The efficacy of façade insulation in providing an improved indoor noise environment and in reducing indoor noise annoyance was examined in a socio-acoustic before-and-after study with a control group. An average equivalent noise reduction inside the dwellings of 7 dB was obtained from the façade insulation. Whereas 42% of the respondents were highly annoyed in the before-situation, this dropped to 16% in the after study. The conclusion is therefore that the façade insulation provided a substantial improvement in the indoor noise environment. The advantage with respect to indoor noise annoyance, of having the bedroom facing the least noise-exposed side of the dwelling corresponded to a 6 dB noise reduction. The changes in annoyance from noise reduction due to the façade insulation were in accordance with what would be expected from the exposure-response curves obtained in the before-situation. A total of 637 respondents participated in the before-study. Of these, 415 also participated in the after study. Indoor and outdoor noise exposure calculations for each of the dwellings were undertaken before and after the façade insulation was implemented.
REFERENCES
1.
Aasvang
, G. M.
, Moum
, T.
, and Engdahl
, B.
(2008
). “Self-reported sleep disturbances due to railway noise: Exposure-response relationships for nighttime equivalent and maximum noise level
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
124
(1
), 257
–268
. 2.
Babisch
, W.
, Beule
, B.
, Schust
, M.
, Kersten
, N.
, and Ising
, H.
(2005
). “Traffic noise and risk of myocardial infarction
,” Epidemiology
16
(1
), 33
–40
. 3.
Berglund
, B.
, Lindvall
, T.
, and Schwela
, D. H.
(2000
). Guidelines for Community Noise
(World Health Organization
, Geneva
), pp. 21
–36
. 4.
Bluhm
, G. L.
, Berglind
, N.
, Nordling
, E.
, and Rosenlund
, M.
(2007
). “Road traffic noise and hypertension
,” Occup. Environ. Med.
64
, 2
, 122
–126
. 5.
Brown
, A. L.
(1988
). “Over-reaction to changes in noise exposure: The possible effect of attitude
,” J. Sound Vib.
126
, 553
–554
. 8.
Brown
, A. L.
, and van Kemp
, I.
(2009
). “Response to a change in transport noise exposure: Competing explanations of change effects
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
125
(2
), 905
–914
. 9.
Brunvoll
, F.
, Engelien
, E.
, Hoem
, B.
, Holmengen
, N.
, Kalrsen
, H.
, Monsrud
, J.
, Steinnes
, M.
, Sønsteb
ø, A.
, and Wethal
, A.
(2009
). Samferdsel og miljø 2009. Utvalgte indikatorer for samferdselssektoren” (“Transport and environment”)
, Report No. 2009/27 (Statistisk Sentralbyrå, Oslo/Kongsvinger), p. 85
. 10.
European Environmental Agency (EEA) (
2000
). Are we moving in the right direction? Indicators on transport and environmental integration in the EU: TERM 2000
, Environmental issue Report No. 12 (European Environmental Agency
, Copenhagen), p. 32
. 11.
Fidell
, S.
, and Silvati
, L.
(1991
). “An assessment of the effect of residential acoustic insulation on prevalence of annoyance in an airport community
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
89
(1
), 244
–247
. 12.
Fidell
, S.
, Silvati
, L.
, and Haboly
, E.
(2002
). “Social survey of community response to a step change in aircraft noise exposure
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
111
(1
), 200
–209
. 13.
Fields
, J. M.
, De Jong
, R. G.
, Gjestland
, T.
, Flindell
, I. H.
, Job
, R. F. S.
, and Kurra
, S.
(2001
). “Standardized general-purpose noise reaction questions for community noise surveys: Research and a recommendation
,” J. Sound Vib.
242
, 641
–679
. 14.
Griefahn
, B.
, Schuemer-Kohrs
, A.
, Schuemer
, R.
, Moehler
, U.
, and Mehnert
, P.
(2000
). “Physiological, subjective, and behavioural responses during sleep to noise from rail and road traffic
,” Noise Health
3
, 59
–71
. 15.
Griffiths
, I. D.
, and Raw
, G. J.
(1986
). “Community and individual response to changes in traffic noise exposure
,” J. Sound Vib.
111
, 209
–217
. 16.
Griffiths
, I. D.
, and Raw
, G. J.
(1989
). “Adaptation to changes in traffic noise exposure
,” J. Sound Vib.
132
, 331
–336
. 29.
Homb
, A.
, and Hveem
, S.
(1999
). Insulation Against External Noise
(Handbook 47, Norwegian Building Institute
, Oslo
), pp. 1
–83
. 19.
Kastka
, J.
, Buchta
, E.
, Ritterstaedt
, R.
, Paulsen
, R.
, and Mau
, U.
(1995
). “The long term effect of noise protection barriers on annoyance response of residents
,” J. Sound Vib.
184
(5
), 823
–852
. 20.
Klæboe
, R.
, Amundsen
, A. H.
, Fyhri
, A.
, and Solberg
, S.
(2004
). “Road traffic noise- the relationship between noise exposure and noise annoyance in Norway
,” Appl. Acoust.
65
, 893
–912
. 21.
Langdon
, F. J.
, and Griffiths
, I. D.
(1982
). “Subjective effects of traffic noise exposure, II: Comparison of noise indices, response scales, and the effects of changes in noise levels
,” J. Sound Vib.
83
(2
), 171
–180
. 22.
Miedema
, H.
(2002
). Position Paper on Dose Response Relationship between Transportation noise Annoyance
(European Commission
, Luxembourg
), pp 1
–24
. 23.
Miedema
, H.
, and Oudshoorn
, C.
(2001
). “Annoyance from transportation noise: Relationships with exposure metrics DNl and DENL and their confidence intervals
,” Environ. Health Perspect
. 109
(4
), 409
–416
. 24.
Miedema
, H.M.
, and Vos
, H.
(1998
). “Exposure-response relationships for transportation noise
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
104
, 3432
–3445
. 25.
Miedema
, H.M.
, and Vos
, H.
(2007
). “Associations between self-reported sleep disturbance and environmental noise based on reanalyses of pooled data from 24 studies
,” Behav. Sleep Med.
5
, 1
–20
. 26.
Muzet
, A.
(2007
). “Environmental noise, sleep and health
,” Sleep Med. Rev.
11
, 135
–142
. 27.
Nilsson
, M. E.
, and Berglund
, B
. (2006
). “Noise annoyance and activity disturbance before and after the erection of a roadside noise barrier
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
119
, 4
, 2178
–2188
. 28.
Nordic Council of Ministers (
1996
). Road traffic noise - The Nordic Prediction Method
, Report No. TemaNord 1996:525 (Nordic Council of Ministers
, Copenhagen). 30.
Schultz
, T. J.
(1978
). “Synthesis of social surveys on noise annoyance
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
64
(2
), 377
–405
. 31.
Solberg
, S.
, Hagen
, R.
, and Ommundsen
, R.
(1983
). “Perceived noise reduction and secondary effects from the use of building insulation and barriers
,” in Proceedings of Internoise 1983
, Edinburgh
, Scotland
, pp. 667
–670
. 32.
Standards Norway
(1997
). Acoustics. Rating of sound insulation in buildings and building elements. Part 1: Airborne sound insulation. NS-EN ISO 717–1:1996
(Standard Norge
, Oslo
). 33.
Stansfeld
, S. A.
, Berglund
, B.
, Clark
, C.
, Lopez-Barrio
, I.
, Fischer
, P.
, and Öhrström
, E.
(2005
). “Aircraft and road traffic noise and children’s cognition and health: A cross-national study
,” Lancet
365
(9475
), 1942
–1949
. 34.
Utley
, W. A.
, Buller
, I. B.
, Keighley
, E. C.
, and Sargent
, J. W.
(1985
). “The effectiveness and acceptability of measures for insulating dwellings against traffic noise
,” J. Sound Vib.
109
, 1
–18
. 35.
Öhrström
, E.
(2004
). “Longitudal surveys on effects of changes in road traffic noise-annoyance, activity disturbances and psycho-social well-being
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
115
(2
), 719
–729
. 36.
Öhrström
, E.
, and Björkman
, M.
(1983
). “Sleep disturbance before and after traffic noise attenuation in an apartment building
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
73
(3
), 877
–879
. 37.
Öhrström
, E.
, Skånberg
, A.
, Svensson
, H.
, and Gidlöf-Gunnarson
, A.
(2006
). “Effects of road traffic noise and the benefit of access to quietness
,” J. Sound Vib.
295
, 40
–59
. © 2011 Acoustical Society of America.
2011
Acoustical Society of America
You do not currently have access to this content.