System Design Guidelines

Rules of Thumb (cont.)

Difference between dB to add to highest
sound pressure levels sound pressure level
0 3.0
1 2.5
2 2.1
3 1.8
4 1.5
5 1.2
6 1.0
7 0.8
8 0.6
9 0.5
10+ 0
Noise Criteria
Graph sound pressure level for each octave band on NC curve.
Highest curve intercepted is NC level of sound source. See
Noise Criteria Curves., page 34.

Sound Power and Sound Power Level

Sound
Sound Power (Watts) Power Source
Level dB
25 to 40,000,000 195 Shuttle Booster rocket
100,000 170 Jet engine with afterburner
10,000 160 Jet aircraft at takeoff
1,000 150 Turboprop at takeoff
100 140 Prop aircraft at takeoff
10 130 Loud rock band
1 120 Small aircraft engine
0.1 110 Blaring radio
0.01 100 Car at highway speed
Axial ventilating fan (2500
0.001 90
m3h) Voice shouting
0.0001 80 Garbage disposal unit
0.00001 70 Voice—conversational level
Electronic equipment cooling
0.000001 60
fan
0.0000001 50 Office air diffuser
0.00000001 40 Small electric clock
0.000000001 30 Voice - very soft whisper
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System Design Guidelines
Sound Pressure and Sound Pressure Level
Sound
Sound Pressure
Pressure Typical Environment
(Pascals)
Level dB
200.0 140 30m from military aircraft at take-off
Pneumatic chipping and riveting
63.0 130
(operator’s position)
20.0 120 Passenger Jet takeoff at 100 ft.
Automatic punch press
6.3 110
(operator’s position)
2.0 100 Automatic lathe shop
0.63 90 Construction site—pneumatic drilling
0.2 80 Computer printout room
0.063 70 Loud radio (in average domestic room)
0.02 60 Restaurant
0.0063 50 Conversational speech at 1m
0.002 40 Whispered conversation at 2m
0.00063 30
0.0002 20 Background in TV recording studios
0.00002 0 Normal threshold of hearing

Room Sones —dBA Correlation†

150
dBA = 33.2 Log10 (sones) + 28, Accuracy ± 2dBA
100
90
Loudness, Sones

80
70
60
50
40
30

20

10
9
50 60 70 80 90 100
Sound Level dBA
† From ASHRAE 1972 Handbook of Fundamentals

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