Noise, Air, Odour and Light – Page 3
Environmental health topics in planning: noise, air quality, kitchen extraction, odour and lighting.
Noise, Air, Odour and Light articles – page 3
263 articlesConstruction vibration and the limits in BS 5228 part 2
Complaints begin at about one millimetre per second and cosmetic damage needs tens of them. How BS 5228-2 separates the two scales and what a monitoring regime should specify.
Odour assessment for a hot food premises using FIDOL
Kitchen odour is assessed qualitatively through the FIDOL factors, then answered with filtration and termination. What to record so an environmental health officer can approve it.
Assessing noise from a takeaway extract fan
Kitchen extract fans run late at night a few metres from bedroom windows, which is why they attract objections. What a defensible noise assessment needs and where suppliers' data misleads.
Plant noise from a rooftop condenser next to flats
A condenser on a flat roof beneath somebody's bedroom window is the hardest plant noise case there is, because the night-time background gives you almost no headroom.
Internal noise levels for a new dwelling under BS 8233
BS 8233 gives guideline internal ambient noise levels, not limits. What matters in a submission is the ventilation assumption and what you do when the values cannot be met.
Rating level and character corrections under BS 4142
The rating level is where most BS 4142 assessments are won or lost, because the acoustic feature corrections are a matter of judgement that has to be evidenced. Here is how to set them out.
Place of worship noise: bells, calls and gatherings
For a place of worship the noise case is about people arriving and leaving, not plant. Here is how to assess congregation movement, handle amplified sound and bells, and agree conditions the use can live with.
Standby generator testing and the noise it creates
A standby generator is assessed on its routine test regime, not on emergency operation. Here is how BS 4142 applies, what attenuation is worth specifying, and how to get the emergency carve out into the condition.
Clean Air Zones and what they mean for a development
A Clean Air Zone will not refuse your application, but it will price your muck-away lorries and change your fleet assumptions. Here is where it belongs in a submission.
Car park lighting: uniformity, spill and surveillance
Car park lighting has to satisfy pedestrians, cameras and the neighbour facing the boundary. Here is how the design targets stack up, and what belongs in the submitted calculations.
Gym impact noise in a building with flats above
An illustrative fitness studio below four floors of flats: why plant noise methods fail, what a transfer measurement tells you, and how floors, limiters and conditions work together.
Illuminated signs: luminance limits and advertisement consent
Illuminated advertisement brightness is capped by published tables that vary with environmental zone and sign area. Here is how consent works, what digital displays attract, and what to submit.
Bias adjustment and annualisation of NO2 diffusion tube data
Nitrogen dioxide diffusion tube results need bias adjustment, annualisation and sometimes distance correction before they can carry an air quality baseline. Here is the order and the evidence to show.
Padel and tennis court noise in a residential setting
Racket sport noise is impulsive, so an averaged level describes something nobody hears. Here is how these applications are actually assessed, and what to look for in the evidence.
Wind turbine noise and the rating method used in England
BS 4142 excludes wind turbines. English guidance points to ETSU-R-97 applied through the Institute of Acoustics good practice guide. Here is how the limits and the survey actually work.
Maximum noise events and sleep disturbance at night
A scheme can meet every average night target and still wake people. Event analysis, measured with fast time weighting and reported facade by facade, is what catches it.
A restaurant flue in a conservation area
Kitchen extraction guidance pushes the discharge point up, and conservation duties push it out of sight. Work through internal routes, duct design, termination height and abatement in that order.
Sound insulation between a commercial unit and flats above
The Building Regulations minimum for a conversion is nowhere near enough above a restaurant or gym. How to measure the existing floor, set a real target and word the testing condition.
Plant noise limits expressed as a condition
A plant noise condition needs a place, a period and a metric. How to convert a relative limit into a number, cover cumulative plant, and keep defrost cycles out of breach.
Validation monitoring conditions for noise and air quality
Post-completion testing conditions test outcomes rather than intentions, which makes them valuable and easy to draft badly. Eight elements make one enforceable.
Railway vibration and the thresholds that apply
Groundborne vibration is felt and reradiated noise is heard, and they need separate assessment. Base isolation is a concept design decision, not a late addition.
Acoustic glazing, ventilation and the overheating conflict
On a noisy site the acoustician assumes windows shut and the overheating modeller assumes them open. Both reports pass and the building fails. One strategy, issued first, prevents it.
Lux limits at a bat roost access point
Bat sensitive lighting is not a specification. What protects a roost is a stated lux figure at an identified access point, measured in the right plane and checked after installation.
Floodlighting a sports pitch: assessment and curfews
Floodlight applications turn on measurable numbers: lux at the nearest windows, upward light from the luminaires and the hour the lights go off. Weak conditions serve nobody.
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