🏗️ Permissible A-weighted sound level in rooms — PN-B-02151-2

Construction PN-B-02151-2

Overview

THE SCOPE FROM THE PKN CATALOGUE CARD, QUOTED VERBATIM: "This standard specifies the highest permissible A-weighted sound levels of noise in rooms intended for human occupancy — in residential buildings, collective residence buildings and public buildings, generated by the building services equipment of buildings, dwellings and service rooms, and caused by the activity of service premises. The standard concerns the assessment of noise in a building originating from sources located in the same building or in its immediate vicinity. The extent of protection against noise under this standard covers the following main groups of noise: I. Noise originating from equipment constituting the building services equipment of buildings II. Noise caused by activity and operation III. Noise originating from new equipment that was not taken into account in the building design. This standard applies to the design, erection, reconstruction and operation of multi-family and single-family residential buildings, collective residence buildings and public buildings. The standard does not take into account rooms for which the requirements for protection against noise are dictated by special functional considerations, e.g.: radio and television broadcasting stations, laboratories for acoustic testing."

AN EXCLUSION THAT CONCERNS LABORATORIES DIRECTLY. The last sentence of the scope excludes rooms whose requirements are dictated by "special functional considerations" and names two examples: radio and television broadcasting stations, and LABORATORIES FOR ACOUSTIC TESTING. For the reader of this portal this is the most important exclusion: an anechoic chamber, a measurement booth or a room for acoustic testing is not subject to the requirements of this standard, because its requirements follow from its function and not from protecting the people in it against the noise of installations. The requirements for such rooms must be taken from the standards proper to the tests carried out in them.

THE BOUNDARY THAT SETTLES MOST DISPUTES: THE SOURCE IN THE SAME BUILDING. The sentence "The standard concerns the assessment of noise in a building originating from sources located in the same building or in its immediate vicinity" draws the scope more sharply than the title suggests. Road, rail and aircraft noise — coming from outside — is not the subject of this standard, even though it too is noise in a room. A resident's complaint about noise from the street is therefore not settled by this document, though it is measured in the same way. The subject is the building's installations and the activity of premises: ventilation, lifts, boiler rooms, heat pumps, pressure sets, and also service premises built into a residential building.

THREE GROUPS OF NOISE — AND THE THIRD IS THE MOST INTERESTING. The scope lists group I (services equipment), group II (activity and operation) and group III: "Noise originating from new equipment that was not taken into account in the building design". This last group covers a situation typical of older buildings: air conditioners, heat pumps and fans added years after the building was handed over. The standard covers them expressly, so the argument "that was not in the design" does not exempt anyone from the requirements.

FOUR MOMENTS OF APPLICATION. The scope names design, erection, RECONSTRUCTION and OPERATION. The standard is therefore not solely a design document — it applies also to buildings already in use, which is the basis for control measurements after complaints.

STATUS AND PREDECESSOR. The 2018 edition superseded PN-B-02151-02:1987 together with corrigendum Ap1:2015-05 — a standard thirty years old and its late corrigendum. It is worth noting the difference in the way the number is written: the old sheet had "02" with a leading zero, the new one has "2". This is the same class of distinguishing mark as PN-Z-04073-03 against PN-Z-04073-3 recorded earlier in this knowledge base: both forms are correct, only at different times, and it is the date that settles the matter.

WHAT WE DO NOT GIVE. We do not have the text of the standard — PKN supplies it for a fee (12 pages, KT 253 — the PKN technical committee for Architectural Acoustics). We therefore GIVE NO VALUE of a permissible sound level: neither for dwellings, nor for the day and night periods, nor for the individual groups of noise. Those values are the entire content of the standard.

Method principle

The assessment consists in measuring the A-weighted sound level in a room intended for human occupancy and comparing it with the permissible value proper to the kind of room and the group of noise. A condition of correctness is establishing whether the source falls within the scope of the standard: it must be in the same building or in its immediate vicinity and belong to one of the three groups named in the scope.

Applications

• Control measurements of noise from a building's installations: ventilation, lifts, boiler rooms, heat pumps, pressure sets
• Assessment of noise from service premises built into residential buildings
• Assessment of equipment added after the building was handed over — air conditioners, heat pumps (group III)
• Design and acceptance of residential, collective residence and public buildings

Key parameters

Standard

Standard number

PN-B-02151-2:2018-01 (wersja polska)

Title (PL)

Akustyka budowlana -- Ochrona przed hałasem w budynkach -- Część 2: Wymagania dotyczące dopuszczalnego poziomu dźwięku w pomieszczeniach

Title (EN)

Building acoustics — Protection against noise in buildings — Part 2: Requirements for permissible sound level in rooms

Step-by-step procedure

1. Establish whether the source falls within the scope

   The source must be in the same building or in its immediate vicinity. Traffic noise from outside is subject to other documents.

2. Assign the noise to a group

   Building services equipment, activity and operation, or equipment added after the design. The requirement depends on the group.

3. Establish the kind of room

   The requirements differ for the kinds of rooms intended for human occupancy.

4. Measure the A-weighted sound level

   With a meter meeting the requirements of the proper class, with a calibrator check before and after the series.

5. Compare with the permissible value

   WE DO NOT GIVE THE VALUES — they are in the text of the standard.

6. Record in the report

   Give the full designation of the standard with its year, the kind of room, the group of noise and the identified source.

Required equipment and apparatus

Reagents, media and consumables

Health and safety (OHS)

• Measurements in dwellings require the occupant's presence and consent — the rules of privacy protection apply
• Measurement of noise from installations is sometimes carried out in plant rooms — the safety rules proper to boiler rooms and lift machine rooms apply
• TECHNICAL NOTE: noise from the street is not the subject of this standard, although it is measured with the same instrument — citing it in a complaint about traffic noise is citing a document outside its scope
• TECHNICAL NOTE: the standard does NOT cover rooms whose requirements are dictated by special functional considerations, laboratories for acoustic testing among them

Frequently asked questions