A survey of complaints of low frequency noise was followed by noise measurements in complainants' homes. The survey showed that annoyance was greatest in the late evening and early morning, leading to health problems in some cases. Measurements in the home indicated that the low frequencies at about the I.S.O. threshold level were capable of causing annoyance, especially when the noise fluctuated in level. This sometimes occurred due to a beat between two nearby components. Conventional, dB(A) based, methods of assessing annoyance fail when applied to low frequency noise.
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