what's your thoughts on mobile phone noise reading apps?
We don't have an actual noise meter, they wont pay for an assessment (reason - its already mandatory hearing protection areas), last assessment was 2015, so my next thought is an app on a mobile phone......not the best solution I know and yep I think I need to move on from here.
The light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off due to budget cuts..............
I only use it as an indication as it's not calibrated equipment.
If it's already mandatory and the app is indicating over 85dBA you could assume it still needs to be mandatory. But if app indicates 80-85dBA or lower??
If the comes out close to the action values i'll do a proper assessment with calibrated equipment.
Surely something will have changed in the last 6 years?
Not great that they wont pay for an assessment. You can hire dosimeters or a meter for as low as £300 for a week!
'Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough that they don't want to!' - Richard Branson
I use an app to give me a baseline to consider if additional testing is required but after using a calibrated noise meter I've found that these apps can vary by + or - 10dbA so could make a big difference in an area that's borderline noise control area.
Use it to give you an estimate but don't plan your controls around it
Hope this helps?
Penfold
"If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten."
Apps for measuring sound are appsolutely useless!
For many reasons.
Mobile phones are designed to transmit speech signals, not all frequencies are required to transmit a clear legible conversation, so many frequencies are left out to reduce bandwidth, therefore mobile phone microphones have a poor frequency response (May have improved considerably since I studied electronics at college, but when there is no need for expensive near linear components why use them?).
So you have a poor frequency response microphone, you won't need a fast acting transistor to amplify it.
You have poor frequency response microphone, poor amplification where level is not so important, an app that is not designed specifically for the microphone or amplifier being used to compensate for frequency deviations of the hardware.
Couple that with the fact that sound is a logarithmic measurement 3dB is a massive variation.
I would say about as reliable as wetting your finger and holding it in the air as a windspeed measurement.
