Rochester, NY Noise from Specific Sources: HVAC & Mechanical Noise (2026)

Section 75-4A sets Rochester's general excessive-noise standard: sound audible beyond a property line between 10:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m., or 50 feet beyond the line between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m., is prima facie a violation. Subsection B lists categories the ordinance does not reach at all, and item (6) is a single, unqualified line: 'Air conditioners.' Unlike the lawn-equipment exemption in § 75-4B(5), which only runs from 8:00 a.m. to sunset, the air-conditioner exemption in § 75-4B(6) carries no time-of-day limit and no decibel cap of its own, so a window unit, a through-wall system or a rooftop condenser running at 2:00 a.m. is not, by itself, a basis for an excessive-noise citation under § 75-4.

That does not make HVAC equipment untouchable everywhere in the code: § 75-11 separately bars noise, from any source, that unreasonably interferes with a school, church, court, hospital, nursing home or home for the aged while in use, and a nuisance claim under other chapters of the Municipal Code could still reach an AC unit that is genuinely disruptive. But as a stand-alone noise-curfew matter, the same statute that sets Rochester's 10:00 p.m.-to-8:00-a.m. threshold specifically carves air conditioners out of it, which distinguishes HVAC noise from most other mechanical sources regulated elsewhere in Chapter 75, such as construction equipment under § 75-10 and sound reproduction devices under § 75-12.