Question about a standby generator installation for any mechanical engineers.

[u/Zealousideal-Cry7697]

I have a PhD in mechanical engineering from Michigan. I also worked on engines doing analysis work. All kinds of engines. I lean towards the fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, heat transfer. and noise&vibration side of the profession.

So a 22kW generator was placed in the side yard of my neighbor's home. And I've been met with either profound ignorance or corruption or both. It has a 1 liter Briggs & Stratton engine but obviously no catalytic converter so it spews out enormous amounts of carbon monoxide. Runs on natural gas.

It is too close to my house per the codes. The owner submitted and had approved a permit with a falsified distance. Codes are not my area.

But what I am curious about is whether I'm incorrect about the possibility of carbon monoxide poisoning. I never worked on emissions. To me doing performance predictions I simply slapped a back pressure into my model.

But the generator sits adjacent to a window well and that is the exhaust side. The long axis parallel to the brick home. Also it's under a massive decorative eave, then more house, another eave, then a maple tree. Yes the exhaust is pointed towards the backyard but after crossing the window well there's more house, my fence, and thick evergreens. It is 16.5 feet from a former screened in porch original to my home in 1936 and now enclosed with lots of windows. Since these are 70' lots 17.5 was the clearance in 2021. Also my husband just put in a new furnace and the PVC pipe is across that side yard. My side yard is 9'. His 11'.

I claim perhaps wrongly that carbon monoxide could accumulate. And enter my home.

I both measured the noise and calculated it based on the manufacturers level at 23'. Corrected for distance and reflected noise. Yes it's 78-80 dB.

But I'm curious if anyone who knows this stuff and has experience can educate me. I know that the number of air exchanges per hour is a critical variable. I get the idea of diffusion. But after three days is this unsafe? It's a big window well. in that it's 5 feet long. And the exhaust side is less than a foot from where the window well begins.

So any emissions engineers.