Neighbours heatpump

[user1471503652]

Had a letter through the door from planning about our adjoined neighbour (semi detached) installing a heatpump and seeking planning permission due to it being less than the 1m distance from the boundary.

He did knock and mentioned this would be coming through recently so it's not a surprise, I thought it was because it would be a few cm off the 1m from our wall.

However looking at the plans he's asking for it to be installed 35-40cm from our extension wall (we have a single rear extension and they do not)

Does anyone have any experience of heatpumps noise or vibration etc coming from a neighbours heatpump? Just trying to ascertain whether I should be concerned or not.

My DH asked me to listen to whether our heat pump was on or off the other (trying to work out some timing thing with the hot water) and I have to open the door and go out and actually look at it to work out if it's on or off. It was put in last year - I think the new ones are really very quiet.

My neighbour has a heat pump fitted about 3m from where our properties join. You would think that would be enough for us to be unaware, when inside our house. Unfortunately not the case. I'm not sure exactly when it was fitted, but last winter, I became aware that I was waking up frequently, constantly tired, and had a panicky feeling through the night. Then as I lay trying to get back to sleep one night, I made the connection to the whirring, not even knowing what it was. After taking a look, I realised they had a heat pump. This winter so far has been exhausting. I haven't had a decent night's sleep in weeks. Last night I used a heart monitor, and can see when it comes on and off, as I get palpitations. I feel tearful most mornings, and this has had a knock on effect even on relationships in my house, as we're all tired and tense.

My neighbours house, is social housing, and they've been arrested previously for harassing us, so I already avoid any contact with them, which makes the situation worse. I'm absolutely dreading complaining to their landlord, but this heat pump is affecting my health, and that of my three children, who are also waking through the night.
These heatpumps are a problem. We all want to help with environmental issues, but there has to be a way we can do it without shortening lives.

Out of interest, do you live next door to one?

I think it depends on the heat pump- newer ones are quieter and you can’t hear ours at all (or get any vibration) unless your’re literally next to it. Also it is not on all the time- in summer it comes on for about an hour twice a day for the water only. Right now it’s on most of the time but this is exceptionally cold. On most winters days it will be on for 7-8 hours spread across 24. But it’s attached to my house and i genuinely don’t notice it at all.

I could conceivably imagine a neighbour having an issue with it when sitting outside in summer (we haven’t) but on the rare occasion it’s nice enough to sit outside it almost certainly won’t be on.

It's not just me!! I haven't had a decent night's sleep over the winter, for two years. I wake with palpitations, every time it clicks on. It's a nightmare. I'd like to challenge the people commenting about UK people not liking change, or not caring about the environment, to sleep in my bed, that literally hums with vibration and sound in 15 minute cycles throughout the night. This is no life.

Sorry, this was asked to StillWantingADog

No I have one attached to my house.

Zombie thread people!

It's interesting, as my neighbor can't hear theirs either. It seems to only affect those outside the house.

Too near
If you want to sit out in your garden or have a window open you will never hear lovely silence.
I love the idea of producing our own energy but not impacting my neighbours with constant humming.

Any reason why your neighbour can’t put it away from the boundary.
Id offer suggestions although I believe new guidelines by Labour ( not sure that they’ve gone through yet ) allow people to put heat pumps right on the boundary with nothing that neighbours can do about it.

yes this unfortunately what i suffered - altough living in a detached house (a few meters apart) the air pump and exchanger were in their loft and the noise came through our walls. laying down you could feel it through the floors onto the bed. the council did attend but really did not have a clue about heat pumps - nobody should have to live like this - we were due to move anyway to a smaller property and low and behold the church a 100m yards from us installed them - in the night you could feel rather than hear the fans cutting through the air. i asked the church if they could turn them off between 12am and 7am but they said they have to run all the time - council came and this time told them to do something because that was the end of it.

they are expensive and noisy and i see that they are going to be allowed to be installed without planning permisson or coinsent. this will cause so many lives to be ruined.

they might be alright on a large property which does not have mains gas miles from aywhere but in terraces and semis it will be madeness.

We have an air source heat pump that's installed in a courtyard attached to a ground floor guest bedroom. We had an acoustic enclosure built around it that makes it so quiet it's possible to sleep in that bedroom with the French doors open to the courtyard and not hear it or feel it.

As a follow up to my OP, we objected to the position and they ended up installing it in front of their conservatory. Reading some experiences here, I'm glad I did. They withdrew the planning application and just popped it at the end of their conservatory. I do feel a tiny bit bad as it looks like a giant fridge has landed from space and isn't exactly attractive for them, but hey ho. I didn't want to risk the potential issues.

So, alls well that ends well in our case. I am sorry to hear about posters issues with HPs though, sounds dreadful and pot luck depending on model, proximity and location of the offending pump.

Pleased they changed their plans. Can you hear it and does it bother you?

Glad you've sorted it OP.

Makes me wonder how we're all going to cope moving forward. Many will find it much better (only location) to be by a neighbours boundary. On top of that if neighbours could possibly hear, then you're going to hear it yourselves if it's on the other side of your own wall.

Only slightly when the house is silent, a constant low hum, but could be much more prominent if it was 30cm from my wall. They seem to have had the plumber round a lot fixing it... I'm just not convinced on these HPs

good

What do you mean “these”- I gather that one might be badly installed.

ours is great and we’ve never had anyone come to fix it.

Can it be installed above the conservatory so it us further away from you?

Missed the update! Glad it all worked out!

It is not 100% proven that they are good for the environment, especially if they are also running air-conditioning units, which are bad for the environment. People have every right to complain about noise, it can totally affect your mental health.

yes i am the same i can feel a fan cuttiing the air but cannot hear it - or feel vibrations through the floor -

We've recently had one installed and the neighbours say they can't hear a thing. We had to have planning permission for our terraced house. We find it very quiet too, definitely can't hear anything unless we are outside standing next to it.