You can find air vents in all kinds of properties, from large industrial facilities to office blocks and shops. They serve an important purpose to ensure spaces get the right ventilation. This is essential if there are no windows or an insufficient number of them. But, they can be noisy as sound can travel easily through the ducts. To tackle the problem, you may need to install a vent silencer.
Start by inspecting the vent
If you do have noisy vents, you should always begin by inspecting them. This could give you a much better idea of what may be causing the noise. You need to look at the shape and size of the duct, the presence of obstacles, and the materials.
Oval ducts tend to be the best option. The shape is efficient and can allow maximum airflow. It also produces less noise usually.
Interestingly, you may find more noises coming from your vent if there is a change in the shape of the duct. This sometimes occurs to help connect to outlets. Sadly, the change can cause turbulence and more noise.
Although it may be counter-intuitive, having obstacles can actually help to reduce sound in ducts. What it can do is create barriers to bounce the sound waves back the way they come. If your duct is fully open with nothing in the way, it may be the reason for the high noise.
The type of material also has a big impact on the level of noise. If the vent is just thin bare metal, there won’t be anything to absorb the sound waves. Instead they will simply reflect off and travel all the way to the vent, resulting in noise in the room.
What to do?
Naturally many people will think they should just block the vent up to stop the noise. While they can do this, it would completely stop the air flow. If you are not careful it can mean there is not sufficient ventilation in a room. The end result can be poor air quality as well as the growth of mould.
The better option is to improve the ducts. Firstly you can try installing material that will absorb sound. You can line the duct with it or use a silencer that has a core of it. This may reduce the airflow slightly, but it can eliminate a lot of noise.
Secondly, you can introduce a noise reduction maze. This means that sound will not be able to travel straight out of the vent. Instead, the maze will make it change direction, usually in a zigzag pattern. That can cause the sound waves to lose momentum and send more of them back the way they came. As a result, it can provide silencing while allowing air to continue to flow.
Speak to us to design a vent silencer
If you want the most reliable way to tackle vent noise without blocking air flows, we can help. Ventx is one of the top specialists in the UK at the design and installation of silencers. We understand how acoustics work, ensuring we can provide the best services. More importantly, we create each product to offer long lasting results.
So, if you want to look at the options for a vent silencer, speak to us. We are confident we can deliver the sound reduction you want while also allowing air flows to continue.
