In respect to this, how loud is a 4 sone fan?
The lower the sone value, the more comfortable the listening environment will be. For your question, a 4-sone rating is about four times a loud as a 0.9 (~1) sone rating. Sones are not decibels or volume, but rather how sound is sensed. Sones are a linear measurement, like inches.
Beside above, what does 8 sones sound like? One sone is similar to a whisper or the sound of an extremely quiet refrigerator or dishwasher. Eight sones are equivalent to a normal conversation or background noise. The lower the sone value, the quieter the hood.
Similarly one may ask, how many sones is a fridge?
Sound levels are rated in sones where the lower the rating number, the quieter the fan. Typical economy fans are rated at about 4.0 sones or more while any fan rated 1.0 sones or less is very quiet (1.0 sones is roughly equivalent to a modern refrigerator).
How noisy is a sone?
The Home Ventilating Institute (HVI) defines a sones this way: “In technical terms, a sone is equal in loudness to a pure 1,000 Hertz per second tone at 40 decibels above the listener's threshold of hearing. In exhaust fans choosing a fan with a sound rating at or below 1 sone will be very quiet.