Fraunhofer Building Innovation AllianceGrid-Supportive Operating Strategies for Efficient Heating and Cooling of Buildings in the Trade, Commerce and Services (TCS) Sector
In urbanized environments traffic noise is an often debated topic which emerges to a serious problem. If windows are opened for ventilation, noise also automatically invades. The technical development, evaluated in this work, provides a solution: A window, which reacts to traffic noise in real -time by self-controlled opening and closing.
A listening test with test subjects was conducted to quantify the added value created by this window with respect to measures of perceived loudness and annoyance of traffic noise. Within a laboratory experiment subjects rated perceived loudness and annoyance of several traffic noises with the window opened, closed or automatically closing. The ratings of loudness and annoyance were the same for the closed and the automatically closing window. In both situations, the traffic noise was rated significantly less loud and annoying as compared to an open window.
In conclusion the automatically closing window provides a considerable additional value compared to conventional windows. After all, the noise-controlled window ventilation works well for continuous noise which is intermitted by periods of silence, but not for short noise events or permanent noise. Therefore some future work has to be done to create an optimal solution in every application context.
