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We're looking at installing an ASHP as part of a major house renovation. Our place is mid-terrace with a plot width of just under 5m. Further along the street our neighbours have just dropped their plan for an ASHP as they were told it had to be 1m from any boundary. My reading of https://www.planningportal.co.uk/permission/common-projects/heat-pumps/planning-permission-air-source-heat-pump is that the 1m restriction is a condition for permitted development. Can anyone confirm that if we put it in the planning application, we can site the ASHP as close to the boundary as airflow allows? As part of the work we will aim to replace the tired panel and concrete post fence with a brick wall. Many thanks.

Exposed brick is a nice option which segments an otherwise 10*5m box. There are probably varied thoughts on heat pumps. I calculate we'll save a little money over a 7 year horizon Vs mains gas, but only a little. The main rationale is having a decarbonised house ready for the (near) future. I don't want to spend £££ on refitting a whole house and not achieve that. I do appreciate the quality of the work next door and wouldn't rule out copying the style. @joe90 this is the solution I'll be pushing for.

Thanks- I will.

@BramcoI'm pretty sure it's an original build, solid brick wall. @Joe with a beam and block floor level with the existing house and an extensive or wildflower flat roof, we should achieve 2.4-2.5m of ceiling height. Their water crosses the boundary at essentially the level of our proposed ceiling. Thanks again for the answers.

Thanks for all the great input. They have indeed had high quality work done, but I'm surprised it relies on the assumption that any future neighbours would facilitate continued drainage. Surely they cannot lay a claim to this (without legal agreement)? Let's say I wished to build a flat living roof with a height of 150mm below the parapet (~2.85m): this would then blocked the drainage. If I understand correctly from @Carrerahill's comment- liability for damage then falls on us? I expect we can strike a friendly deal- but surely we can insist that their roof is changed? I'm surprised they didn't build the wall all the way back as per @joe90- I'm starting to think it was cunning design rather than clumsy! However were I building this I would ensure we control our own drainage and will certainly be doing that at the other party wall. The downpipe from ours which discharges onto our roof is just a condensate pipe from a boiler (which will be retired for a heat pump). The attached photos show the rear elevation including the discharge of the rear half of the gulley. @epsilonGreedy I believe this are 'Cambridge Whites'- at least the original components. We're probably on a similar clay.

Hi All. We have recently bought a mid-terrace property and have plans to extend to the rear. We have a problem with the neighbours rainwater drainage, which uses our property and would be blocked by any extension we built. Our next door neighbours have already created a garden room, built less than 10 years ago with a parapet party wall and multi-pitch roof. We have a small, original, singe storey pitch roof. There is a gulley drainage on their side of the parapet. The rearmost half drains to the rear edge of their property but the closest edge has been intentionally built so that the drainage runs over our pitch roof. I have attached photos and a schematic. There is a party wall agreement the drainage from this pitch roof apparently runs around the party wall then into a soak away in their garden. The document we have relating to the party wall makes no mention of this drainage. It seems like a strange setup that no owner of our house would agree to, but the house was previously let by a disinterested/cheap landlord. If we build a matching extension, this water would have nowhere to go. We have a good relationship with the neighbours but before addressing this I want to know where we stand. With no written agreement for this setup, could we demand they fix this? We would reconfigure all our drainage whilst building an extension and would not need to make use of their soakaway any longer. Many thanks in advance.

I've bene wondering the same- will be interested to hear from people's experience

Hi all, This forum has been an amazing source of information as I plan our retrofit of a mid-terrace Victorian property. I'm not looking at MVHR. We are planning extensive renovation- substantial energy performance upgrade and ASHP alongside the decorative side. I highly doubt we would get any payback from MVHR, even given given my plan to buy cheap/second hand and DIY most of the install. The house has no mechanical ventilation as original including the bathroom and kitchen. The default, and budget) option would be wall or inline extractors. Trickle vents and PIV are other options I'm keeping in hand. The motivation is humidity regulation, meeting building regs including (rooms-within-rooms), and above all comfort. Despite original sash windows throughout, we still crack open the bedroom window overnight with a noticeable benefit to air quality. This problem will be worse post-renovation. I've attached the existing floor plan. We plan on wrapping around the kitchen so the rear will be warm and air tight. We plan on converting the loft to a dormer, possibly L shaped and the joist layout/type can be adapted to accommodate services. There will be eaves space which could house the MVHR above Bed 3 and in the eaves at the front next to the new master bedroom. The house will therefore be 4/5 bedrooms over 3 storeys with 1 kitchen, 1 cloakroom, 1 utility, and 2 bathrooms requiring extraction. About 160-170sqm in total. The chimney breast in the offshot is coming out. Those in the main portion joint to a single stack in the roof void. I have a few key questions which I hope someone can help with based on my planned installation of a radial ducted system: Is there any reason not to run semi-rigid radial ducts through the chimney stack in the main house? None of the fireplaces are in use. The chimney is currently uncapped but I would like to cap it and effectively turn it into a warm space to reduce heat loss and avoid condensation problems. I could run ducts through the loft floor, punch through the chimney breast, and drop down to the 4 rooms below. I can create a sizeable void next to the bathroom which lines up with the utility, creating a centralised. service stack Are there any decorative supply valves? I'm considering mounting the supply in the chimney breast but the round ducts would not ideal there or in the roof. Square plaster vents (as in the attached image) would fit better aesthetically, perhaps with balancing valves at the MVHR unit end? Would the entry/atrium be better as an extract to improve air flow through the other rooms such as the sitting room? Any thoughts on the alternatives for MVHR unit placement? I'm tending towards the eaves next to Bed 4 for noise reasons. This has access to the rear wall and roof for extract/supply. The eaves at the front would require supply/extract through the slate roof (which we are re-roofing regardless) I presume it makes sense to bring the eavches within the thermal envelope regardless- whether for MVHR or storage? Many thanks in advance.