In Slovenia, we do not have specific legislation related to the noise level of external heat pump units. To limit the noise level, I used the German Technical Guide for Noise Protection (TA Lärm), which sets out the limit values and provides options for calculating the noise levels of heat pumps for a particular environment. The Bundesverband Wärmepumpe website calculates the expected noise level using type of brand and type of heat pump, at the entered distance between the heat pump and the measuring point using the TA Lärm equations. The noise level calculator can be used to determine whether heat pumps exceed the limit values set by TA Lärm. To ensure the suitability of the calculator for calculating noise, I measured the noise level on three different heat pumps. I performed the first measurement on a Fujitsu device, the second on a Mitsubishi Electric device, and the third measurement on a Viessmann device. TA Lärm allows a difference between the calculation and the measurements of the noise level of 3 dB(A). Only the difference between the measurements and the calculations of the noise level at the first measuring point is low enough to meet the requirements of TA Lärm. Since the difference at the second and third measurement points was higher than allowed by TA Lärm, there must have been a measurement error or the procedure for calculating the noise level was not precise enough. All three pumps at the measuring points also exceeded the noise level limit according to TA Lärm in residential areas. Exceeding the noise level limit means that residents at all measuring points are overexposed to noise.
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