Neighbours heat pump

[BluLagoon]

Viewed a house today which I liked but except for the whirring hum in the garden which I assume comes from the heat pump in the newly built house next door.

It is situated about 10m from the garden fence but was loud enough to be disturbing. Can anyone tell me if they run 24 hours a day? What about in the summer?

We have friend who live next door to a house with one in the garden. They can't use their garden- it's a constant noise and drives them mad.

I wouldn't buy that house.

I walk past a house on my morning commute with one. It's so bloody loud I almost knocked on their door the first time to tell them their car was left running outside, until I realised what it was.

This is really interesting as not had an experience of them - so not only if you have a heat pump, but if your neighbours get one it could impact the sale of your property.

Ours only runs after baths/showers in the summer. In winter only when heating is on.

But it’s also not loud enough to bother neighbours (I have to go out and stand in front of ours to hear/feel it!). And super well insulated houses so heating clicks off and stays off for ages.

I wouldn’t buy the house if it’s that loud. Has it been installed too close to the boundary?

Omg that would drive me insane

I think there must be something wrong with the installation.

We had an ASHP installed in our previous property. It really wasn't very loud even up close. Our NDN were the sort who would complain about anything and everything but they never mentioned it.

Yeah, they're horrific, noisy, monstrosities and they cost about £20K. No way are they gonna take off, and take over gas central heating/gas boilers. (As the Government would have us believe.) They look hideous, they sound grim, and the controls to them are like being on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise ... You also need LOADS of room in your house if you want one.

I am not sure you can do much about your neighbour's heat pump though @BluLagoon Apart from move!

@LikeWhoUsesTypewritersAnyway none of that is true. For a start ASHP are situated outside so don't take up any room in your house. They also do not cost 20k, we paid 13k for ours and got 9,500 back through the government grant scheme.

I loved our ASHP and really miss it. In our new house we have a gas boiler which is rubbish in comparison.

Based on the Channel 5 programme I saw they certainly do take up space inside! A huge tank for the central heating water and another for the bath/taps etc? And that’s as well as the big box outside.

Oh god I was going to offer on the house but definite second thoughts now! Google tells me that can be noisy if old/cheap/not installed properly. The house next door has just been built, they are finishing off the last bits and in the garden so possible that they could adjust it to sound quieter I suppose.

They are allowed to be as close as 1m from boundary wall! Supposed to be 40decibels like a fridge but this sounded much louder.

Exactly. They're horrific. Huge monstrosities. Hell will freeze over before I will ever have one! OR live next to anyone with one! 😬 I know 3 people with them, and they're noisy and grim! And ugly!

Telegraph reader?! Goodness me what rubbish people spout about ashp on mumsnet. Bet that gas panic guy will pop up soon too. Ours is really quiet, not that much louder than a fridge freezer.

I am in a semi... next doors ASHP is 3 ft beyond our shared fence outside their sitting room window. I can hear it in my kitchen, in my sitting room and everywhere in my garden.
Bloody awful continous noise!

@Toucanfusingforme I didn't see that programme but, as someone who had an ASHP installed in my previous house, I can assure you that no additional space was needed inside and we certainly didn't have 2 hot water tanks.

We had ours retro fitted to a 1960s house. We had to.upgrade 2 radiators. We gained space inside because the boiler was removed.

We have an ashp fitted by octopus for <£5k. It doesn't take up more space generally, radiators are bigger but that's all. It's not on 24 hrs but when it is on, I struggle to hear it.

It's been fabulous 👌

@Landlubber2019 how often is it in? Does it click on and off everyone so often like a condenser boiler heating the house? Does it run less often in the summer?

Our neighbours have a sewage treatment plant in their front garden, unfortunately the plant motor is in front of a curved wall, the reflected sound is clearly amplified by the wall and beams straight towards our bedroom, it's quite loud when there's very little noise at night! But you absolutely do get used to it.
Same as the train electrification, I have now got used to the hum and different train noise.

Ours runs a few hours daily, depends on the thermostat or how much hot water used. Ours is very quiet

@BluLagoon our ashp turns on when the temperature falls below what has been set on the thermometer.

Today the weather is good, hardly been on at all. But you can't turn off the system and switch it on again and expect a warm house in 30 mins.

I thought they had to be about 3m away! Sounds awful

So where are your hot water tanks and how does the system store water for your heating and your water? I would have had to give up the utility room based on their example!! Nothing I saw encouraged me to get one. And it said it would save about £200 a year on fuel bills, which didn’t strike me as much for the outlay cost, even with a grant.

There is a certain amount of noise but I wouldn't say it is excessive. We have two outside but where they are situated it wouldnt bother anyone and all the neighbours have them.

We have the plant room in the garage including the tank and two boilers, boilers on the wall and tank in the corner. The room that was to be the plant room is now a nice boot room.

We are all electric so no fossil fuels plus we have solar and a beautifully warm house. The house was built with it, so we didn't have to pay outright for it.

We had one fitted last week.
Indoors we hear it most in the room where's it is bracketed to the outside of. This is the busiest time of year for a heat pump because as they generate heat, they spew out cold air( think opposite of an air conditioning unit) and this then freezes and then starts a defrosting programme!!
My observations are that the radiators had to be bigger,I lost my airing cupboard to a huge cylinder thing and the pump in the garden is quite large.
What we gained was a boiler spacer in kitchen that we have put extra cupboard in. A large amount of garden as we had a large gas tank and Leylandi hedge hiding it which can now all go. No standing charge for gas any more either.
Also,you leave it on, so set thermostat at 19 or whatever and a couple of degrees lower at night and it just keeps a constant temp without peaks and troughs.
We have solar too with a battery so on a sunny day in winter, the solar supplies the electricity needed but on a dull day,we use way more electricity.
Back to the noise, it is sometimes louder than I expected, but most of the time it is not noticeable.
Cost us about £5000 with Octopus and government grant paid the rest .
It will be interesting to see how much it saves us but it will also add to value of house so happy with decision.
We are on a funny plot where that side of our garden coincides with the bottom of 2 neighbours gardens so at this time of year no-one is them will be hearing it. I will have to wait and hear what happens in the Spring. No one has complained yet!!!