while some may be offended by ANY sound or particular sounds, the small Honda and Yamaha inverter gens (and not the Chinese-made knockoffs) are very reasonable and not offensive if run no more than a few hours at a time during full daylight hours, IMHO. Your mileage may vary.

BTW -- the Chinese-made knockoffs are about 4-6 db louder (that translates to about twice as loud based based on human perception) and produce different frequencies which can sound more irritating.