Sound limit in the house. All you need to know about noise

The overwhelming majority of modern citizens do not live in hotel private houses, but in apartments. In one apartment building can live up to several hundred people. Of course, it is unlikely that residents of the second floor will hear what is happening in the apartments, for example, on the 16th floor. But what happens to the neighbors from below, above and on the sides, is usually well audible, and often this noise does not just interfere, but makes life unbearable.

It is for this reason that the permitted noise floor limits in city apartments were established. This is done, first of all, in the interests of the rest of the tenants so that nothing would disturb them. These norms are different, depending on the time of day, day of the week, etc. But, if the established rules are not followed, violators can be held accountable and fined. Or, if they do not respond to warnings, they can even be delayed.

Permissible level according to SNiP

There are certain noise standards established by law, which cannot be violated. Noise level is measured in decibels. In order to measure it, you can use a special device. Although, now there are special applications that measure noise, they can be downloaded and installed on mobile applications to measure.

True, there is no guarantee that the results of their measurements are completely reliable. In general, you need to call Rospotrebnadzor or the sanitary-epidemiological service so that they measure the noise level and issue an appropriate conclusion with the results. If the excess of the permissible noise level is confirmed, the owner of the apartment can file a lawsuit against the person, organization or even the municipal authorities, through whose fault it happened.

If this is a private person, most likely it is someone from the neighbors. If this is a legal entity, in most cases some shops, nightclubs or other establishments that may be located nearby violate the noise standards. If it is municipal or city authorities, we are talking about a carriageway located nearby, an airport, a football stadium, etc. In the latter case, special panels are usually installed that absorb most of the noise to provide peace and quiet to residents of nearby houses.

Currently, the maximum noise level from neighbors in the apartment during the day should not exceed 55 dB, and at night 45 dB. Most people have no idea what noise level these numbers correspond to.

To understand a little how much it is, you can compare the level of other noise in decibels:

• crying baby - 80 dB
• included vacuum cleaner - 75 dB
• weapon shot - 180 dB
• alarm ringtone - 85 dB
• conversation - 30−40 dB
• working puncher or jackhammer - 120 dB, etc.

Decibel Noise Comparison

This does not mean that the neighbors, so as not to disturb the others, can not turn on the vacuum cleaner or use the alarm clock, despite the fact that their noise level is higher than the permissible norms. After all, they will make noise in their apartment, and not among their neighbors. And between them are partitions, floors, etc. All of this absorbs some of the noise, but not always. Therefore, it is required to comply with the norms so that the neighbors do not complain.

In general, specialists should do this. You can, of course, purchase a sound meter, try to measure the noise level yourself, but this is impractical because the procedure has its own nuances that only professionals know about.

How to measure the noise in the apartment? Sound level meter - a device for measuring the noise level

Yes, and in order to sue the person, due to which the noise level rises, you must have an official protocol confirming that the apartment is noisy. That is why the services of Rospotrebnadzor, the sanitary-epidemiological service, or private expert organizations that have a valid license and relevant accreditation are required. True, their services will be expensive: from 5-6 to 30-50 thousand rubles.

Noise disturbance - what to do?

To begin with, you need to find the culprit and try to talk with him, if possible. There is a likelihood that a person will understand what is stopping others and stop making noise. Too many violators do not respond to complaints and requests from neighbors. In this case, the neighbors need to call the precinct. He will record a violation, draw up a protocol, make a warning remark. Each time you need to call the precinct.

If his warnings do not help, the offender will first be fined 1,000-2,000 rubles. If these measures do not bring results, the offender will be fined again. But, now the amount of the fine will amount to two minimum wages established in the region. You can call experts to take measurements, collect all the precinct protocols, and apply to the court with all this to take drastic measures there.

Noise time by law

There are certain standards that differ, depending on the time of day, day of the week, etc. If these are weekdays, you can make noise from 8:00 to 21:00. At this time, you can do the cleaning, watch TV, do some other work, etc. During this time period, most people are awake, go to work, do various things at home, and also make noise. Of course, that noise and in this temporarily segment is necessary within the normal range, without overdoing, so as not to disturb others.

From 23:00 to 7:00 it is impossible to make noise. This is night time, when people sleep, relax, and a loud noise will prevent them from doing this. On weekends, as well as on holidays, you can make noise from 10:00 to 22:00. In some cases, these rules may be violated, but legally. For example, you can make noise on the night of December 31 to January 1, launching fireworks and loudly celebrating the onset of the new year. Also, noise is allowed during some holidays, festivals, etc., which do not last long.

What time can I make repairs in the apartment?

Noisy repairs can be done   from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.  In this case, you still need to take a break during lunch from 13:00 to 15:00.  In the evening, noisy repairs are prohibited. By the way, the duration of the repair itself cannot last longer than 3 months.

Watch the video about measuring the permissible noise level in the apartment:

The buzz of city transport, the hassle of bus passengers, the sharp sounds of car horn ... To get rid of the street noise, we change cars, close the windows tightly and turn on your favorite music. But at home and at work, we are constantly surrounded by various "technical" noises  - the sound of a boiling kettle, the buzz of the computer system unit, phone calls ... Often, this is added noise of an air conditioner.
For normal life people just need to hear some kind of noise. Psychologists conducted such an experiment: a man was put in a specially equipped room with full sound insulation.

Despite the fact that the room had everything necessary for work, the test subject, instead of rolling up his sleeves to do an important task, after a fairly short time simply fell asleep. If a person was in such a room for a long time, then he began to worry, get nervous. Total absence of any noiseturned out to be simply harmful to mental health.

But if a quiet sound can be pleasant, then a strong one is already annoying, and if a person is in a rather noisy room for a long time, this will negatively affect his well-being. How to distinguish what noise is usefuland which one isn’t?
Noise level is measured in decibels (dB) - a relative unit, on a decimal logarithmic scale of measurement showing how much one sound is louder than the other. For 0 dB, the audibility threshold is adopted. The difference between the lower threshold of hearing and the pain limit is a thousand billion times! In order to get rid of a huge number of zeros, it was customary to take measurements noise level  on such a slide rule. The table below shows the volume (in dB) of various natural noises.

For most household air conditioners noise level of the indoor unit  lies in the range of 26 - 30 dB at low speed, 33 - 38 dB at maximum; outdoor unit noise level  - 46 - 54 dB. You may notice that noise of a working indoor unit  does not exceed the noise level of the office space. Therefore, paying attention to the noise level of the air conditioner makes sense if you plan to install it in a quiet room (bedroom, personal office, etc.), as well as if you are a very sensitive person and you are annoyed by any extraneous sounds. When choosing a climate conditioning system for your home, you should also think about the comfort of your neighbors, who (especially at night) can be prevented by the sound of a working outdoor unit (you yourself won’t hear it, since one of the operating conditions of the air conditioner is closed windows). To clarify the relationship with brawlers, you won’t be bothered by the knowledge that the acceptable noise level set for residential buildings is 50 dB during the day and 45 dB at night.

It would seem that now it’s enough to choose air conditioning with  by low noise  - and comfort is guaranteed. But not so simple. It may turn out that the air conditioner with declared noise level  38 dB in practice will work louder than an air conditioner with noise level  at 46 dB. Moreover, there is no deception here, and all measurements were carried out correctly. There are simply some tricks that allow sellers to show their goods in a more favorable light without bothering them.

For example, carry out test tests at a minimum fan speed. Naturally, at low speed, the device will produce less noise. Or another "trick" - often in their prospectuses firms indicate noise levelrather than sound power. With similar names, the difference is significant: sound power  is the amount of sound energy generated by the sound source per unit time, and the noise level is the pressure in the sound wave that is excessive compared to the unperturbed medium.

That is, sound power is a constant value, it does not depend on the acoustic characteristics of the room in which the equipment is tested, and on the distance to the sound source. And the noise level indicator may be underestimated due to favorable test conditions. Relationship between noise level  and sound power for air conditioning  is 10-12 dB.

Sound power level is measured in dBA. What does this term mean? the human ear has varying degrees of sensitivity for sounds with different frequencies. Namely - people perceive high-frequency sounds better than sounds with a low frequency. The dBA indicator is used when an adjustment is applied to the octave frequency bands of the measured sound to compensate for its uneven perception - an A-filter. The table shows the correction for human hearing:

Really real numbers can be found in the data provided by Eurovent - the Independent European Certification System. She publishes a directory with a similar name. In this guide you can find much more independent information about the parameters of a given air conditioner.

And once again we recall that a change in the level of sound power by 3 dB in the logarithmic measurement system corresponds to a two-fold excess in a conventional comparison system. For example, the difference between 50 and 53 dBA is not just three units; sound power of 53 dBA is two times greater than 50 dBA.