bcjm July 1, 2012 Share July 1, 2012 I ran my generator all night to power my equipment. Neighbor came over early morning complaining that it is too noisy. Are there any kind of rules in Fairfax county to run a generator when we lost power? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smallreef July 1, 2012 Share July 1, 2012 I cant imagine someone would complain that you actually have one and yes they are loud but seriously.... even IF there is a regular noise ordinance i doubt its in effect and includes generators..were you able to explain to them why you had it running? What if you had someone in your home that had medical equipment that needed constant power?...just sayin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcjm July 1, 2012 Author Share July 1, 2012 I told him I have a fish tank so I need to run the generator. I can't imagine that someone will complain either but... We are all different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami July 1, 2012 Share July 1, 2012 There are probably noise ordinances that pertain to night hours. Give the local police a call. You may find that, to get through the night, your best bet is to use an UPS to keep flow in the tank while shutting everything else down. Outside that, fire up the generator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnetic1 July 1, 2012 Share July 1, 2012 (edited) I know Montgomery County has well defined ordinances. A quick google search turns up little for Fairfax. http://www6.montgomerycountymd.gov/dectmpl.asp?url=/Content/dep/community/generator.asp Most people think a generator is a generator. They are not. Some are actually quite noisy. All my neighbors have el cheapo ones and they are probably twice as loud as mine. When I goto racetracks, it's common courtesy to shut them off at night so people can sleep, but obviously it's a different situation we are in. But because of that courtesy, I ended up buying a fairly quiet inverter generator. Rated at 58dB @ 7 meters away. Most cheap generators are 75-85dB, so quite a big difference. Edited July 1, 2012 by magnetic1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind July 1, 2012 Share July 1, 2012 Size and not just "cheapo" play a role in sound level. I have a 10,000 watt gen set, not cheap, that is rated at 75dB. I'm sure even if he had a low dB one like yours the guy next door would still complain. The sound ordinance where I'm at in Loudoun co starts at 11pm. Regardless I doubt any law enforcement has the time now to worry about a noise complaint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvreef July 1, 2012 Share July 1, 2012 What have we all come to in this country today It is a shame u have no way to keep food, health and pets alive for such stupid goverment regulations. Dont worry the world is changing fast and can only take so much Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smallreef July 1, 2012 Share July 1, 2012 My personal opinion would be just to tell my neighbors if it bothers them that i am trying to keep my pets alive Sorry..but they will just have to be inconvenienced until the power is restored...again, if it were someones medical equipment it would shut them up... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gws3 July 1, 2012 Share July 1, 2012 After you explain you're running it to keep your pets alive, if they can't see that as justification, then too bad. Let the cops come. They probably wouldn't even show up... I'm sure they are too busy dealing with safety issues and peoples health to deal with a noise complaint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wogga July 1, 2012 Share July 1, 2012 offer to run an extension cord off of it to run their a/c. see if that shuts 'em up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flowerseller July 2, 2012 Share July 2, 2012 I've had the cops over here many times over my generator so yes they do come. Most are sympathetic and suggest you shut down by 10. Most of it is jealousy. I have learned a few things; Run it for several hours and turn it off for several hours. My 400g system does fine does fine with battery bubblers during the night and I go at it 7am during the week 9am weekends. Allowing a cord for neighbors helps but read the second line again for those too far away. Running the tank for an hour does wonders and you only need 03 lighting if out for several days. Cold weather I hook in my gas furnace blower and I'm set. don't worry about powering anything other than re circulation pumps and 03 lighting only if more than two days. no need for kalk reactors, uv's or any "toys", heat is good but they can take lower temps, 60s, as long as you raise it back over a few days. In 12 years and several outages in many different seasons I only lost a 10year old flame angle and a neighbor couple - read line one and two, they no longer party on my patio and eat my food or drink our alcohol anymore. btw way, fireworks (good ones) can have the same effect and the cops come too. also, consistantly loud revs of a car with zoomies does too only the cops usually just want to sit in my car and have their photo taken or tell me about their car when they were younger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcjm July 2, 2012 Author Share July 2, 2012 (edited) Bought a deep cycle marine battery yesterday. Ran the batter/invertor combo last night from 12 to 8 with two power heads. Tank looks fine this morning. I think that is what I am going to do in the future, batter at night and the generator the rest of the day. Winter maybe different if I have to plug in my heater. Edited July 2, 2012 by bcjm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind July 2, 2012 Share July 2, 2012 What power heads did you use? I learned from this power outage that the maxi-jets don't seem to work as well on an invertor like my tunze 6025 or 6045 did. The maxi-jets tend to bounce and not always spin properly when starting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcjm July 2, 2012 Author Share July 2, 2012 I use Hydor Koralia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surf&turf July 2, 2012 Share July 2, 2012 I use Hydor Koralia. I had a hard time getting them to run on a gen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icecool2 July 2, 2012 Share July 2, 2012 I use Hydor Koralia. That's what I would shoot for too. Only ~15W and if you point it at the surface you get lots of agitation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind July 2, 2012 Share July 2, 2012 My tunze 6045 does 1189gph for only 7w. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icecool2 July 2, 2012 Share July 2, 2012 1. I misremembered the power draw, it is 6.5W for a K3. 2. Most of the wide flow pumps (like tunze) are pretty efficient and worth using instead of something like a maxi-jet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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