A comparison of background noise levels and reverberation times measured in unoccupied elementary classrooms

Abstract

The key performance criteria listed in ANSI S12.60-2002, Acoustical Performance Criteria, Design Requirements and Guidelines for Schools, are that the maximum background noise is limited 35 dBA, and that the maximum reverberation time is limited to 0.6 seconds in the most common classroom size. Limits on sound transmission properties of the room envelope are also made. If these performance criteria are met, each student, no matter where he or she sits in the classroom, will be in an environment that affords adequate speech intelligibility, i.e., an adequate opportunity to understand the teacher’s words correctly. During the standard development process, the author had the opportunity to work with his colleges at The Ohio State University. The OSU group made measures in 34 classrooms in the Columbus area (inter-city, suburbs, and rural; public and private). The author analyzed these data, and compared the results with ANSI S12.60-2002 performance criteria. It was found that the background noise levels were around 50 dBA. This is 15 dBA above the standard requirement. A majority of the reverberation times were in line with the 0.6-second criteria, but a significant number had reverberation times around 1 second.