Fairfield, CT Noise from Specific Sources: Generator Noise (2026)

Fairfield's Noise chapter, Chapter 78, lists specific exceptions to its own decibel limits in § 78-7, stating that the noise level standards defined in § 78-5 do not apply to noise emitted by or related to a defined list of activities. Subsection E of that list covers 'noise created as a result of or relating to an emergency, including, but not limited to, home and commercial generators during periods of lost power.' Chapter 78 defines EMERGENCY in § 78-2 as any occurrence or set of circumstances involving actual or imminent physical or property damage that demands immediate action, so the generator exception is tied to that broader emergency standard rather than to generators as a category on their own; a generator run for reasons unrelated to a power outage or comparable emergency would not fall within § 78-7E's exception.

The same exceptions list also covers other utility-adjacent situations relevant during storms and outages, including noise from public utility maintenance and repairs under § 78-7H and noise from Department of Public Works and Water Pollution Control Agency road maintenance under § 78-7N, both of which commonly follow the same events that trigger generator use. Because § 78-7 exempts these activities from the § 78-5 decibel table entirely, rather than merely relaxing the numeric limit, a generator running during a lost-power emergency is not subject to the chapter's residential, business or industrial dBA thresholds, or to its daytime/nighttime hour restrictions, for as long as the emergency condition persists.