinese gensets do.
While the engine on this unit is much smaller than the 200 CC units on our 3,000 watt Chinese gensets and will naturally produce less noise, considerable reduction in noise is noted from the use of the panels. I have measured this unit at 62 dB with a load. Removing the panels increases the noise to 65 dB โ a difference of 3 dB.
You will note from the photos that the muffler is NOT isolated as I suggest for the Chinese gensets. On a smaller unit it may not be necessary. On our units I still believe it would be best to isolate the muffler.
Also note the bottom is open as I described in an earlier posting as a possibility for a sound enclosure on one of the Chinese gensets. Additionally, the panels are not insulated.
This design could easily be adapted to one of our Chinese gensets to reduce noise. Yes, Bob, we can do it without an additional fan.
Going back several years, the first full enclosure I built isolated the muffler from the rest of the components but did not insulate it so that heat would not radiate.
This design was very effective in reducing heat within the enclosure and would be a good approach for anyone attempting to design a new, portable sound abatement enclosure.
While it may sound silly, the use of 1/2" Hardibaker cement panels to create this isolation is ideal. Waterproof, heatproof, high density, easily cut for fabrication. The isolation panels I used in the above design were aluminum covered with auto carpet underlayment.
This (experimental) enclsure actually worked extremely well at reducing sound and still providing adequate cooling, but proved to be too large and heavy for my needs. Aditionally, I had not fully resolved the fuel tank/pump issue when I built this enclosure.
This design was very effective in reducing heat within the enclosure and would be a good approach for anyone attempting to design a new, portable sound abatement enclosure.
While it may sound silly, the use of 1/2" Hardibaker cement panels to create this isolation is ideal. Waterproof, heatproof, high density, easily cut for fabrication. The isolation panels I used in the above design were aluminum covered with auto carpet underlayment.
This (experimental) enclsure actually worked extremely well at reducing sound and still providing adequate cooling, but proved to be too large and heavy for my needs. Aditionally, I had not fully resolved the fuel tank/pump issue when I built this enclosure.
