A housing estate resident has said that her neighbour’s heat pump is so noisy that she and her family can’t sleep and the doctor has said it is making her 87 year-old mother’s disability worse. The Telegraph has the story.
Anna, 58, is a former nurse who retired to care for her elderly mother.
The two live together in a detached house in a small town in the East Midlands – one of half a dozen properties dotted in the grounds of an old vicarage.
It’s an idyllic spot, apart from one thing – a noisy nearby heat pump making their lives “a misery”.
Anna’s next-door-but-one neighbour installed the device on an exterior wall of her property in December 2023.
But Anna claims the heat pump has been emitting a “horrible” vibrating noise ever since, which is having a “terrible psychological effect” on her and her mother.
It comes as experts have warned that Labour’s push to the eco-devices risks a slew of noise complaints in built-up areas that will turn neighbourhoods into “war zones”.
The Government last year relaxed planning permission on heat pumps, which can create a buzzing noise of up to 60 decibels, roughly the equivalent of a restaurant or an office.
Exasperated homeowners told the Telegraph that they had taken legal action against neighbours, and were planning to sell their homes to escape the “unbearable” hum.
Anna said: “It’s disrupting our sleep. I put my head on the pillow and I hear a reverberating tone.
“Then it starts humming and thumping and can go quiet for a few seconds, then starts up again. It’s unpredictable – that’s the worst thing.”
She is particularly worried about the effect the noise is having on her 87 year-old mother.
“We always wake up at 5am. If my mum hasn’t slept, she doesn’t want to walk, and this makes her hip worse which she broke three years ago.
“She’s so exhausted. The noise is making her disability worse.
“A doctor came round once, at 2am, and said ‘What the hell is that noise?’ She claimed it was a detriment to my mum’s health and put it in her report.”
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