Heat Pumps, do you have one

[Jeremy Harris]

13 minutes ago, Ballynoes said:

Just as a side question,

 

how noisy are ASHP's, as I was hoping to site it outside the house, on the south side, as this gets most of the sun and warmth.

 

Any thoughts. 

 

Ours is pretty quiet.  Hard to tell when it's running unless you stand right next to it.  No advantage in putting it on the warmest side of the house, as it takes heat from the air, so the warmth of nearby walls etc makes no appreciable difference to performance.  Ours is in the shade on the North side, tucked away out of sight, and works at a higher efficiency than given in the spec most of the time.

[ProDave]

Mine is outside also on the south wall, tucked behind the adjoined garage.  There is a small (non opening) window in the living room that looks straight out over it.

 

You cannot hear the ASHP inside the house when it is running.  I have said before, the nosiest bit of my heating system is the circulating pumps, now a lot less of a bother since I swapped them to Wilo pumps.

 

I would say the heat pump at full tilt makes about as much noise as an oil fired boiler. The difference is the HP is outside and most people are happy to have an oil boiler roaring away in their kitchen or living room.

 

It just might be a bother if you are out in the garden, but when it is warm enough to be relaxing in the garden, the HP won't be doing much, just an occasional bit of hot water heating and you can easily turn that off if it decides to come on mid barbecue.

[scottishjohn]

mines on the garage roof --i get a small noise inside garage resonating through the roof beams -- but not loud by any means

 i could have put it at north side of house ,but as that can stayfrosted all day long in winter -- It has to be lower air temp --on roof gets sunshine all day 

Edited November 1, 2019 by scottishjohn

[ProDave]

My choice of south wall was simply the north wall faces the road and I didn't want it there.  I suspect on a sunny but frosty day there is a marginal improvement from it being on the south wall.  Probably less from the air temperature difference, but more from the sun shining on the ASHP just might help to stave off the need for it to defrost as often.

[SteamyTea]

29 minutes ago, ProDave said:

I suspect on a sunny but frosty day there is a marginal improvement from it being on the south wall.

Probably not as much as the reduced humidity caused by the frost.

A sheltered position is probably worth something, don't want the wind pushing itself against the fan.

[Gone West]

1 hour ago, Ballynoes said:

Just as a side question,

 

how noisy are ASHP's, as I was hoping to site it outside the house, on the south side, as this gets most of the sun and warmth.

 

Any thoughts. 

 

Edited, sorry should have said directly outside the house.

Our neighbours have a Nibe ASHP against their North facing house wall 2m from our fence. It isn't possible to hear it running when we're in our garden, but when it shuts down it makes a whirring noise for a few seconds. I guess that's normal for all ASHPs.