Achieving thermal and acoustic comfort at the same time is becoming challenging for developments in urban areas and noisy locations. For example, a development built next to a mainline railway or road will mean that residents cannot open their windows for natural purge ventilation, this significantly increasing the risk of overheating and making a dwelling very difficult to pass the CIBSE guidance (Guide A, TM59 and TM52) on reducing overheating.
There is currently insufficient guidance regarding indoor ambient noise levels that should be achieved in residential developments in the situation where measures are required to control overheating.
A working group has been formed by the Association of Noise Consultants (ANC) with the aim of producing a design guide that looks into ventilation and overheating and how it should be considered alongside noise for new residential developments. The design guide intends to provide:
- an explanation of current definitions of ventilation and overheating;
- an indication of potential forms of acoustic criteria that could be used for design;
- examples of design solutions and case studies.
We will be part of this working group with Elena Pana who is leading our Overheating & Optimisation services. We look forward to providing insights from our extensive experience in balancing overheating, ventilation and acoustic requirements and work alongside the ACN group to address this complex issue.