How to Soundproof a Genset, and Why You Should

You can’t live with them, you can’t live without them. Yes, we are talking exactly about generator rooms. They are the heart of the machine, but the noise they produce can be a serious challenge for health, productivity, and meeting regulatory standards. 

As essential as continuous-use gensets are, they produce high-dB mechanical and structural noise. It causes reverberations through walls, floors, and even air ducts. With all the reflections and bouncing off the walls, the noise in enclosed spaces does not diminish. It multiplies!

Long-term exposure to generator noise can lead to fatigue, stress, hearing damage, and even compromised machine performance due to vibration. And from a compliance perspective, failure to meet noise regulations can result in legal action, penalties, or retrofitting costs.

In this article you will get familiar with:

• The science behind generator noise and vibration
• The risks of ignoring it
• The soundproofing solutions that work
• The alignment with key regulatory standards

 

Is All Noise Created Equal?

 

No, it is not, and generator rooms are proof. Typically, a genset operates in the range of 85 to 110 dB, depending on factors such as size, load, and enclosure type. That is like standing next to a jackhammer, but it’s non-stop noise. Needless to say, it’s far above occupational health standards for prolonged exposure. So, what exactly produces the noise? Well... A few things:

• Engine combustion: The internal combustion process creates rapid pressure changes that generate sharp, low-frequency pulses.
• Mechanical vibration: When working, components like the engine, alternator, frame, vibrate continuously, often transmitting impact noise into floors and walls.
• Exhaust systems: Without silencing, exhaust gases release with force, adding more high-dB output.
• Air intake and cooling: These contribute to both airborne and structure-borne noise, especially at mid-to-high frequencies.
• Alternator hum: While often lower in volume, alternators introduce tonal noise that becomes problematic in enclosed spaces due to resonance.

 

 

One might think that it’s a good idea to put such noisy machinery behind concrete walls or metal. Yes, and no. At least not when it comes to sound. Smooth and hard surfaces are reflective, creating reverberation and structural noise.

This allows noise to bounce around and build up pressure instead of dissipating. This accumulates and amplifies the fatigue in both people and equipment. This can only be solved with soundproofing and vibration isolation. Often custom-made.

 

The dangers of unchecked noise

 

Sound levels above 85 dB can damage your hearing if exposed for 8 hours or more. For every 5 dB increase, that time is halved. Generator rooms often exceed 90-100 dB, and continuous exposure is a major health and compliance risk.

Noise Exposure Can Lead to Health Risks

Being exposed to noise day after day creates serious occupational hazards in industrial settings. Genset noise can cause:

• Hearing loss – Prolonged exposure above 85 dB can permanently damage hearing, especially without adequate Personal Protective Equipment.
• Mental and physical fatigue – Constant high-decibel environments increase cortisol production, raising stress levels and reducing alertness.
• Poor communication – In high-noise zones, verbal instructions become unclear or go unheard entirely, increasing accident risks and slowing down operations.

Potential Operational Risks

The way noise affects people is at least better seen and felt, even if it gets sometimes underestimated. Noise from generators can leave it’s mark on machines, workflows, and precision tasks as well. This leads to a operations manager words nightmare - down-times:

• Vibration interference can loosen bolts, shorten equipment lifespan, and cause structural fatigue.
• Reduced cognitive performance among technicians leads to more mistakes, especially during diagnostics or emergency response.
• Signal noise pollution can even affect sensitive monitoring equipment in nearby rooms or control stations.

 

How to Avoid Legal & Reputational Risks

Taking care of the noise your machines produce is so recognised as needed and the potential problems it can lead to, that there are numerous institutions and regulatory standards that aim to keep things in check. Of course, there are.

• Regulatory non-compliance with standards like OSHA (US) or EU Directive 2003/10/EC can lead to fines or enforced shut-downs.
• Employee complaints or union grievances often cite noise as a top issue in industrial working conditions.
• Audit failure and reputational harm — especially in certified environments like ISO 45001 or WELL-accredited buildings — can hurt brand image and investor confidence.

Uncontrolled noise is invisible but its effects cannot be missed. It leaves a measurable trail of stress, mistakes, and expensive consequences. Soundproofing is a critical part of any responsible industrial design.

 

Why Regulatory Standards and Compliance Matter

 One of the things you can’t avoid in life – regulations. But it’s for a good reason. High-noise environments like gensets exceed sage exposure levels quite often. So much, that governments needed to step in to protect the workers and ensure operational legitimacy.

European Union – Directive 2003/10/EC

This directive sets exposure limit values and action levels for noise in the workplace.

• Exposure limit value: 87 dB (taking hearing protection into account)
• Upper exposure action value: 85 dB
• Lower exposure action value: 80 dB

This means that if noise exposure reaches above 87 dB, the employers must assess risks, provide hearing protection, implement noise-reduction plans, and inform workers.

United Kingdom – Noise at Work Regulations 2021

The third edition of the guidance document (L108) for the 2005 regulations was released in October 2021. The update aims to clarify the regulations, provide practical advice on risk assessment, noise control, and health surveillance. These regulations mirror the EU directive and apply to all workplaces across the UK. Key duties include:

• Conducting noise risk assessments
• Providing engineering controls before relying on personal protective equipment
• Ensuring employee training and awareness

Failing to comply can result in Health, Safety and Environment enforcement, improvement notices, and even prosecution in cases of negligence. In the worst case scenario it can completely halt operations.

 

United States – OSHA Standards

OSHA sets the permissible exposure limit (PEL) at 90 dB over an 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA). However, this is reduced by half for every 5 dB increase:

• 95 dB = max 4 hours
• 100 dB = max 2 hours
• 105 dB = max 1 hour

Employers must implement hearing conservation programs if workers are exposed to 85 dB or more over an 8-hour shift.

ISO Standards for Industrial Soundproofing Testing

To quantify and validate generator noise, two standards are particularly relevant. They provide rigorous and repeatable methods for testing noise emissions, a must for certifiable soundproofing:

• ISO 11201 – Measurement of noise emitted by machinery at the operator’s position in a controlled environment.
• ISO 3744 – Determination of sound power levels from noise sources using sound pressure, ideal for enclosed generator rooms and equipment enclosures.

Why Compliance Matters

Why would anyone ignore regulations? Well, everybody has their reasons, but it’s often about “saving” money. This is counter intuitive though, because ignoring noise regulations can be detrimental to health, cause down-time or a complete enforced shutdown. All of that loses money, which often is the reason for skipping the standards in the first place:

• Injuries and long-term disability claims
• Litigation and financial penalties
• Loss of certification (e.g. ISO 45001, BREEAM) and business reputation

Investing in soundproofing for industrial machinery is the smart, responsible and proactive route to compliance and smooth workflow. Design solutions like our industrial-grade panels, enclosures, and resilient mounting systems, generator room noise can be brought well within safe limits. Even exceeding the regulatory minimums for peace of mind and long-term resilience. It’s that effective.

 

 

How to Soundproof Generator Rooms Effectively

 

Industrial-level soundproofing requires a master approach. Because the nature of the genset noise is complex, it requires a layered solution. It needs to address vibration, resonance, because it creates structural noise, and direct sound transmission, because it also produces airborne noise.

Noise insulation must not interfere with the normal operation of the generator. It needs to be an effective solution, added as a beneficial component in the whole system. This requires engineering precision and soundproofing science.

Can Gensets be Soundproofed with Enclosures

Oh, yes. And it’s one of the most effective ways to manage generator noise. Acoustic enclosures are sealed, insulated structures built around the genset to contain airborne sound. These enclosures are far from simple boxes.

They are designed with high-mass composite walls, internal absorptive layers, and ventilation systems treated with silencers or baffles to prevent sound leaks without compromising airflow.

We offer both modular and custom-built soundproof enclosures tailored to the size, output, and cooling needs of each generator. Our solutions are engineered to meet the noise reduction target, depending on the type of space that receives the noise – if it is a generator in a hotel environment, the space that would hear the noise from it must not experience sound levels above 45 dB. For a factory, the target is 85 dB.

 

How Does Vibration Isolation and Damping Work

The airborne noise might have dissipated long before the structural one. Left unchecked, vibrations can reintroduce noise throughout the whole building. Effective mitigation requires to block the impact of entering the structure at all, or decoupling the cause of the vibration from the structure itself. Some key soundproofing tools include:

• Anti-vibration engine mounts – to decouple the genset from its base. This makes it so the generator is not touching the ground directly, so the vibration is greatly reduced.
• Spring hangers and resilient pads – to absorb impact and distribute vibrational energy. Springs act like a silencer for vibrations.
• Damping layers – to reduce resonant feedback in metallic surfaces. These layers absorb the energy of the airborne sound wave, making it less prone to reflections.

Our vibration isolation range includes mounts, pads, and hangers, all tested to industrial vibration standards. These not only lower perceived noise but also extend the lifespan of surrounding equipment by reducing wear and mechanical stress.

How to Soundproof the Walls & Ceiling of Genset Rooms

Gensets produce so much noise, and it’s so constant that even with anti-vibration mounts and full enclosures, it’s not gone. Untreated walls and ceilings in the generator room can still reflect the remaining noise. They can even amplify it, reducing the effectiveness of the used solutions. This is where room-level acoustic treatment comes into play.

• DECIBEL’s C-BLOCK SYSTEM™ is ideal for retrofitting onto ceilings. It combines mass-loaded panels, absorption cores, and vibration-damping membranes to block and break down sound energy across a wide frequency range.
• Mineral wool and acoustic foam insulation can be layered within cavities or behind metal panels to absorb mid-to-high frequencies.
• Sealing structural weak points (like pipe penetrations, cable trays, and access hatches) is crucial to eliminate leaking noise paths. Yes, the noise can leak from even a tiny hole.

This layered approach ensures that both direct vibrational transmission to the structure of the building and echo build-up inside the generator room are eliminated. Even a 5 dB improvement can make the difference between regulatory failure and operational comfort.

Can You Make Your Generator Levitate

Imagine a metal box being hit by lightning. The charge would travel through its whole structure. This is how vibrational noise behaves if it’s not insulated. And since generators are usually mounted to the floor, the concrete slabs become conduits for structure-borne noise.

The solution is to make the generator “levitate”. But not with magic, but rather with decoupling techniques. Applying floor soundproofing panels like F-MUTE SYSTEM™ would allow your floors to “float”. This way, the generator is further decoupled from the base, reducing structural vibrations.

These solutions are often installed with high-mass top layers and embedded damping membranes for maximum impact attenuation.

How to Manage Ventilation and HVAC Noise

Generator rooms get pretty hot, so proper ventilation and cooling are essential for proper operations. Airflows transfer both fresh cool air and noise. And no soundproofing strategy is complete without addressing exactly that.

Overheating is an avoid-at-all-costs scenario, but ducts, vents and louvres can become unintentional sound tunnels if not properly treated. To fix that, you should consider:

• Silencers (also known as attenuators) – placed in ducts to reduce noise while maintaining airflow
• Acoustic baffles – Installed internally to absorb the sound
• Acoustic louvres – designed to allow air in and out without letting noise escape

Poor system design can lead to breakout noise, reduce cooling efficiency, and even create harmful pressure on the generator. That’s why passive noise absorption is essential.

Why You Should Monitor and Measure Noise Levels

The process of designing a working soundproofing strategy is complex, and not a small investment. We can help you every step of the way, but even then you need to quantify its success. You need to see some numbers.

Noise monitoring and acoustic testing ensures your investment produces tangible results. This gives you the ultimate tool to comply with Health and Safety inspections and standards.

The before and after: Pre-installation Measurements

To know if your soundproofing intervention is doing it’s job, first you need to figure out your starting point. For this evaluation, you need to conduct baseline measurement of the currently produced noise in a genset room.

It’s not about just walking in with a sound meter and recording the dB of the noise. Proper measurements can give you a better understanding of the existing noise profile, including dominant frequencies and reverberation patterns within the room and adjacent areas.

Once our soundproofing systems, such as acoustic enclosures, wall treatments, and vibration isolation, are installed, a second round of measurements is taken. The comparison between pre-installation and post-installation dB levels helps verify compliance with local and international regulations and if the noise goals have been achieved.

 

 

Measure Twice, Soundproof Once

 

Sometimes it’s preferable to construct a simulation of your generator room to test the impact of different soundproofing options. This allows you to hear the real impact of various insulation systems before making a final decision.

In about an hour, we can create a digital twin of your room, calculate the current noise levels, and simulate the effectiveness of multiple soundproofing solutions, helping you choose the most appropriate option for your needs.

This way we can quickly predict how the noise will behave in the confined space. With that we can identify the structural weak points even before they become a problem. The simulation approach is useful in the very beginning of planning and designing the generator room.

Measurements don't just confirm compliance. They help factories and industrial plants move away from reactive and towards predictive maintenance. This is when you don’t wait for something to happen, but have a plan for the whole lifecycle of the generator, even the whole enterprise.

Measurements are also very useful for presenting results in front of investors. Taking care of work conditions and environmental impact can qualify an enterprise for various ESG investment funds and forums.

Noise reduction isn’t always the primary driver, but it adds weight to ESG scorecards. Especially in heavy industry, logistics, and manufacturing. Many funds and investor groups now look at comprehensive workplace safety, sustainability initiatives, and community impact as part of their considerations.

Do you want to comply with regulations and win over investors? Get it touch now and we will help you design a comprehensive soundproofing strategy for your genset!