Monitoring Domestic Noise with Inexpensive Equipment

Environmental Health (EH) Departments devote considerable resources to investigating domestic noise complaints. In 1989-90 Environmental Health Officers in England and Wales received 97,798 noise complaints, of which 61% were about domestic noise [1]. The object of investigating a complaint is to determine whether a statutory nuisance exists. In practice, this depends on the judgement of the Environmental Health Officer, which is usually informed by subjective listening and a broadband A-weighted sound pressure level (SPL) measurement. Though practice varies among EH Departments, it is common for more than one visit to a complainant to be made. In the case of domestic noise complaints, these visits usually have to be made outside office hours and thus entail significant overtime costs. In many cases, further action is not found to be justified after an initial visit, so some system of screening noise complaints is desirable.