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Noise limits for air conditioners, pumps and heat pumpsA guide by Dotto

Channel 3 of 4

ACT noise zones and the decibel limit for a home

Access Canberra’s noise standards page sets no hours for air conditioners or pumps. Instead the territory is divided into noise zones, each given a standard in decibels for the day and another for the night.

  1. VICHours
  2. NSWHours
  3. TASHours and limits
  4. ACTDecibels
  5. SANuisance test
  6. WALimits
The desk, with this guide’s channels lit: ACT. A stop marks a set figure, an hour or a level; South Australia’s channel has none, because its test is whether the noise is a nuisance.

In a residential area of the ACT, the noise standard from Monday to Saturday is 45 dB(A) from 7 am to 10 pm and 35 dB(A) from 10 pm to 7 am; on Sundays and public holidays it is 45 dB(A) from 8 am to 10 pm and 35 dB(A) at all other hours. Noise from a home in a unit, townhouse or other multi-unit development must be 5 dB(A) quieter than the limit for its zone.

General informationDotto is not an acoustic consultant, an engineer or a noise regulator. Dotto holds no engineering registration. It does not measure, assess, test or reduce noise, and does not offer or arrange that work. This is general information, not advice. The figures below are as Access Canberra’s noise standards page stood when read on 9 October 2026; that page, linked at the foot of this one, is the place to check them.

How the zones work

The zones follow the zoning in the Territory Plan, and every zone carries two standards, one for daytime and one for night. The standards are in dB(A): decibels, weighted to match how the human ear perceives sound.

Access Canberra’s page names no machine in these standards. An air conditioner, a pool pump and a heat pump water heater have no figure of their own; the standard belongs to the zone and the time of day.

  1. ACT Monday to Saturday, 7 am to 10 pm 45 dB(A)
  2. ACT Monday to Saturday, 10 pm to 7 am 35 dB(A)
  3. ACT Sundays and public holidays, 8 am to 10 pm 45 dB(A)
  4. ACT Sundays and public holidays, all other hours 35 dB(A)
  5. Example A unit, Monday to Saturday by day 45 less 5: 40 dB(A)
The residential zone’s standards, as Access Canberra’s page stood when read on 9 October 2026. The dashed strip is a worked example, not a figure the page prints.

Units, townhouses and other multi-unit homes

A home in a multi-unit development has a lower limit than a house in the same zone. Access Canberra gives the reason: such homes stand closer together, and they often share walls, floors or ceilings. The difference is fixed at 5 dB(A) below the limit for the zone.

A worked example, from the page’s two figuresFor a unit in a residential area, 5 dB(A) below the zone’s standard comes to 40 dB(A) between 7 am and 10 pm from Monday to Saturday, and 30 dB(A) between 10 pm and 7 am. The page itself prints only the zone’s figures and the 5 dB(A) rule; the subtraction is this guide’s.

A level, not a timetable

In Victoria and New South Wales the question for an air conditioner or a pump is whether it can be heard in the home next door during set times. In the ACT the question is a level, read in dB(A), set against the zone’s standard for that time of day. The two are not interchangeable, and a figure from one place says nothing about another.

Noise the page accepts above the standard

Access Canberra treats some noise above the standards as a normal part of life, and lets those activities go ahead in residential areas on conditions. One of them is maintenance or repair work, including work with power tools: within the hours the page sets for it, noise above the standard from that work is limited to 40 hours in any eight-week period, and the equipment has to be kept to its maker’s specifications.

None of the activities on that list is an air conditioner, a pump or a water heater.

Who administers it

Access Canberra’s page names the Environment Protection Authority as the body that administers the territory’s noise Act and Regulation.