Noise Pollution - Ecovista Windows

Noise Pollution

Not much has changed in Melbourne. We still rely on our windows for our light and ventilation, and to keep out the wind, rain, cold and insects from our houses. Is that all our windows can do for us? Sometimes the longer we have lived with something and the closer we have been to it, the less we see what it is that is staring us in the face. What is staring us all in the face in Melbourne is that our use of windows has been fairly primitive.

Back in the seventies and eighties when I was building houses I had a lot of conversations with people about ‘floor to ceiling’ windows. ‘What do you reckon will look better?’ people asked. ‘Is it better to hide the open curtains behind a short piece of wall or to have them on view from outside?’ There were lots of similar questions. It was all about appearance. Hardly a soul was interested in how ‘hot’, or how ‘cold’ a window would be, or whether the need for light and ventilation had been balanced against the environmental aspect or the need to control the flow of heat through the glass. Hardly a soul knew anything about these subjects. Yet the subjects are simple to understand in the main and vitally important for anyone who actually wants their windows (and doors) to perform. Let’s look at another aspect, acoustics.

We human beings are adaptable creatures. Most of us however, given the choice, would prefer to live in peace and quiet. In Melbourne as elsewhere, noise pollution can be from airoplanes, the kid next door practicing drums, or the noisy couple two doors away, but for many people vehicle traffic tops the list. It starts around six am and seems to have no respect for you when you want to sleep in on your day off. You can climb out of bed and close the window. Doing so will help. After all, noise is carried by vibrations of the air. Putting a solid sheet of glass in the way does help. What happens is that the air hits the glass and transfers some of its energy to the glass, not all. The energy that vibrates the glass then energizes the air inside the room and you still hear that car, if less loudly. What if you are still disturbed? What if you are feeling a bit annoyed by it all? What can you do? The answer; put up another glass barrier to the noise.

Double glazing is used widely in colder and hotter climates for its dramatic properties of heat insulation. That is a subject on its own. What happens with airborne noise is that the weakened noise energy that makes it through the first sheet of glass is then forced to confront a second layer of glass. The process is the same as before; the energy of the vibrating air is absorbed by the glass, this time at a lower level. Again the glass saps the vigor from the noise energy and finally trickles a tiny proportion of that noise to the air inside you bedroom. In most situations the noise that remains is so little as to be, if not inaudible, then at least unnoticeable.

There are some other things you can do about noise. Insulation of walls and ceilings is effective. Again, you have got to stop that vibrating air from traveling freely from vehicle to sleeping ear. A lot has been said and written about the psychological effects of noise on human beings. Noise can vary and people can vary. One person can happily claim to be unaffected by noises that drives another person to distraction. What does seem to be a widely shared view is that lower noise levels are healthy and good.