Quiet. The Neighbors Can Hear You (Sound Control Thread)

[inferno420]

i have a 4 inch sunleaves windtunnel cooling a 6 inch 400 watt cool tube and venting air, i have my tent in my bedroom and the noise is comparable to a oscillating fan. quiet as hell.
i dont a a carbon filter on now, so im not sure if the 4 will be enough to cool and vent when one is attached. i think i might need a 6 inch.

 

[blackjones]

I mounted my 6 in vortex in a box i built out of MDF with holes for intake and exhaust and stuffed with insulation material.Took care of nearly all the fannoise. Had it blowing into a Can 50 filter, so that muffled the airflow noise.

 

[cmercer418]

you can go to any hvac/ air conditioning supply store and they sell these rubber squares that are used to reduce vibration of industrial motors and big compressors anyone can buy them and they are sold either one by one or you can buy the whole mat with is like 50 or 60 little squares in a waffle pattern and already have predrilled holes in the middle air conditioning techs use them everyday. should help with fan noise and for the ballast you could construct and padded wood box with 4-6 computer fans one set for intake and and one for exhaust

Another way to reduce fan noise is to use rubber feet either side of the fixing plate and screw through them, using a suitable washer on the screw head side.

Also car acoustic deadening rubber will help with general vibration. Not sure if I'd put it in a tank, but underneath on the floor it should help. Example: eBay Store - Sounds Great: Dynamat Cascade: 10115 DYNAMAT Original 2-Sheet Speaker Kit Brand New

Also beware of corners in a room, these act like a trumpet and increase noise. If you can mount fans / ballasts away from wall and ceiling corners, or 1/3 way between small walls this should help.

John - ballasts will make more noise over time, if your's is a few years old, it may be worth replacing. Try mounting it on rubber feet, or a foam/ rubber base and aim your circulating fan towards it. A high density foam block, like a yoga block should help.

 

[GreenthumBum]

some hydro stores offer air duct mufflers i have a 6inch by 20 inch and it works great. The only problem is that it will only silence one side so you might have to put one on each side of the inline blower/fan. And the closer they are to the blower the better as far as noise reduction goes.

but the diff. is like night and day. check em out. u might like what u find.

 

[Plornef]

For fluorescent / high pressure sodium (HPS) / metal halide (MH) lighting:

* if you want more quiet, less heat, and more power savings you need a "digital ballast" or "electronic ballast".

* look for 98+% efficiency and a power factor as close to 1.0 (the maximum) as possible. This will reduce the amount of waste heat coming off the ballast, and will help cut down your power bill.

* These also sometimes have "soft start" which makes the light bulbs last longer. Regular cheap magnetic ballasts don't have this.

These digital/electronic ones may cost more than a typical coil ballast, but they work better and you won't have to spend so much on cooling.

 

[Plornef]

Also for quiet and less exhaust heat, you could try dumping the heat down your bathroom drain, using cold water as a heat sink.

1. Get an old vehicle "heater core", "oil intercooler", or an air conditioner radiator from a junk yard. (Should look like it's a long twisty coil of tubing, and may have fins on it.)

2. Make a cardboard or wood box to surround it as an air duct.

3. Get some plastic tubing, a sink faucet adapter, a small heavy piece of metal tubing or pipe, and hose clamps.

4. Attach: faucet adapter -> tubing -> heater core or cooling coil -> tubing -> heavy piece of tubing/pipe

5. Connect faucet adapter to your bathroom sink, put the heavy tube/pipe in your shower/tub. (The heavy weight is needed so the tubing won't fall/flop out and flood your floor.)

6. Turn on the cold water full blast to fill the tubing, then adjust the flow down so just a dribble of water comes out into the shower/tub.

7. Use the water-filled coil with a fan to:

• cool the room air and replace a room air conditioner

• cool exhaust air to reduce heat signature

8. Occasionally check the outlet water temperature at the tub/shower with a thermometer. If the water temp exceeds ambient room temperature, increase the water flow rate for more cooling.


This will increase your water usage, but will cut down your electric bill if it means you don't need an air conditioner or so much exhaust air blowing around.


Additional notes:

* When disconnecting from the sink, a water siphoning effect may cause water to suddenly gush out of the lower side. This can happen just moving the disconnected hoses higher or lower if they are full of water.

(Valves on the tubing would be a good idea, so that when the tubing is removed, you can close the valves and keep the water in the tubing from leaking out all over. Note, cheap clear vinyl tubing cannot handle house-plumbing water pressure and will blow apart if you try running the water into the tubing with the valves closed.)


* Water should enter the coil from the bottom and exit at the top. This keeps the coil full of water and you can run the water supply at a slow dribble.

(For some coil shapes, if the water enters at the top it races through the coil to drain out the bottom and the cooling capacity won't be very good.)

 

[ray420365]

Its not the noise we all have to worry about its the eye in the sky and its just going to get worse, its all over the uk the now people are getting done all over the place, they are coming down hard.
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1039768/Police-raid-home-Blunkett-Bobby-infrared-helicopter-mistook-bad-insulation-cannabis-factory.html

just lol'd @ that!

if you know what i mean..

 

[ray420365]

I wanted to make sure that there was plenty of fresh air for the generator to consume... I figured it would run pretty horrible if it was running off of exhaust air, especially on days I run it all day. The power vent sucks the exhaust gas out, and with the holes at the bottom, sucks fresh air in. I still wouldn't want to hang out in the room with the generator running, but it's considerably better than nothing...

Oh yeah, the exhaust system on the new generator is threaded steel pipe to a muffler, so I was going to see what happens when I attach more pipe and more mufflers in-line. If I can get it quiet enough, I'll just pipe the exhaust straight out.

Dont forget, your engine wont like having more than the originally designed muffler on it, as your tampering with its back-flow pressure..

 

[NoDrama]

I vent to the outside during the summers, My vent is right behind the Air Conditioning Unit, the AC makes plenty of noise to mask the sound of blowing air. During the Winters I vent back into the house and help heat the home. My grow room is double insulated and uses norbord for walls instead of Sheetrock, you can stand right next to the wall and not hear a peep, open the door and its a different thing altogether with all those fans running (16 total). When im in my room I can't hear anything, I miss the phone ringing, people at the door, GF calling for me.

 

[jefski1]

A simple solution to your probleb is to mask the sound issue with another sound that is not un pleaseant to your neirbours, IE if you have a garden build a pond with a water fall \ fountain as near to your outlet as poss. Can be as shit as you like nieghbours might think you got crap taste in decor but won't call police

 

[jasons]

I have a 745 and a 440 cfm fans mounted to my wall at my apartment. Getting a really bad vibration from this. Dont have any where else i can mount them other than this wall. I was thinking of maybe getting some egg shells or some kind of padding to put between the wall and fan. Does this sound good or does anybody else have any ideas?

 

[TJames]

Some good thoughts here. Fans vibrate and transfer that vibration right into your framing via conduction. You can attach the fan to the framing using resilient clips and channel. You can also suspend the fan with cables, some with spring isolators. This makes for a much less efficient conduction path. Insulated flex will help. Buying an oversized fan that you can run at 1/2 speed will really help.Egg cartons for soundproofing is an urban legend

 

[arn1016]

i have a 2 ft wide, 2 ft deep , 3 ft height grow cab made of plywood. i use a 135 watt led ufo that has 3 fans in it , along with a fan to exhaust and a fan for air flow my box makes a humming sounds and i need it to be silent any tips or ideas would help

 

[BigFloppy2020]

I didnt read all the post but i will add something i recently thought of. Im about to build a grow box and i have designed a utility room ontop ( inclosed, part of box ) and im going to line it with sound reducting material. you can get it at home depot or lowes. it is designed to go under carpet. Im going to measure and cut and surround the inside of my utility room with it. not sure the correct terminology for it, but you get the idea. so see where you could us it. it comes in different thicknessess to.

 

[pennie]

amazing info

 

[BigFloppy2020]

thanks. i havent grown yet. still gathering materials over the next few weeks. kinda broke.

 

[Rrog]

I didnt read all the post but i will add something i recently thought of. Im about to build a grow box and i have designed a utility room ontop ( inclosed, part of box ) and im going to line it with sound reducting material. you can get it at home depot or lowes. it is designed to go under carpet. Im going to measure and cut and surround the inside of my utility room with it. not sure the correct terminology for it, but you get the idea. so see where you could us it. it comes in different thicknessess to.

Just an FYI: These thin types of of absorption can reduce the echo in a room. They won't do much at all to soundproof a room. If you look at rooms that were built for sound isolation (recording studios, home theaters) they use a lot of mass like extra drywall. Mass stops sound from traveling from one room to the next. Insulation items are not heavy enough. There's a lot of data on this online. Weed sites often use this insulation technique, the problem is... it doesn't work.

 

[BigFloppy2020]

i'll look into it, thanks man.

 

[Rrog]

yea, insulation on a wall is expensive, delicate and a place for moisture to accumulate = mold. The second layer of drywall is cheap and sturdy and will do much more to stop sound from leaving the room. I just paint the walls white. Easy to clean, no spots for mold to hide, etc.

 

[xsvthoughts]

good info here