ASHP how to reduce stop vibration

fritzie-65

My neighbour has had a ASHP installed ( semi detached house ) in his front garden.
The vibration that it is causing on the front of our house can be felt on the first floor in the early hours of the morning.
It is no doubt going to get worse in winter as he draws more off it to heat his home.
Any suggestions ( low cost ) to reduce the intereference to us.

Does planting break the wave ? 

Or wrapping foam / sponge around large containers

I am clutching at straws I know ! 

I have seen expensive fencing panels but they are out of our budget.

He is not approachable at all so a quiet word would not work.

I resent having to move bedrooms in order to get an unbroken nights sleep.Or feeling I am on a roller coaster when making an early hours visit to the bathroom.

All suggestions gratefully received.

tacpot12

The ASHP needs anti-vibration mounts installed under the unit to dampen the vibrations. The unit might already have them fitted, in which case different once might be more effective. In theory, the ones supplied by the manufacturer of the ASHP should be best, but it might need a range of them to be tried. If it doesn't have these sort of mounts already fitted, they are easy to fit to the unit, but they raise the unit up so will require the heating system to be drained down so that the pipe work can be reworked.  

Planting and wrapping anything around the ASHP won't solve the problem if it is vibration, but might if it is noise. 

You'll need to talk to the neighbour and ask them, tactfully, to get the installers back to review the problem. 

fritzie-65

Thanks for your reply and as I suspected the planting idea would be a non starter.

He knows he has a problem as I suspect his family are unhappy with the installation as he has wrapped it in fake ivy garlands to try and take the eye of it.

I also know he has taken up the grass and laid an anti vibration matt  ( recovered with earth ) between the pipe (which goes into the ground and then into the house cellar coming from the fan ) and the house facade.He had some " blokes " in a van come the other day and they threw a few spanners around but there has been no change in the vibration.

Reed_Richards

Does it sit on large rubber feet?  That's the norm to suppress vibration.

michaels

Just checking, the unit is in his garden and at least some distance from the house but vibration is coming through the ground enough to affect yours (and I guess therefore also the neighbours) part of the building?

Edit:   This references a split unit that might be the case here and the vibration is coming from the refrigerant pipes not the unit itself - is this a possibility?

Heat pump vibrations resonate throughout home : r/hvacadvice (reddit.com)

MP1995

Most vibrate loudly if they are old and the bearings ae going(not relevant here but the bearings could have been faulty from new) or they are not installed horizontally and vertically level.

fritzie-65

Thanks for all your replies.

The pump is new , installed in April.
Sits on two grey blocks.
It has been suggested that it is sound waves bouncing off windows / glass and house facade.
The only time it is very noticable is in the early hours between 3 and 6 am.
We have let the bushes and hedging grow both to block the view of it and hope it is blocking the sound currently.

fritzie-65

Could it be the compressor in their cellar ? That is the source ?

michaels

So it is sounding more and more like it is a split unit and that it may not be the outdoor unit that is causing the problem.  Could you sneakily get a photo of the model information that will be on a 'sticker' somewhere on the outdoor unit and we could confirm this?

I would have thought if your house is definitely vibrating and you can't get a suitable resolution from your neighbour you could complain to the council, otherwise you might have to go down the small claims court route - do you have legal cover with your home insurance?

fritzie-65

michaels said:

So it is sounding more and more like it is a split unit and that it may not be the outdoor unit that is causing the problem.  Could you sneakily get a photo of the model information that will be on a 'sticker' somewhere on the outdoor unit and we could confirm this?

I would have thought if your house is definitely vibrating and you can't get a suitable resolution from your neighbour you could complain to the council, otherwise you might have to go down the small claims court route - do you have legal cover with your home insurance?

Will do tomorrow morning Thanks 😀

fritzie-65

Just a quick follow up on this the unit is a 6800i .
We have established a few things not only is this causing a vibration but they run their washing machine & tumble dryer in the early hours of the morning which are also housed in the cellar.
I have placed bamboo planted in very large plastic tubs on our boundary and make sure all our windows are closed at night and this has eased the sound coming in our directio  to a degree.However I cut back alots of bushes today near the boundary so it will be interesting if the noise/sense of rumbling increases.
Plus now they also have a robot mower which noodles around at all times of day and night.