My heat pump journey with Octopus Energy - Part 2 (Planning Permission)
In my previous post, My heat pump journey with Octopus Energy - Part 1, I described how we had started our Octopus heat pump journey and we had failed the MCS noise assessment by 1 decibel. This meant we need planning permission. This was submitted on the 24th March 2024. On the 23rd of May we got the decision. It was granted. That was a relief. Octopus have already given us an installation date, 22nd July.
In the rest of this post I will go through the ups and downs of the process. Firstly, we live in East Hertfordshire. Each council will be different. Your experience may vary.
The application was done online and cost £322. Octopus said they would credit us £250 on a successful application. The hardest part of the application was the requirement for an elevation drawing. I really didn’t want to pay for a professional to draw me an elevation. The application requires two drawings, a before and after. As you can see from the below, this is basically a wall with windows, a rectangle for the heat pump and one without. I was hoping some common sense would come into play here. It is stipulated that you have to use a scale of 1:25 or 1:50. It was hard to find a free application that could do elevation drawings. In the end I found Smart Draw. You can get a free trial. I also submitted lots of photos from different angles of the garden. This is for a heat pump not a two storey extension!
Elevation drawing without heat pump
Elevation drawing with heat pump
This led to the first issue. The person in charge of verifying the application had been filled in correctly, contacted me to say there was no elevation diagram. I spoke to her and explained the above were elevation drawings. I had hoped including pictures of the garden would make the above clearer. She was confused by the fact the elevations had no roof. She also said the scale was wrong, but as I had included the measurements, if I removed the scale from the box at the bottom, she would pass the application to the next stage. She was very nice and extremely helpful.
Next was a site visit by an Assistant Planning Officer. This was so they could see where the heat pump would go. If I hadn’t asked him a load of questions, this would have been a five minute visit. He did explain that they would write to our three neighbours. The one that is attached to us and closest to the heat pump. The one that we share a driveway with and can’t see the heat pump. Finally to the neighbour whose stairway window overlooks our garden and could see the heat pump. They would have to stop on the stairs to look at it!
Then it got interesting. Next was an email from a Senior Technical Officer (Environment). This was obviously about noise. Remember we were one decibel over the limit. In fact it was 0.1 decibels, but it got rounded up to 1. I received this email.
I am reviewing your planning application, 3/24/XXXX/YY, from an Environmental Health perspective and wanted to make you aware that our noise requirements are more stringent than those under MCS-020.
I had a feeling this was coming. Now we were in a real planning application the council noise requirements would be different to MCS requirements. I was beginning to worry. I then got this email.
Thanks very much for your reply.
I have had a look at the photos included in the supporting documentation and the distance to the assessment position is shown as 4m, not 6m as used in the MCS-020 assessment; this means that the unit fails by a much larger margin.
Please would you be able to speak to Octopus and consider alternative arrangements which allow the MCS-020 noise requirement to be met? I have attached some guidance from the Institute of Acoustics and Chartered Institute of Environmental Health which may help (obscuring the unit will be the most effective option).
This may also help:
If visible, the unit would need to have a sound power level of 54dB or below or positioned at least 6.3m away from the assessment position (or a combination of the two e.g. 56dB and 5m away).
If partially or fully obscured as per MCS-020 descriptions, the proposed unit meets the criteria.
Please feel free to get in touch if you’d like me to clarify any of the above.
I immediately sent this to my Octopus Install Co-ordinator and replied with the below and I sent to the Senior Technical Officer (Environment)
I am writing to provide clarification regarding the noise level concerns.
In the provided documentation, it is important to note that the 4-meter distance shown in the photo does not represent the assessment window itself; rather, it indicates the measurement is taken at the edge of the window, not the center. (please see the attached photo) Additionally, a distance of 6 meters has been measured from the top window.
Furthermore, the model of the unit is EDLA04E2V3 which is 58db. We are unable to consider alternative units due to the MCS compliance regulations. Therefore, this unit represents the quietest option available for supply.
In response to your mention of a 6.3-meter distance from the assessment position, it is important to reiterate that, due to MCS regulations, the distance must be rounded down. Hence, even if the distance is slightly above 6 meters, it would still need to be considered as 6 meters for compliance purposes. please see the attached picture
In the reply I explained that if this had been 0.1 decibel less then the council would not even be involved and I hoped this would be taken into account.
They then informed me that due to an admin error, they failed to consult one of the neighbours and would need to extend the deadline. I didn’t expect any issues, but wanted to get this all done and dusted.
I then got this email regarding the noise.
I have spoken to XXXX and we have discussed the way forward. Weight will be given to the almost adherence to permitted development criteria, however I await XXXX formal comments.
Unfortunately, I cannot advise as any recommendation would be subject to sign off from senior officers.
That was the last communication I had with the council. I could follow the application online and there were no public comments. The Town and Parish Councils had no objections. I could only hope that common sense would prevail. Obviously you already know from the top of this article, planning permission was granted. I am grateful to the planning department that calm heads prevailed.
I will be writing up how the installation and also how my ESPAltherma setup goes. I am hoping the Octopus engineers that come are geeks and will help me install the hardware I have purchased. More about that in another post.
Please feel free to use the contact form if you have any questions
