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We have a house with the blower/heat/cooling exchanger in a closet next to the TV room. Every tine the unit turned on I would have to up the volume on the TV quite a bit. It also has a condensation pump that periodically turned on and makes a ton of noise. Add to that one of the major air intakes comes out of the side wall with a direct line of sight and hearing to the blower. It was driving me nuts.
Whatever the solution would be it had to do the basics:
1. Reduce noise significantly
2. Easy to remove for filter changes and possible repair requirements
3. Self supporting since it had to be easily removed it ruled out any permanent supporting structure.
I read a lot of stuff about what materials, one misconception I had was I thought Styrofoam ( I thought it would be great since it is light and self supporting) was a good sound insulator..it is not.
It turned out the material of choice was EnduraGold™ Fiber Glass Duct Board ( http://www.owenscorning.com/around/s...uract-duct.asp ) . It allowed me to build a modular sarcophagus around the unit. I went with three layers with all joints stairstepped to break up the sound waves.
The airflow (and sound waves) through the intake to the blower was changed to travel through a series of directional flows that require the sound waves to hit eight "walls" of the material.
For assembly I used a jig saw to cut the stuff (tried knives, razors). Be sure you do all cutting outside, wear a mask, and if possible stay upwind. Enduragold is a fiberglass product. Wear old junk gloves, long sleeves and long pants and plan to throw the clothes away if you can. To attach the three layers together to form a freestanding wall I use a hot glue gun. I really like the glue gun solution because it was really fast (no waiting for days or hours for stuff to dry).
I created a "door" to allow me to change the filters real easy and used Duct Tape folded back on itself to form "handles" to remove the door.
Enduragold comes in 4 x 10 foot sheets ( i used the 1 1/2 inch thickness) and in my area costs about $32 bucks a sheet. I used 10 sheets (yep 10) in total ( I also took the scraps and built a silencing box around my water tank that was transferring the well pump nose into the house).
The solution reduced the nose by about 95 %. Sometimes I don't even notice it come on until I get up for a drink or something and notice it was on. If you plan to try this method remember the most important thing is always make sure you do not give a sound wave the chance to travel in a straight line through a joint or opening. Always stairstep any joints and take the time to build a "baffled" flow path for intakes that can not be closed or restricted.
Total cost was around $350 bucks counting hot glue and duct tape which is a lot of money but to be honest the result was so good it was well worth every cent.
I will be using the enduragold for my DC system to insulate and reduce noise for my DC unit. My DC blower and large waste drum are outside and my final filters are inside ( to return the heated air back into the shop ) The Enduragold will function more as a thermal insulator to reduce moisture condensation when the warm moist air from the shop travels outside to the blower. I will have a small computer fan that will circulate and keep warm the blower warm inside the Enduragold enclosure.
Hope this helps someone else.
Whatever the solution would be it had to do the basics:
1. Reduce noise significantly
2. Easy to remove for filter changes and possible repair requirements
3. Self supporting since it had to be easily removed it ruled out any permanent supporting structure.
I read a lot of stuff about what materials, one misconception I had was I thought Styrofoam ( I thought it would be great since it is light and self supporting) was a good sound insulator..it is not.
It turned out the material of choice was EnduraGold™ Fiber Glass Duct Board ( http://www.owenscorning.com/around/s...uract-duct.asp ) . It allowed me to build a modular sarcophagus around the unit. I went with three layers with all joints stairstepped to break up the sound waves.
The airflow (and sound waves) through the intake to the blower was changed to travel through a series of directional flows that require the sound waves to hit eight "walls" of the material.
For assembly I used a jig saw to cut the stuff (tried knives, razors). Be sure you do all cutting outside, wear a mask, and if possible stay upwind. Enduragold is a fiberglass product. Wear old junk gloves, long sleeves and long pants and plan to throw the clothes away if you can. To attach the three layers together to form a freestanding wall I use a hot glue gun. I really like the glue gun solution because it was really fast (no waiting for days or hours for stuff to dry).
I created a "door" to allow me to change the filters real easy and used Duct Tape folded back on itself to form "handles" to remove the door.
Enduragold comes in 4 x 10 foot sheets ( i used the 1 1/2 inch thickness) and in my area costs about $32 bucks a sheet. I used 10 sheets (yep 10) in total ( I also took the scraps and built a silencing box around my water tank that was transferring the well pump nose into the house).
The solution reduced the nose by about 95 %. Sometimes I don't even notice it come on until I get up for a drink or something and notice it was on. If you plan to try this method remember the most important thing is always make sure you do not give a sound wave the chance to travel in a straight line through a joint or opening. Always stairstep any joints and take the time to build a "baffled" flow path for intakes that can not be closed or restricted.
Total cost was around $350 bucks counting hot glue and duct tape which is a lot of money but to be honest the result was so good it was well worth every cent.
I will be using the enduragold for my DC system to insulate and reduce noise for my DC unit. My DC blower and large waste drum are outside and my final filters are inside ( to return the heated air back into the shop ) The Enduragold will function more as a thermal insulator to reduce moisture condensation when the warm moist air from the shop travels outside to the blower. I will have a small computer fan that will circulate and keep warm the blower warm inside the Enduragold enclosure.
Hope this helps someone else.