How to Measure Nuisance Sound

Measuring sound pressure level is the primary goal of a sound level meter. Generally, upper limits of sound pressure levels are prescribed by law. However, there are also noises that are below the prescribed limit values and are considered nuisance sound.

In fact, such noises are difficult to identify, because they do not occur constantly. In many cases, they occur for short periods and at different times. The XL2 Sound Level Meter can help you to overcome this issue: it has an Input Keypad, and the complainant can press a button when he hears the nuisance sound.

Corresponding markers are placed in the XL2’s log file, when one of the four buttons is pressed. That is why retrieving is much easier when when post-processing the continuous measurement with NTi Audio XL2 Data Explorer PC software.

There is an advanced Acoustics Package option that can help you to trigger an audio recording to assist in identifying the noise.

Can you hear that? What?

The human brain has an outstanding ability: it can ignore sounds that are not relevant! For instance, if you are living or working next to a railway line, your brain ignores the sound of regular passing trains.

On the other hand, human brain has also another incredible, yet sometimes unwanted, capability: it can concentrate on the smallest of sounds. All of us have experienced hearing the ticking clock when we are trying to sleep.

Of course, the law will not ban all ticking clocks! However, it can make some legal regulations for other noises such as the incessant pulsing noise from a wind farm that has just been built or music played by your neighbor. Actually, there are no legal regulations whatsoever for barely audible sounds including annoying humming sound.

Noise Assessment

Therefore, it is the complainant that needs to choose which noises are annoying. Using the XL2 Sound Level Meter Input Keypad (which is connected directly to the XL2-TA Sound Level Meter by cable) in combination with the type-approved XL2-TA meter fulfills the requirement of the USA: ANSI S1.4 (IEC 61672) standard and gives you samples for a legal noise nuisance assessment.

If the complainant presses the keypad button when disturbed by a noise event, finding the noise events of interest within a large amount of measurement data is very much simplified.

XL2 Data Explorer Software: Faster Analysis

When you press each button, it is marked in the measurement data log file. These markers are displayed and may be analyzed individually or as groups for time of day, their levels, spectral content or alternatively to exclude non-nuisance events from the nuisance calculations; when importing the measurements into XL2 Data Explorer software.

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