The Impact of Noise in the Environment on the Acoustic Assessment of Green Houses

Abstract

In various green building assessment systems involving sustainable building projects, certain specific acoustic aspects are important. In Europe the most common system addressing the problem is the British system Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), American system Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), or German system Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Nachhaltiges Bauen (DGNB). The green building certificate comprises the assessment of noise impact generated by technical equipment of buildings on their external surroundings. The measures undertaken to counteract noise-generated pollution involve green certification, but it is also a global challenge to find appropriate technological solutions contributing to the protection of areas inhabited by people. We determined the impact of the surroundings of the assessed building in specific background noise conditions. We described the problem of appropriate selection of measurement points and the impact of noise generated by building installations on the acoustic assessment of green buildings in BREEAM system. A theoretical model of the simulated house was developed close to a road, with changes to traffic parameters including heavy vehicles and the summary acoustic power of the equipment mounted on the roof of the investigated house. We analysed the impact involving the location of the investigated building on the possibility to obtain ‘credits’ in view of environmental acoustics. Instead of a single case study, we used simulation to illustrate different situations such as the changing acoustic background represented by the existing traffic system or changing noise of the sources represented by noise generating units.