Air Source Heat Pump - Planning permission required!

matt_drummer

Reed_Richards said:

BISHOPS said:

Lawn mowers, planes, cars, boilers, bird song are not comparable owing to tonality, how often noise occurs, and impact noise factors. 

I disagree.  Boilers are highly comparable with heat pumps.  They operate at similar times of year and day.  The probably run more on/off than a heat pump but is that better or worse?  It's generally easier to become accustomed to a constant noise than to one that starts and stops quite frequently.  Apart from a gas boiler flue having a similar tonality to an oil boiler flue I can't think of any other two sound sources with comparable tonality, but so what?  "Impact noise factors" presumably means how much the noise annoys you, which must surely be down to the individual?

I think some people would find a neighbour's heat pump annoying but would quickly get used to their own one!

I get the feeling that many people are quite accepting of their own noise pollution with little tolerance for others.

I said before that I find noises that stop and start less easy to deal with than a constant background noise

Petrol lawnmowers annoy me a lot, and they are very often being used just when you want to be outside.

Birds, particularly pigeons are driving me mad at the moment.

I am sure there will be times when the heat pump is noisier than a gas or oil boiler but most of the time they are actually quiter.

shinytop

In 20 years time we'll have lots of ASHP noise but hardly any from petrol or diesel cars. Should just about even things out I'd have thought. 

It's a transient problem (IMO a non-problem) that will disappear when we all have ASHPs. Nobody will be able to object to noise from their neighbour's ASHP outside their bedroom window because their own will drown it out.