Spring Hill, TN Noise from Specific Sources: HVAC & Mechanical Noise (2026)

Spring Hill's Unnecessary Noise Standard in § 11-402 never uses the words air conditioner, condenser or heat pump. Two provisions reach HVAC in different ways, and they should not be blended.

The equipment rule is item (16), headed Blowers. It prohibits the operation of any noise-creating blower or power fan, or any internal combustion engine whose operation causes noise due to the explosion of operating gases or fluids, unless the noise from the blower or fan is muffled and the engine is equipped with a muffler device sufficient to deaden the noise. The operative test is whether the blower or fan creates noise and whether it is muffled.

The work rule is in the definition of construction activity. The presence of workers doing indoor or outdoor construction, site preparation and landscaping, including demolition, alteration or repair of any building, expressly includes electrical, building, plumbing, HVAC, roofing, siding, painting, trimming and landscaping work. On permit-required projects that work is allowed Monday through Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. from June 1 to August 30) and Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and not on Sundays or city holidays.

The general standard also applies to any equipment: noise that annoys, disturbs, injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health, peace or safety of others is prohibited. Sound projected from one property into another is tested under the octave-band table in subsection (C)(2), measured at the property line five feet above ground, and the limits drop at night by an amount the code states in subsection (C)(2)(e). Subsection (B) tells officers to weigh proximity to residential sleeping facilities and the time of day or night.