[imagesource: Wikimedia Commons]

Seth will be pleased to read this article, Following his State Of The Vibe address.

The lights go off and the noise of a generator can almost always be heard chugging away somewhere in the near distance.

With load shedding becoming as relentless as mosquitoes in the summer, Saffas have had to live hard and fast by the local motto “a boer maak a plan“.

The okes with a more fierce vendetta against Eskom have taken that to mean installing household generators or inverters, which is rather unfortunate for the neighbour with just a candle or a flashlight hoping for a little peace and quiet in the dark.

Mitigating the effects of load shedding aside, a new problem has arisen; the grating noise that these generators produce.

CapeTalk spoke to Werner Geldenhuys, Senior Technician: Noise Control Administration, City Health, Community Services and Health, who says that domestic generators more often than not breach the generator noise limit as they are basically open-stripped machines.

That means that written instructions can be issued against noise-making neighbours if their domestic generators breach the noise limits:

Geldenhuys recommends that if you’re having a problem with the noise that’s coming from a neighbour’s generator to first address the neighbour. If that is unsuccessful, escalate it to the Noise Control Administration, City Health, Community Services and Health.

The team will visit the site, conduct a noise measurement and give guidance based in their findings. If an individual is resistant to make appropriate changes based on their findings, then a written instruction will be issued.

Listen to John Maytham interviewing Geldenhuys for more information on these generator noise regulations:

Noise complaints can be reported to noise@capetown.gov.za.

[source:capetalk]