Air conditioning is noisy. Some find this noise annoying. For others, it is nothing compared to the comfort of the refreshment of the ambient air that the air conditioning. But what causes this noise of air conditioning, exactly?
This week of August 11, 2025, the heat wave returns to France. By this overwhelming heat, which should increase in the coming days, those who have an air conditioner probably do not hesitate to make it work. However, air conditioning is far from silent. Systematically, it produces background noise, more or less strong depending on your equipment. What is this noise exactly caused?
How does an air conditioner work?
The air conditioning works according to a principle: that of retaining the ambient warm air, to cool it in contact with a refrigerant.
Sites like that of Engie for example, explain that, in an air conditioner:
- The hot air is first sucked in a evaporator,
- in a exchanger, The air comes into contact with a refrigerant which will gradually change in gas,
- This fluid, transformed into steam, increases with pressure and temperature in a compressor,
- Then passing through condenserthe heat is evacuated to the outside and the gas returns to the liquid state,
- The new fluid then arrives in a holderwhere the pressure still drops from a notch, he returns to the gas state again which still makes him lower temperature,
- The fresh air is thus released and pushed into the room by a fan to refresh it.
The normal air conditioning noises: Where do they come from?
The air conditioning noises, assimilated to a slight purring and a small continuous air current, are caused by 2 elements of the machine: the compressor and the fan. The compressor and, more broadly, the engine operating the machine, are responsible for the perceived buzz.
The breath of the fan, perceived as the noise of an air current, can be more or less strong depending on the work regime of the fan and the temperature that you try to reach with your air conditioner.
Apart from these noises, if you hear large noises of squeaks, crackles, whistles, be careful, maybe your device is defective.
Concretely, how much is the noise of normal air conditioning?
It depends on the type of air conditioning that you have. The various works or ventilation websites, such as that of the La Maison Saint-Gobin store, Engie and many others, do not all agree with each other. Overall, you can count between a little more than twenty decibels for the least noisy air conditioning, and up to 50 or 60 decibels for those most sound.
According to the information guide of the National Hearing Day, around twenty decibels can compare themselves to fallings in a low voice, or the noise perceived in the country without wind in the trees. About sixty decibels will be equivalent, on the other hand, to the noise of a normal conversation or that from a window which overlooks the street.
Mitigate the noise of an air conditioner
If some do not hear it, others will not be able to bear the noise of the air conditioning apparatus. How to do, in this case?
There are small tips to reduce the noise of your device. Starting to have a good location, that is to say remotely from you in the room where you sit or sleep. Also remember to clean the filters of your device! Maintaining it regularly will avoid vibrations, and therefore noise pollution. Finally, various devices exist to reduce the noise pollution caused by air conditioning.
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