Classes of acoustical comfort in housing: Improved information about noise control in buildings

Acoustic experts so far seem to be unable to give information on differences in acoustic quality between houses in a simple manner, A way had to be found to transfer this information without forcing people to understand the nature of decibels or the meaning of noise insulation indices. As a solution, 'Classes of Acoustical Comfort in Housing' have been proposed in a report of the European Commission (D. E. Commins et al., Report No. 7r, EEC Commission, Brussels, 1976). Three Classes of Acoustical Comfort (CAC) have now been defined in a guideline of the German Engineering Society (VDI 4100): (a) by describing certain subjective impressions of noise protection in the different CACs and (b) by quantifying appropriate values in well known acoustic indices. Noise control in the various subsectors of noise insulation in buildings has to be viewed together. Thus each CAC definition comprises a set of requirements for the different subsectors. The difference in building costs between the lowest and the highest CAC was found to be less than 2% of the building costs. Statistics are also given on acoustic building practices in Germany. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.