Short answer: about as loud as a window air conditioner at the distance the manufacturers measure — and the version your neighbors hear most often, the weekly exercise, is the quiet one. Here are the real spec-sheet numbers, what distance does to them, and how placement keeps the peace.
Get My Free Generator QuoteManufacturers rate sound in dB(A) measured 23 feet (7 meters) from the unit — roughly the distance from a generator pad to a property line in many Baldwin County neighborhoods. The two brands you'll see quoted most here:
| Model | Running (normal load) | Weekly exercise |
|---|---|---|
| Generac Guardian 22 kW (air-cooled) | 67 dB(A) | 57 dB(A) in Quiet-Test™ low-speed mode |
| Generac Guardian 20 kW (air-cooled) | 67 dB(A) | 55 dB(A) in Quiet-Test™ low-speed mode |
| Kohler 20RCA (20 kW) | 70 dB(A) | 66 dB(A) |
Figures from each manufacturer's published specifications, measured at 23 ft (7 m). Last updated: October 2026.
These numbers are close, but they aren't measured identically, and honest comparisons should say so. Generac rates its units at normal load and offers a low-speed exercise mode (Quiet-Test™) that drops the exercise figure into the mid-50s. Kohler publishes an eight-point average around the generator, measured with no load, and its exercise figure is higher partly because its exercise runs differently. Both manufacturers note that sound varies by which side of the unit you stand on and by installation details. Treat a 2–3 dB difference between brands as a tie; treat the exercise-mode gap as the more meaningful number, because exercise is the sound your street hears 52 weeks a year, while full-load running happens during outages — when every air conditioner, refrigerator, and eventually chainsaw in the neighborhood is competing with it.
Decibels are logarithmic and unintuitive, so anchor them: normal conversation is about 60 dB(A). A running standby generator at 23 feet, at 67 dB(A), sits in the same neighborhood as a window air-conditioning unit or a household dishwasher heard up close — present, clearly audible, not a shout. At exercise levels in the mid-to-upper 50s, it's closer to a quiet conversation.
Outdoors, sound from a point source drops by roughly 6 dB every time the distance doubles (a free-field rule of thumb — walls, ground, and vegetation shift it either way). Applied to the 22 kW Generac's 67 dB(A) at 23 feet:
| Distance from unit | Running (~) | Exercise, Quiet-Test (~) |
|---|---|---|
| 23 ft (the rating distance) | 67 dB(A) | 57 dB(A) |
| 46 ft | 61 dB(A) | 51 dB(A) |
| 92 ft | 55 dB(A) | 45 dB(A) |
Planning estimates using the 6 dB-per-doubling rule of thumb, computed from Generac's published 22 kW figures. Your lot's buildings, fences, and plantings will move the real numbers.
This is why placement matters more than brand choice for neighbor relations: a unit on the far side of your lot, 90 feet from the nearest neighbor window, exercises at roughly the volume of rainfall. The same unit 25 feet from their bedroom wall is a weekly announcement.
A whole-home generator is not silent, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling. It is, honestly, about as noticeable as the air conditioners it replaces during an outage — and in exercise mode, quieter than most of them. If noise is your deciding factor, spend the effort on placement and exercise scheduling rather than on a decibel or two between brands. When you're ready to talk through where a unit would sit on your lot, that's a site-visit conversation — start with the sizing calculator for the electrical side, then request a quote.
Sources: Generac Guardian Series specification sheet for the 20/22 kW models (sound output at 23 ft, normal load and Quiet-Test™ mode): manufacturer spec sheet (PDF). Kohler 20RCA specification sheet (eight-point average sound levels at 7 m): Kohler 20RCA specifications.
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