Concerned over ASHP noise for sensitive ears

Spoonie_Turtle

MultiFuelBurner said:

BensonBooga said:

Thanks everyone !

Spoonie_Turtle said:

We have a heat pump but with double glazing the noisiest part of it for us is the internal circulation pump at night (keeping it defrosted, I think) so I've not noticed how noisy the external unit is at night when it's colder when we used to have it on 24/7 by default.  Our neighbour also has one, the other side of our hedge, but we're in a small village with no other heat pumps in the immediate vicinity and the motorway is noisier than anything else for us so our experience is only of very limited relevance to you.

Thanks. Just curious, but when outside at night when very cold, have you ever gone in to your garden to hear how loud it is ? I am guessing it wouldn't be the natural thing to have done unless asked though, ha.  

Yes, I have a problem with covering my ears too with ear plugs and defenders, as I just hear my tinnitus massively. So it is a double edged sword. It is odd because I have slept with ear defenders before, as a last resort when the outdoor noise is louder than my tinnitus, but then when I remove the defenders my tinnitus is even louder for many hours, as it has to get re-used to external noise covering some of it up. So annoying all round. 

Just to balance one of the replies above we run our heat pump 24/7, not because we left it like that after install but because it's the most efficient way for our lifestyle. Just so you don't think after 60 installs none will run at night.

I do however wonder if a number of heat pumps from the same manufacturer making the same noise at the same frequency will create an unwanted side effect. One for the daily mail I expect.

Just idle curiosity, would they all be at the same frequency if people are having their thermostats at different temperatures or weather comp on different curves?  Not really expecting anyone to know the answer though.

That's a good point about actively choosing to run it 24/7.  I only said what I did as an explanation for the difference here because I'm fairly sure our neighbours are similar to how we were before I found this board (but unfortunately we're not friendly enough for me to start offering unsolicited advice).  Glad you spotted that and have expanded, to help OP calibrate their expectations.

matelodave

When mine is running I can stand next to it and still hear the oil boiler of the bloke who lives on the other side of the road, so its no where as noisy as some people seem to assume. Perhaps you should go and listen to one or two rather than listening to the hearsay.

The background noise from traffic on the A10 some 350 metres away across several fields and the river Great Ouse is louder than my heatpump when the wind is in the wrong direction. 

Its not silent especially when running flat out but we can't hear ours unless we stand next to it, it cant be heard when we are sitting in the garden and neither can we hear it when the dining room window is open which is around 2 metres away from the external unit (which being an 11kw model has two ginormous fans). Its also 14 years old and still as quiet as the day it was installed.

MultiFuelBurner

A good thing that sprang to mind is that the whole estate (60 houses) should have under floor heating which means one massive radiator on the ground floor which in turn means lower flow temps required and if the houses are built correctly for heat loss and the floor is well insulated that's one hell of a single radiator downstairs gently warming the whole house. Meaning the heat pumps should be worked hard.

koru

Loudness reduces as you get further from the source. At 35 metres, a 60dB source is going to be as loud as a whispered conversation outside your house.