Noise, Air, Odour and Light – Page 10
Environmental health topics in planning: noise, air quality, kitchen extraction, odour and lighting.
Noise, Air, Odour and Light articles – page 10
263 articlesRooftop plant noise: screens, louvres and enclosures
On a roof the governing receptor is often above the screen. How barrier geometry, louvre pressure drop and vibration isolation decide whether rooftop plant passes.
Heat pump noise and the permitted development condition
A domestic air source heat pump is permitted development only if the calculated noise at the neighbour's window meets the MCS 020 limit. Siting, evidence and the route if it fails.
Part O and noise: the openable window conflict
Part O refuses to count openable windows where noise means they will be closed. Here is how the two regimes collide and which design moves actually resolve it.
Designing a background sound survey a council will accept
The background level decides most BS 4142 outcomes, so the survey is the first thing a reviewer checks. Here is how to design one that holds up.
BS 4142 rating penalties: tonality and impulsivity
Acoustic feature corrections can move a BS 4142 rating level by up to 9 dB. Here is how each correction is established, and how to present it so a reviewer can check the work.
Assessing early morning deliveries and servicing noise
Early morning deliveries wake people through individual events rather than average levels. This sets out the event based approach, the character corrections that apply, and the conditions councils impose.
Commercial kitchen ducts through residential buildings
A unit with no viable duct route cannot be fitted out as a restaurant. Here is how to settle the route, the termination and the consents before signing a lease.
Railway vibration and what BS 6472 requires
Vibration from trains is assessed with vibration dose values, not decibels, and groundborne rumble needs separate treatment. Here is how to survey, predict and mitigate it.
Assessing noise from a nursery or school playground
Children playing sit outside the scope of BS 4142. This is the method environmental health officers accept for nursery and school outdoor play, and the conditions that follow.
SOAEL and LOAEL: what the noise policy statement means
National noise policy sets effect levels rather than numbers. Here is what LOAEL and SOAEL mean, how values are derived from the standards, and where assessments go wrong.
Where the environmental permit ends and planning begins
Planning decides whether an operation belongs in that location. The permit decides how it runs. Here is how to write the split into an application and avoid conditions that duplicate.
Dark skies policy in National Landscapes and National Parks
In a dark sky reserve the post-curfew limits are effectively nil and upward light is not permitted at all. That rules out most off-the-shelf security lighting before the design starts.
Designing dark corridors for bats in a lighting scheme
A dark corridor is a design output, not an aspiration. It needs an illuminance figure at the hedge line, a luminaire specification that delivers it, and a condition that keeps it there.
Floodlighting a sports pitch: the planning evidence
Sports pitch floodlighting is decided on evidence about spill light, glare and hours of use. Knowing what should be in the application tells you whether an objection has anything to stand on.
Using council diffusion tube data in an assessment
Measured tube data arrives with four adjustments applied or waiting. Which ones, how to check them, and how to verify a dispersion model against them.
When an Air Quality Management Area changes your application
An AQMA does not block development. It moves the burden of proof, and the harder question is usually what the air does to your residents, not the reverse.
Odour from sewage treatment and the IAQM approach
A scheme next to a treatment works can be well designed and still fail. How the IAQM framework builds an effect descriptor, and why mitigation at the houses is weak.
Section 61 consents and section 60 notices explained
Section 60 lets a council dictate how your works are carried out. Section 61 lets the contractor agree the method first. Here is what to submit and how it sits with planning conditions.
Construction noise assessment under BS 5228
The ABC method in BS 5228-1 sets a noise threshold from the existing ambient level at each receptor. Here is how prediction, vibration, mitigation and monitoring fit together.
Discharging a plant noise condition first time
Plant noise conditions fail at discharge because the submission cannot be checked. Here is what to put in the pack, how to specify attenuation that exists, and what to do when the installed plant does not meet the limit.
Air source heat pump noise and the MCS 020 standard
Permitted development for an air source heat pump depends on a sound calculation under MCS 020, assessed one metre from a neighbouring habitable room window. Siting, corrections and what to do when it fails.
Choosing the background sound level for a noise assessment
The background LA90 decides whether a plant noise scheme passes. Here is how to choose a representative value, where to measure it, what to exclude and how to present it so an environmental health officer can agree with it.
Noise insulation and glazing specifications in conditions
An acoustic condition sets an internal level, not a product. Working back to glazing, frames and ventilators is where schemes fail, and the weakest element is rarely the glass.
Low frequency noise complaints and why they are hard
A plant item with a strong 50 Hz tone can sit inside a dBA limit and still make a bedroom unusable. What to measure, and what actually reduces it.
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