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Are air source heat pumps noisy


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Hi,

I've got plans submitted for a passive house design two storeys, two bedroom, ground floor built into the bankside on three sides, South facing. Ground floor will be just a single garage, hall, st5airs to upper and a 'music' room. As my previous building experience(over 40 years ago) didn't include plumbing and heating I've no knowledge or experience of air source heat pumps(or many of the other innovations that have come along. Basically I want to know whether air source heat pumps are noisy, do they have to be sited on a house wall and do they alter the air temperature around their inputs? Are they suitable for domestic hot water and heating? Can they be used to cool as well as to heat?

Glad of any help relating to these questions. Builder to whom I've been speaking has experience of ground source heating installation but doesn't know anything about air source, and as I don't really fancy having the ground full of pipes, I'd like to find out about air source. Architect has indicated that there should be an MHVR unit but hasn't specified heating or hot water sources.

Thanks

Al

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Are they Noisy?  That depends on your definition of noisy.  I would say they make about the same level of noise as the roar of an oil fired boiler, the difference is most of the noise is outside unlike most oil boilers that are inside.

 

You will need to take care with the install that noise does not get transmitted into the house via the pipes, by using a flexible section of pipe on the flow and return pipes.

 

Normally they stand on the ground, but can be wall mounted.

 

Most can do cooling as well as heating but you may need extra stuff inside like a fan coil unit for use when in cooling mode.

 

Yes they heat somestic hot water.  But they don't work so well at high temperatures so several of us on here just heat the DHW to 48 degrees and use a larger hot water cylinder as it will get less dilution in use than it would if it was stored at a hotter temperature.

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I’m putting in ASHP for my house for heating & water.  I’m no expert and plenty here will advise better than I.   The exterior ASHP sounds like a Fridge/freezer.  I located my ASHP away from bedroom / living windows and have triple glazing which will help but bear in mind in summer if your windows are open the ASHP will still need to run for your hot water etc.

 

i would avoid locating the ASHP near any bedroom or living room windows.

 

 

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Thanks very much for the information and advice. I'd like to be able to use the downstairs music room to record our band, hence my concerns regarding noise and my interest in a system that can handle cooling as well as heating, as a bunch of musicians and amplifiers can raise the temperature quite a bit :-)

 

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  • 1 month later...

We have ours placed outside our living room which i would not recommend. Installed with flexi hoses but still getting alot of 'mechanical' noise transferred into the room from the water pump and compressor. Its almost noisier inside the room than outside the house. The heat pump is only used for space heating.

 

Acoustic Enclosures exist too

Edited by Jymmm
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Mine is wall mounted and it definitely transfers noise into the house through the wall... To eliminate this, I intend to move it to a few meters away from the house.

 

Also regarding what kind of noise, it’s a deep droning sound, but is only really audible when the fan is at full speed.

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On 20/10/2020 at 16:58, Technoheckno said:

Basically I want to know whether air source heat pumps are noisy, do they have to be sited on a house wall and do they alter the air temperature around their inputs? Are they suitable for domestic hot water and heating? Can they be used to cool as well as to heat?


No, no, yes, yes, yes, some can....

 

or in detail ...

 

 

Noise - no worse than an oil boiler if it is a monoblock (ie all outside) and you site it so it’s not facing a window. Decent wall thickness tends to drown out sound anyway, and flexi loops in the pipes stop transference of noise via the pipework

 

Siting - can be sited anywhere, usually ground mounted near the house as insulated underground pipe is expensive. Can be wall mounted but not usual. 
 

Airflow - they remove the heat from the air around the fan coil unit outside so can have a localised cooling effect on the air, and the fans shift a lot of air too. 
 

DHW - yes to about 50°C unless they are a high heat unit that can go to 60°C but this is easily sorted using an unvented cylinder with an immersion to boost the tank on E7. 
 

Heating - ideally tied to UFH in a decent slab thickness to act as a heat store at low flow temps 

 

Cooling - some can cool however in the U.K. it is normally disabled in the firmware as a large majority of units have been fitted under MCS / RHI rules and this doesn’t allow for cooling unless a heat meter is fitted. 

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16 minutes ago, PeterW said:

 

Noise - no worse than an oil boiler if it is a monoblock (ie all outside) and you site it so it’s not facing a window. Decent wall thickness tends to drown out sound anyway, and flexi loops in the pipes stop transference of noise via the pipework

This isn’t my experience. My walls are just over 2ft thick and the noise can be heard inside... although I put this down to it being wall mounted rather than floor mounted. 

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23 minutes ago, Gav_P said:

This isn’t my experience. My walls are just over 2ft thick and the noise can be heard inside... although I put this down to it being wall mounted rather than floor mounted. 


think that will be more down to wall mounting than anything else. 

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mines sat about 50cm away from the wall (100mm stone, 100mm insulation, 100mm block, dot & dat 12mm) its the reverberating sound from the water pump that's heard mostly which isn't great. Yet the water pump is hardly noticeable outside.

Edited by Jymmm
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Look at R290 based heat pumped for heating water directly. They will produce 75*C from the compressor alone.

 

As to noise, there are now planning requirements in this respect. However, the latest units are exempt as they are below the thresholds even when right on a boundary.

 

When heating, the outdoor unit will be cooling so yes, it will be cold standing in front of it and may make paths more susceptible to icing.

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10 minutes ago, J1mbo said:

Look at R290 based heat pumped for heating water directly. They will produce 75*C from the compressor alone.


Assume you’re referring to the Vaillant aroTherm Plus that has a pretty good range however they do lay it on a bit with the CO2

impact on losing the refrigerant to the atmosphere ..! Also forget to tell you R290 is highly flammable propane and it has a limited performance range of 0-20°C so can’t get above 60°C when the outside temperature is above 25°C. Vaillant seem to push these through their installer network - I requested the BIM files and got sent a pdf flyer and was called by an Installer instead ...! 

 

 

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9 hours ago, PeterW said:

think that will be more down to wall mounting than anything else.


mine is floor mounted just outside the house wall and virtually no noise can be heard indoors, In the cloakroom (where the plant room/cupboard is) you can just hear the pump when it’s running but no where else in the house.

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A previous member here (Jeremy) thought long flexible hoses were a waste so installed short ones and he suffered noise in the house, he replaced them with long ones (as specified in the MI,s) and the noise went away.

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If I remember correctly Jeremy used 300mm flexes and had noise problems, he replaced them with much longer ones, in a loop, as per the MI,s and the noise almost disappeared. Shame he is not here anymore to confirm.

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23 minutes ago, joe90 said:

If I remember correctly Jeremy used 300mm flexes and had noise problems, he replaced them with much longer ones, in a loop, as per the MI,s and the noise almost disappeared. Shame he is not here anymore to confirm.

where did Jeremy go?

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