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School Told to Remove Heat Pumps That Are So Loud Neighbours Are “Unable to Open Windows”

by Will Jones
17 November 2023 1:00 PM

A secondary school has been told to remove its heat pumps after residents complained the system is so loud they are unable to open windows or go outside without being disturbed. The Telegraph has the story.

Residents who live near Reepham High School in Norfolk, have said the electrical devices that are used to heat classrooms are a “24-hour noise nuisance”.

The pumps work by absorbing heat from the air, are said to be more efficient than gas boilers and can be powered by renewable resources instead of fossil fuels.

However, residents have said they are creating such noise pollution that they are unable to open their windows or go into their gardens without disturbance.

Mark Bridges, who lives near the school, blamed the local Broadland District Council for allowing them to be installed without the ability to reduce noise pollution.

The pumps were installed last year but planning permission was only sought afterwards.

Residents have also claimed they were assured the pumps would be switched off on bank holidays and during the school holidays, but that they have been left running.

Jerome Mayhew, local Conservative MP, was asked to intervene to resolve the issue.

He said: “Whilst I welcome the school’s efforts to reduce the carbon impact of their heating system, this needs to be done in a way that is considerate to their neighbours and compliant with the planning system.”

The council says it is “working with all parties to get to a position that has enabled matters to move forwards” and has proposed “an alternative source of renewable energy to the school”.

Worth reading in full.

Tags: Heat PumpNet ZeroRenewable energySchool

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39 Comments
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For a fist full of roubles
For a fist full of roubles
1 year ago

School issue thermal underwear, woolly hats, gloves and regular running on the spot exercises are my solutions for them, plus nourishing school meals with plenty of carbohydrates.
A friend who started teaching in the Midlands in the sixties tells me she recalls some kids turning up having been sewn into flannel underwear for the winter.

Last edited 1 year ago by For a fist full of roubles
69
-1
EppingBlogger
EppingBlogger
1 year ago
Reply to  For a fist full of roubles

I still remember my infants school in the church hall. It was divided by a heavy grey curtain with one year group each side. Eaves were about 12 feet and windows were from about 5 feet to almost the eaves; single glazed.

In winter a cast iron turtle boiler was used as the only heating. Coke was burned and the boiler became orange with heat so when seated on the floor to listen to a story we all wanted to be at the back in the draught rather than sweating in the front row.

Teachers were expected to light and fill the boiler.

There was no guard rail that I remember.

76
0
Sinor
Sinor
1 year ago
Reply to  EppingBlogger

Thats bought back memories of my infants school in Norfolk in the mid sixties .Big fireplace/boiler in centre of victorian built classroom with I guess similar high eaves and ceiling. We were not as tough as you as I think there was some kind of guard but were never cold from memory !!

25
0
JXB
JXB
1 year ago
Reply to  For a fist full of roubles

Lined with goose grease?

16
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huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
1 year ago

Another stupid, useless Tory MP who is also a lazy coward “welcoming
the school’s efforts to reduce the carbon impact.”

For crying out loud.

186
-1
varmint
varmint
1 year ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Except he clearly isn’t a “tory” if he is harping on about carbon footprints. But you are already aware of that. ———-I visited my 89 year old mother yesterday and she showed me a leaflet she was given at one of her church meetings where a guy came along to give all the churchgoers some energy saving tips. I had a flick through it, and it was pretty much as I expected. ——“Get thicker curtains, close windows, invest in insulation, only heat the rooms you need, wear extra clothing, reduce your carbon footprint” etc etc..—–My old mum said “What is a carbon footprint”? and “He was only trying to help” —————————-Welcome to the 21st century of energy rationing and high prices where most ordinary people have no clue they are having reliable affordable energy removed and then given tips on how to deal with that as if they are doing you a favour.

32
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  varmint

“Energy saving tips”….How about not voting for the three main parties that push Net 0.

20
0
varmint
varmint
1 year ago
Reply to  Ron Smith

Yes——My mum is 89 I didn’t want to give her a climate change junk science lesson so I had to let it go for once.

1
0
EppingBlogger
EppingBlogger
1 year ago

Was a retrospective planning application submitted and approved. If so, did the local planning authority (probably the District Counciul) insist oon full environmental reports. These should have identified noise as a problem sufficient to justify refusal of consent.

More to the point, did the shool head teacher, any of the governors or the installation contractor not think to apply for planning permission? When they heard these works were to be done, or noticed them under way, did none of the councillors not wonder why an application had not crossed their desks.

114
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john1T
john1T
1 year ago
Reply to  EppingBlogger

Good questions. Installers in particular should know the regulations. Also what has all this cost? and what an eyesore?

74
0
EppingBlogger
EppingBlogger
1 year ago
Reply to  john1T

I apologise for my poor typing. On an iPhone I find it all too easy to mistype.

4
0
varmint
varmint
1 year ago
Reply to  EppingBlogger

Brown envelopes are flying around right left and centre. You have this phony pretend to save the planet agenda and all manner of people trying to make money out of it.———————- Most people in positions to make decisions on school boards or councils etc will only be aware of climate and energy politics because of the previous years of indoctrination at awareness days which will mostly inform them there is a climate crisis and that we all have to reduce our carbon footprint. etc etc. The group think will filter out any dissenting views and herd everyone into the same way of thinking which leads to absurd and expensive decisions being made that are bad for everyone, and even after they make dreadful decisions they will still be oblivious to their absurdity.

20
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Jon Garvey
Jon Garvey
1 year ago

No doubt the kids will regret no longer being able to slope off for a vape behind the heat pumps.

47
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Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
1 year ago
Reply to  Jon Garvey

And a quick pump behind the heat pumps without worrying that anyone will hear 🤣

Last edited 1 year ago by Marcus Aurelius knew
22
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Dinger64
Dinger64
1 year ago
Reply to  Marcus Aurelius knew

😳 what school did you go to!

12
0
Dinger64
Dinger64
1 year ago
Reply to  Jon Garvey

Sounds like it would blow the ends off your Embassy No 10!

13
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soundofreason
soundofreason
1 year ago

The article does not make it clear by what authority the school has been told to remove the heat pumps. I’ve been ignored when telling some people to do stuff because I’m a nobody. Was it a resident telling them to remove them or the local council?

Residents have also claimed they were assured the pumps would be switched off on bank holidays and during the school holidays, but that they have been left running.

I believe one of the shortcomings of heat pumps is that they don’t warm the place up rapidly. They have to be left running to maintain the warmth. This is an aspect of them which I don’t like – I like to have my bedroom window open overnight whatever the weather (almost); I close the window and turn on the bedroom radiator once I get up.

36
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JeremyP99
JeremyP99
1 year ago
Reply to  soundofreason

Noise is dealt with by an environmental health department. Used them myself to deal with neighbours who locked their dog out all day, said dog barked all day.

Went round and spoke to them. Nice young couple.

“If we lock the dog in, it tears the place apart” (Separation anxiety, dickheads?)

So rehome it, I suggested.

Didn’t. EH came round, spent five minutes in the back garden with me

Dog gone in a week.

Noise pollution can drive you batshit crazy. Even more so if your wife is in the house trying to recover from a major operation.

70
-1
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

Think how bad it would be if he was let out at night!

8
0
JohnK
JohnK
1 year ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

A few years ago, a next door neighbour of mine had a dog that they left in the garden while out at work. He was a proper guard dog – didn’t normally bark at me, but at any unusual visitor. When I changed my car, he barked at the new one for a few days, then back to normal.

16
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  soundofreason

If you come in freezing with a chill, a heat pump just won’t cut it.

31
0
JXB
JXB
1 year ago

”The pumps work by absorbing heat from the air, are said to be more efficient than gas boilers…”

Efficient means most effective at least cost. Gas boilers are cheaper to run, since gas is cheaper than electricity, and the energy input required for a given energy output, slightly higher for gas. Heat pumps are not therefore more efficient, unless compared with other forms of electric heating.

And since Government has agreed a huge increase in subsidies for wind and solar, heat pumps will become even less efficient compared to gas.

“… and can be powered by renewable resources instead of fossil fuels.”

But only about 30% (if lucky) of the time and only intermittently, so what powers them at other times? And since unreliable require constant gas-power back-up, even when running on ‘renewable resource’ they are still using fossil fuels.

If those heat pumps are a nuisance to neighbours, they must also by noise and vibration intrusive inside the classrooms – that cannot be good for learning.

59
0
JeremyP99
JeremyP99
1 year ago
Reply to  JXB

Did someone say renewable energy? It’s the future, I am told. Not so sure myself….

Grid
23
0
varmint
varmint
1 year ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

An energy system needs to be able to provide baseload. ——Renewables cannot do that, so they are not able to power industrial society, no matter what phony planet savers tell you. Sun only shines at night, and wind only blows when it feels like it and the energy cannot be stored at grid level. As with everything classed as GREEN, it is worse and costs an arm and a leg. —A scam

11
0
Jon Garvey
Jon Garvey
1 year ago
Reply to  JXB

Or, as I write at 4.30pm, solar and wind are supplying 1.78% of UK electricity between them. So if the heat pumps were still there making their nocturnal whirrings, the “renewable” claim would be meaningless.

21
0
varmint
varmint
1 year ago
Reply to  JXB

Yep——It is all part of this removing of affordable reliable energy and the replacing of that with unaffordable unreliable energy. ———-All with the idea that there is a climate crisis. The greatest pseudo scientific fraud ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting public.

14
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
1 year ago

Well well, article from The Guardian warning about not pushing climate policies onto the poor, least we end up like France. Apart from “we must get to Net 0, I agree with the rest of it:Five years on, the world is failing to learn the gilets jaunes’ lesson about class and climate (msn.com)

13
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
1 year ago

Mass protests in Panama about Quantum buying up large swathes of the land for copper mining, not much from the MSM on this
https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/11/03/panama-protests-copper-mine-first-quantum-critical-minerals/#cookie_message_anchor

19
0
MTF
MTF
1 year ago

My guess is these are air-to-air heat pumps (otherwise why so many fans?). If so, this installation could well have made sense independent of any carbon considerations. Air-to-air pumps have been common in institutional settings for several years simply because they are inexpensive to run and reliable – especially where is no mains gas. They do need planning permission!

3
-19
Peter W
Peter W
1 year ago
Reply to  MTF

While they may be an alternative if no gas connection, as in many rural schools, inexpensive they are not!

4
0
MTF
MTF
1 year ago
Reply to  Peter W

As it happens we have just installed them in our town hall where I am on the committee. Two units installed to cover the ground floor £12K (we already have it upstairs but I can’t conveniently find the cost). There is no mains gas so we use electricity for heating. Currently we spend £4-5K pa on electricity downstairs. Based on our experience of upstairs we expect this to drop to less than £1K. It didn’t take long to approve the investment. These things are extraordinarily efficient.

Last edited 1 year ago by MTF
1
-6
varmint
varmint
1 year ago
Reply to  MTF

Wind turbines, solar panels, heat pumps, smart meters, not flying, not driving, not eating meat, wearing 3 jumpers to keep warm, buying thicker curtains, closing all your windows, ———eh, is there anything else you would like to promote for all of us environmental sinners? Why don’t you ask Greta out on a date?

Greta-768x488
2
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Boomer Bloke
Boomer Bloke
1 year ago

“can be powered by renewable resources instead of fossil fuels.” Which translated means electricity, which has to be generated using gas or oil or coal, all imported at great expense because successive governments have been captured by the climate lobbyists. Unless of course the sun is shining which it does when the schools are closed in the summer, and doesn’t at night when the schools are also closed. Or if it’s windy enough to generate electricity using bird mincers, which it is, sometimes.

Last edited 1 year ago by Boomer Bloke
29
0
Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
1 year ago

This is one thing to be happy about. This carbon hysteria has been exposed in its absurdity and it has gotten through to the masses and the elite are learning that they can’t scam it for much longer.I think even obtuse people start to ken things when they realise that their life is at stake. The jab was more effective because it relied on inducing a state of fear that would last just long enough so you would take the bioweapon. But even that is becoming mainstream. It will take a while for the darker truths to settle in people’s minds but awareness is a lot better than it was a year ago.

19
0
varmint
varmint
1 year ago
Reply to  Jabby Mcstiff

But they are still getting away with the scam though. We are still oncourse for Net Zero by 2050 and the trillions of money skimmed from us all to pay for it. But will it affect global climate? ———-Eh lets ask Tony Blair whose government gave us the climate change act in 2008. ——–Hi Tony, will Net Zero here in the UK make the slightest difference to the global climate or temperatures? ———His answer is NO.— So why are we doing it Tony? ————Because it isn’t and never was about the climate in the first place. OK so I am glad we cleared that up.

15
0
1984
1984
1 year ago

The distant echo of children in a nearby playground – a resonant evocative hopeful (and ok bittersweet) sound – now replaced by a post-human nuveux-new-age drone. SAR. Dont Cry Out Loud.

Last edited 1 year ago by 1984
11
0
varmint
varmint
1 year ago

It says that heat pumps are more efficient than gas boilers and can be powered by renewables rather than fossil fuels. ——–But more efficient in what regard? Do they provide better heat and cheaper heat without disturbing anyone? The answer to all of that is NO.————— Plus saying they can be powered by renewables rather than fossil fuels is one of those silly statements that distort reality. They will be powered by whatever feeds the grid. If the grid is fed by coal and gas, then they will be powered by coal or gas. If the grid is fed only with renewables, then the heat pumps will be powered by only renewables. GREEN energy politics is full of misleading statements like this eg “Renewables are now cheaper than fossil fuels” ——FALSE. That is like saying a helicopter is cheaper than a jet. The two things are not the same. Renewables are part time energy requiring 100% back up, from ironically gas (a fossil fuel) while the gas itself is full time energy that can provide energy all day, everyday.

15
0
RTSC
RTSC
1 year ago

So the Council paid to install the heat pumps, with no planning permission, and is now going to pay to remove and replace them.

All so that the Council can put a tick in a box which will please the Eco Nutters in the Establishment. Because it won’t achieve anything else …. and certainly won’t reduce the school’s carbon footprint since most of the time the electricity used to power the heat pumps isn’t coming from windmills or solar.

And that’s why the economy is wrecked and the country is in the state it is. Because the inmates have taken over the Establishment Asylum.

16
0
Peter W
Peter W
1 year ago

Just like fences and overhanging branches this will be/is the next big cause of neighbourly disputes.

9
0

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