Auckland ELF Hum - Source discovered!

There have been many complaints over the past few years even directly to noise control some even pointing them directly to the source but it never occurred to them that this was the source of the hum or did it?

To Cut a long story short, a member of our investigative team has tracked down the source of the hum,
a company called Enviro Clean & Restoration operating industrial vacuum cleaners .
Their name might be Enviro but it doesn't mean they are environmentally conscious!

They mainly operate at night and through the early hours of the morning. The approx 300 horsepower compressor vacuum units mounted in the rear of box top trucks which like sound shells helping to amplify the sound.
At around 1500rpm they produce low frequency vibration which carries down through the earth, echos off concrete structures as well as penetrating them, setting up a form of resonance. It also travels along water pipes which connect much of the entire Auckland area. Despite anti vibration mounts on the units, they are still extremely noisy.

The major credit for this discovery goes to our investigator Donna Bird and her extremely sophisticated scientific equipment - good ears and determination! spurred on by extreme annoyance.

What is the next move?

1. Further complaint to noise control, 2. Letters to the minister for the environment 3. Public Action

Please email us your details if you are interested in supporting us with signatures to put to letters and possible future Public action.

Listen to the hum

If media player or quicktime is not working for you, right click and save the mp3 here

us your comments

August 30 2007 updated January 28 2008 copyright, all rights reserved. if you wish to copy this information for use elsewhere please ask.