We have encountered all forms of mechanical services plant, including air handling units, supply and extract fans, boilers, pumps, chillers, condensers, air source heat pumps, compressors, cooling towers, lifts, auxiliary power generators and uninterruptible power supplies. We can calculate and control duct-borne fan, re-generated noise and cross-talk, together with noise emission from factories and night-clubs through the ventilation system. We are also able to specify anti-vibration mounts for mechanical services plant and measure the vibration of existing items to determine how to reduce it. Whilst not exactly mechanical, sub-station noise comes under the broad remit of M&E, and we have a great deal of experience of its control.
Charlie Fleming has worked on dozens of small developments and ongoing noise problems, such that there are too many to list. Most are carried out in Edinburgh, Glasgow, the central belt, Aberdeen and Dundee, but we have been as far afield as Scalloway on Mainland Shetland in the north, Kelso in the south, Rothesay on the Isle of Bute in the west, Wick in the north-east and Fraserburgh in the east, indeed we will be delighted to quote for jobs anywhere in the UK and Ireland.
Charlie Fleming has had full responsibility for the noise control of the mechanical services systems on the following large buildings:
-South Ayrshire General Hospital, Ayr
-National Library of Scotland Annex Phase 2, Edinburgh
-Mechanised Letter Sorting Office, Edinburgh
-Hugh Nisbet Building Extension, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
-The Edinburgh Conference Centre, Edinburgh
-Electrical & Electronic Engineering & Computer Science, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
-Petroleum Science and Technology Institute, Edinburgh
-Astra Clinical Research, Office Building, Beaverbank Business Park, Edinburgh
-Royal Bank of Scotland (Lord Younger House), Edinburgh
-Discovery Exhibition Centre, Dundee
-Scottish Police College, Tulliallan, Fife
-Clydesdale Bank Plaza, Edinburgh
-Business School, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
-Scottish Distiller’s Research Centre, Edinburgh
-School of Languages, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
Charlie Fleming Associates has worked on the design of the mechanical services systems on the following large buildings:
-Institute of Mathematical Science, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
-Faculty of Nursing, Bell College, Hamilton, North Lanarkshire
-Milton Hotel, Washington Street, Glasgow
-Brain Behaviour & Health Research Facility, University of St Andrews, St Andrews
-Myhotel, Renfield Street/West Regent Street, Glasgow
-80 George Street, Edinburgh
-Waverley Gate, 2-4 Waterloo Place, Edinburgh
-Renaissance House, Lauriston Street, Edinburgh
-Football Academy, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
-AWG Residential, Ocean Point One, Granton, Edinburgh
-New Production Facility, OKI, Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire
-Scottish Water, The Pyramids, Easter Inch, Bathgate, West Lothian
-Macdonald Hotels, Marine Hotel, North Berwick, East Lothian
-Defence Estates, Winterbourne Gunner Mess, Winterbourne Gunner, Somerset
-Postgraduate Centre, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
-Hugh Nisbet Building, Heriot-Watt University
-East Neighbourhood Centre, Niddrie Mains Road, Craigmillar, Edinburgh
-Strathclyde Business School, Cathedral Street, University of Strathclyde
-Stenhouse Building, Cathedral Street, University of Strathclyde
Appointments to deal with mechanical services plant noise affecting planning applications usually come from the architect or the owner of the business. Appointments to deal with existing mechanical services plant noise problems usually come from the company which
owns the offending item, and so is often the restaurateur, publican, night-club owner, butcher, shop or factory owner.
Most appointments to work on the noise control of the mechanical services systems in large buildings come from the client directly. This can be the end user or commercial property developer. We are also often appointed by the architect, project manager, or building services engineer working on the job.
We are delighted to have been engaged regularly by many local authorities, universities and:
Over the years Charlie Fleming has regularly advised Heriot-Watt University on the noise control of the mechanical services going into virtually all of its new buildings. That institution obviously places great store in the advice provided by Charlie Fleming, because it simply never constructs a new educational building without consulting him on the design.
Other well known institutions with which Charlie has worked on the design of mechanical services systems on large new buildings are:
Design work can be carried out by Charlie and his colleagues, Peter Dunlop and Sandy Lamb. They do this based on a mixture of over 50 year’s combined experience, and knowledge of what will work, together with calculations using standard acoustical equations. These equations have been incorporated into spreadsheets for calculating ductborne fan and regenerated noise, plantroom breakout, propagation of external plant noise and crosstalk in ductwork systems.
Mechanical services plant noise measurements are made by Peter Dunlop or Sandy Lamb. Other companies may leave their instruments supervised by a technician or person with no knowledge of acoustics. (Both Peter and Sandy have honours degrees in music technology, many years’ experience in environmental noise, and are members of the Institute of Acoustics). The risk in this approach is that the person may not notice if the measurements are corrupted by extraneous noise, such as that from traffic. What, on the face of it, are slight differences in the intervening ground between the plant and the measurement position, can also significantly affect the measured sound levels. Only the experienced acoustician can assess these in-situ and ensure that the measurement position will not prejudice results. Both these factors, of extraneous noise and reflections, would lead to artificially high levels being reported. In turn, this might mean that you have to incorporate expensive noise control measures which are not in fact necessary.
Analysis of the results, calculations and preparation of the report are carried out by Peter, and checked by Sandy, or vice-versa. Sometimes they will ask Charlie to check calculations and reports.
We know, from what we have seen and heard, that our service is better than that offered by many of our competitors. The many reasons for this follow.
We can normally carry out mechanical services plant noise surveys or calculations within two or three day’s notice, to fit in with the timing of your planning application. (We fully appreciate the pressure you are under to get information to planning officers by a certain date and the cost implications if you miss it). If we say we will get the information to you by a certain date, we will.
If you are allegedly causing a nuisance, you could end up in court if you do not reduce the noise within the timescale set down by the local authority officers. We act immediately by contacting the enforcing authority to let it know we have been appointed, which buys some time. Then we can normally carry out the plant noise survey and prepare the report within a couple of weeks to stop you getting into more trouble.
If a consultant does not get the design information to you on time, it can have cost implications as a result of design and/or construction changes later in the programme.
Our fees are competitive and we offer discounts for work on long term projects or retained commissions.
When we provide a quotation we stick to it. That is what you pay, regardless of how long it actually takes us to carry out the work.
We use only Brüel & Kjær instruments. These are the “Rolls Royce” of acoustical instrumentation and give more accurate results than some of the meters used by our competitors. This is important as inaccurate readings can lead to you having to incorporate expensive noise control measures which may not, in fact, be necessary.
Calculations performed by some other consultants, whose work we have seen, use quick and relatively simple equations, or “rules of thumb”, which err on the side of caution. In this, they tend to over-estimate the noise control measures required. Charlie Fleming Associates uses complex equations which work out noise levels very accurately, and hence any control measures are more precisely specified and cheaper than they would perhaps be by some other consultants.
In one year alone, we were commissioned 6 times to carry out work which had been done badly by other “acousticians”. In these cases the first fee, paid to the other firm, was a waste of money and accepting the cheaper quotation proved to be a false economy. More importantly, in one case, had the noise control measures suggested by another firm been implemented, over £200,000 would have been spent. Our more detailed measurements showed that the control measures were not necessary. In another, the glazing specification, prepared by the other consultant for a large housing development in Aberdeen, was reduced once we had measured the noise and calculated the internal levels more carefully. This saved the client hundreds of thousands of pounds. In another case, our more precise calculations meant that the developer was able to double the number of houses he could construct on the land. In the remaining cases, the reports by the other firms were rejected by the planning officers, and the developments did not proceed until we had dealt with them.
This continues, every year with around three or four jobs coming to us because other “acousticians” have not managed to carry out the work satisfactorily.
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