On June 5th, the new version of "People's Republic of China (PRC) Noise Pollution Prevention Law" (hereinafter referred to as "Noise Law") was officially implemented, requiring that "the installation of elevators, pumps, transformers and other facilities and equipment in residential areas should meet the requirements of relevant standards for sound insulation design of civil buildings", and formulated clear punishment methods and scope for various noise violations, including elevator noise.
This is the first time that elevator noise is included in the control scope of the Noise Law, which requires the market supervision and management department of the people's government at or above the county level to supervise and sample the noise generated by elevators and other special equipment. This is interpreted by the industry as "elevator noise ushers in the strongest supervision".
According to the statistics of the State Administration of Market Supervision, since 2020, the number of elevators in use in China has exceeded 8 million, and the annual production and sales volume has increased by more than 6.5438+0 million. China ranks first in the world in elevator production, number of elevators in use and annual growth. This means that in the future, we should not only pay attention to the design, installation and operation of elevators, but also pay attention to whether the noise in daily operation reaches the standard, which is a huge and arduous work.
In the interview, the reporter of China Real Estate News noticed that at present, the court ruled that the elevator noise exceeded the standard, and there were cases in which developers, builders, property companies and elevator design, manufacturing and installation units were required to bear tort liability, and there were also many cases in which they "kicked the ball" with each other.
Many interviewees believe that elevators are a part of civil buildings, and the design, construction and installation of elevators should be guided by building standards. The Noise Law also clarifies that "the installed and newly installed elevators should meet the requirements of relevant standards such as the Code for Sound Insulation Design of Civil Buildings (GB50118-2010)", which also provides a legal basis for the definition of elevator noise in the future. At the same time, the noise limit required in the building code will not only be "data", but also become the basis for the new law to supervise sampling.
Residential equipment is controlled by noise law.
In recent years, there are many complaints about elevator noise disturbing people, which has attracted the attention of the industry.
The "buzz" generated by elevators, water pumps and secondary pressurized heat pumps in high-rise residential buildings claims to be low-frequency noise pollution, which seriously affects the sleep and health of residents. However, this obvious noise source in the building is not within the scope of environmental supervision.
The Ministry of Ecology and Environment previously said in reply to a message on the Chinese government website that the original Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Noise Pollution did not require ancillary equipment such as pumps and elevators in residential buildings, which was a regulatory gap. In the revised draft of noise law currently being drafted, pumps, elevators and other residential building auxiliary equipment have been included in the scope of noise law control.
On June 5, Article 68 of the Law on the Prevention and Control of Noise Pollution officially issued by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment shows that "if elevators, pumps, transformers and other facilities and equipment are installed in residential areas, the construction unit should set them up reasonably and take measures to reduce vibration and noise, which meets the requirements of relevant standards for sound insulation design of civil buildings".
The relevant person in charge of China Elevator Association told the reporter that the elevator runs 24 hours in the building, and the excessive noise is harmful to people's physical and mental health, especially at night. At present, the elevator without machine room is widely used in residential buildings, and the electromechanical equipment runs in the hoistway, and the sound generated in the process of getting up and down will penetrate into parallel rooms. However, he believes that the current elevator products can meet the requirements of building codes.
"This will have a major impact on the elevator industry." Elevator industry professionals believe that when installing elevators, it is necessary to determine whether the installation location is reasonable and whether the sound insulation measures are effective. Don't wait until the elevator is installed to complain about exceeding the standard. At that time, it will face illegal risks.
The first-line installer in the elevator industry told reporters that the elevator installation is not strictly in accordance with the sound insulation standards of civil buildings. If the elevator noise is reduced in the future, it will definitely increase the cost.
A construction engineering lawyer from An analyzed that the original noise law was called "Toothless Tiger" because there was no clear penalty, but the new noise law made clear the punishment method and scope for all kinds of noise violations, including elevator noise. Therefore, those responsible for noise prevention and control, including elevator installation enterprises, should study and abide by the new law more seriously, so as to reduce the corresponding legal risks.
Article 84 of the Noise Law also stipulates corresponding penalties for the noise generated by newly installed elevators and elevators that do not meet the requirements in use. In addition, Article 67 of the Noise Law requires the real estate developers of newly-built houses to publicize the situation that the houses may be affected by elevator noise at the sales place, and make clear the facilities and equipment used in the houses, including the location of elevators and the sound insulation of buildings, and include them in the sales contract.
Song Tingmin, a part-time lawyer and senior economist of Beijing Zhongming Law Firm, told the reporter that with the implementation of the new noise law, all provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions will formulate specific measures for the prevention and control of noise pollution in their own regions according to the actual situation, and the governance and solution of elevator noise exceeding the standard will usher in strong supervision in the future.
The "data" of residential design specification is no longer decoration.
Although elevator noise is included in the control scope of noise law, there is no applicable evaluation standard for elevator low-frequency noise in current laws and regulations, and the standard basis cited in previous court decisions is not the same.
Song Tingmin told China Real Estate News reporter that the current control standards related to elevator noise mainly include elevator product standards, building design specifications and environmental protection standards.
The quality standard of elevator itself is mainly Technical Conditions for Elevator (GB/T 10058-2009), in which there are limited requirements for elevator noise: the engine room shall not be higher than 80 dB, the car shall not be higher than 55 dB, and the door shall not be higher than 65 dB.
In terms of architectural design standards, there are mainly the Code for Sound Insulation Design of Civil Buildings and the Code for Residential Design (GB50096-20 1 1). In the two specifications, the elevator operating decibel limit requires that it should not be higher than 45 decibels during the day and 37 decibels at night.
The environmental protection standards are mainly Acoustic Environmental Quality Standard (GB3096-20 1 1) and Community Noise Emission Standard (GB22337-2008). According to the standard, the residential area belongs to "1 class acoustic environment functional area", and it cannot exceed 55 decibels during the day and 45 decibels at night.
Generally speaking, the noise limits of the above three standards are quite different. However, the new version of noise law emphasizes that "the installed and newly installed elevators should meet the requirements of relevant standards for sound insulation design of civil buildings".
That is to say, if the design, construction and installation of the elevator meet the requirements of the relevant state departments, it will be put into use after acceptance, and it will be inspected every year to meet the standards, which can only prove that the elevator can operate safely. As for the noise of residential elevators, the noise limit standard stipulated in the Code for Sound Insulation Design of Civil Buildings shall prevail.
A dean of the architectural design institute from Shanghai told the reporter that the noise building code is required, and it is an advanced and high-standard requirement, but it is not strictly observed in the normal implementation, just data.
"Everyone is very concerned about the detection of' pollution' such as formaldehyde, but the cognitive requirements for the built environment such as heat, light, sound and wind (air quality) are not high." Wang Xiushui, technical director of China Academy of Fine Arts Landscape Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd., said, for example, for the acoustic environment, the equipment of general testing units is not popular, and professional institutions should be invited to test it. "As far as I know, there is no sound environment acceptance link when the construction project is completed and accepted."
According to Wang Xiushui, at present, the architectural environment has attracted the attention of the professional field. The General Specification for Building Environment (GB550 16-202 1) recently issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development is a mandatory engineering construction specification, and all terms must be strictly implemented, and it will be formally implemented from April 1. The Code defines the mandatory indicators and requirements for design and acceptance from four dimensions: building acoustic environment, building light environment, building thermal engineering and indoor air quality.
The reporter noted that the noise level requirement of the above General Code for Building Acoustic Environment is stricter than that of "ordinary residence" in the Code for Sound Insulation Design of Civil Buildings, which is consistent with that of "high-demand residence", that is, when the use function of the room is sleep level, the noise limit should not be higher than 40 decibels during the day and 30 decibels at night.
Lv Qiu, director of the international department of the German Council for Sustainable Building (DGNB) and vice president of Wuhe International, told China Real Estate News that the Code for Sound Insulation Design of Civil Buildings was recently revised, which improved the air sound insulation standards of residential exterior walls, windows, partitions and partition floors, as well as the impact sound insulation standards of partition floors in "high-demand houses" (the impact sound insulation standards of partition floors in "ordinary houses" were not improved), and increased the requirements for elevators and elevators.
It can be seen that with the improvement of building codes and standards, the performance and technology of building materials and supporting equipment will be required.
Where is the difficulty of elevator noise reduction?
On the one hand, the requirements for sound insulation performance of buildings are improved, and on the other hand, environmental infringement disputes caused by noise generated by public facilities such as elevators, pumps and power supplies are increasing. Where is the difficulty of elevator noise reduction and how to solve it?
"In the next 10 year, not only will there be quality problems in housing construction, but also a large number of problems in residential facilities and equipment, which will increase disputes between owners, developers and properties." Wang Qinghong, chairman of DCIC China House Inspection Company, told the reporter that a residential area includes at least 40 projects, involving public facilities such as elevators, fire fighting, intelligence, underground garages, radiation protection and lightning protection.
According to Wang Qing's macro observation, at present, small business owners have higher and higher requirements for living quality, but they pay relatively low attention to public facilities and equipment. Most of them found that facilities and equipment began to expose problems one after another after staying for half a year.
"This is also a headache for developers and property companies, including many large state-owned enterprises and central enterprises." Wang Qinghong said, on the one hand, after the completion and delivery of the house, there is no department within the housing enterprise to accept and hand over the public facilities and equipment such as elevators, fire protection and intelligence; On the other hand, there are no professionals in this field, such as electromechanical engineers, high and low voltage engineers, fire engineers and so on. Developers only need to check the list and then hand it over to the property company.
In response to the elevator noise problem, Wang Xiushui said that first of all, it depends on whether there is a noise reduction and vibration reduction design for sound insulation in the architectural design drawings; In addition, after the drawing design, did the construction unit follow the requirements; Third, whether the construction unit can meet the standards after construction according to the drawings.
China's real estate development and construction has entered the era of high-quality development, and sound insulation performance is one of the most important indicators of high-quality housing. Lu Qiu believes that if the developers design and construct in strict accordance with the revised Code for Sound Insulation Design of Civil Buildings, the sound insulation performance of residential buildings will be significantly improved.
"At present, in addition to elevator noise, there are still many projects that fail to meet the standards because of the impact sound insulation of residential floors, which affects the project's participation in the evaluation of the' Guangsha Award', the highest award in the national residential construction system and the highest level of residential performance." Lu Qiu said.
Elevator industry professionals said that elevator noise control should first reduce noise from the sound source, second, control the spread of noise from the sound transmission path, and change the spread path of noise already emitted by the sound source, such as taking sound absorption, sound insulation, vibration isolation and other measures, and third, reasonable layout of elevator machine room and shaft.
The relevant person in charge of the Beijing Elevator Chamber of Commerce once analyzed that the "buzzing" sound of elevators heard by ordinary residents can be dealt with by increasing the noise reduction of sound insulation cotton. First of all, check the elevator shaft to see if there is room for improvement. Only by sticking sound insulation cotton on the inner wall of the shaft will there be noise reduction effect.
In addition, when the elevator runs seriously, it will produce a "crash" sound, so it should be checked from the traction machine to see if it is caused by equipment aging. According to experience, the noise generated by most traction machines at present is not the problem of the equipment itself, but the improper debugging.
A construction lawyer from An reminded that elevators are inevitably high-noise equipment, and operators should do a good job in maintenance and management in the later stage, pay attention to the noise index in real time, and adjust the equipment that produces noise pollution in time through professional means.