Thursday, June 21, 2012

Lake Anne Elementary A/C Noise


If you've been hearing a new whirring noise coming through the woods from the direction of Lake Anne Elementary School, Raymond Merrill in Block III has identified it.  He's even captured a recording of it!

Thank you to Raymond!
I've been hearing odd construction noise at night off and on and when it's on the sound is in flux.  Sounds a bit like a saw or grinding equipment of some sort…even thought it was a welder at first.  Just couldn't put my finger on it, but seemed to be coming from the school.  I didn't give it much thought because I assumed they might be working round the clock to wrap up before the end of summer.  Then today as I walked past the building taking Adrian to school I heard it from the black-top: it's the new A/C unit on the roof at the school.

I've been in touch with Dr. Menuey the principle and he's having the contractors look into it, but preliminarily at least they seem to be dismissive and at least wanting to verify with other neighbors.  So I thought I'd send you this to post on the blog spot in case anyone else is hearing this now or has been wondering what on earth it was! -Raymond Merrill, Block III
 

Raymond's AC Sound Clip

6 comments:

  1. There was an article in the Post today about a two year struggle about AC noise from an FBI building in Vienna VA. I dont know if there are any lessons for us from that ongoing neighborhood issue, but it is worth reading.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/war-on-terror-creates-buzz/2012/06/21/gJQAF409sV_story.html

    Greg

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  2. Raymond,
    I live on Maple Ridge near North Shore and hear the ac/heating units from the high rise behind us, the office buildings across the street, and lots of times hear RELAC noise.
    Guess we have gotten used to it and turn on a fan in the room at night to blank it out. It is not overwhelming, but is there. Not complaining, just an observation. Hope you can get your sitution resolved.
    --jim livingood, Block 1

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  3. Hi,
    Haven't been sleeping with the windows open lately since we didn't lose power but I suspect they either fixed the unit or aren't running it at night these days. Any brand new commercial unit the size of this one, that has one fan making this much noise is bound to be faulty - it vacillates too much to be operating normally. In any I felt the responsible thing to do was report it to the school while they still have contractors on site to deal with it. I sent the note to Sarah to post in case others were suddenly bothered by it and didn't know where it came from. One of the wonderful things about Reston and one of the only reasons I'm still a supporter of RELAC is because of the quiet the system affords us. If that's thrown away by loud units from the school or elsewhere, then I'm not going to be very happy paying the premiums we do for sub-par A/C.

    Cheers!
    Raymond

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  4. Early this am was walking around back of Block 2 and noticed that some enterprising soul had a generator in the back yard. Nice idea, but WOW as that thing putting out some noise. When I heard it earlier at home on Block 1 thought RELAC was blowing up. Am sure the neighbors with all their open windows loved that. jim livingood Block 1

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  5. At this point I am surprised there is only one generator! I guess the cost is a disincentive, esp. if it is only likely to be used once. I saw the units at Home Depot cost $800.

    Fred

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  6. Maybe there are quieter ones on the market. Hard to envision a lot of them buzzing away with all windows open. Heat is your friend. Heat is your friend. Heat is your friend. LOL

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