Indoor infrasound and low-frequency noise monitoring in a rural environment

Abstract

This paper presents the results of recent indoor noise monitoring test that was conducted in a room of a home near a wind farm whose resident claims to be annoyed by wind farm noise. The testing uses low-frequency microphones that can resolve noise below 0.5 Hz. The aim of the study is to examine the relationship(s) between the sound pressure level, weather conditions, resident rated annoyance to sound and wind farm output power data. The study concentrates on sound in the low and infrasonic frequency ranges. Additionally, the methodology records two-minutes of audio data at the same time a resident claim to be annoyed by noise from wind turbines. Annoyance was found to have some correlation with the overall noise level; however, noise levels are also correlated with local wind speed.