Soundproof wall against neighbor's heat pump

I'll say something uncomfortable now. I'm putting myself in the neighbor's shoes. He built. They sold him this air-to-water heat pump thing, and he thinks it's good. He probably complied with all regulations. Now there's still some budget left for landscaping and a hedge..... now the OP comes along and complains about the pump. It's humming. Like an insect. He now wants to fence it in or move it.... is he crazy? He thinks. I did everything right and he's making a fuss about the noise. Everyone here has one of these every other house too.

I guess if I were an air-to-water heat pump owner, I wouldn't do anything and would think, neighbor, just calm down, every exhaust vent in the wall is louder.
People will have to get used to the pumps.
By the way, the universally appreciated wood stove isn't nuisance-free either. A poorly adjusted motion sensor floodlight and a nocturnal cat can also be annoying.... life is just not clinically clean. Our new neighbor also has such things standing around. It just hums slightly... Karsten

If this is not a problem, why not to the own terrace, but exactly to the opposite side?
Sorry, unbelievable nonsense what you are writing. I wish you cold air and constant humming a few meters away from your terrace and balcony in an otherwise very quiet area!

I don't blame the neighbor, but his company, which plans so badly. Our construction company suggested installation inside directly, just like our building supervisor, so as not to disturb the neighbors.

By the way, the neighbor is reasonable and wants to consider a solution with us.

Either way, I will additionally build a wall along the boundary at least 1.80 m high. I was thinking of two parallel wooden plank walls, space filled with stones. Wood of course painted, plank length about 1.50 m on beams. Then plant. At least that's the idea; is that any good as noise protection?

The "noise" of a WP is inversely proportional to the time spent outdoors.

Justmy2cents.

What qualifies as noise protection is not so easy to say. It depends heavily on the "noise." In Germany, this is measured in dB (A). Decibel is a unit of measurement – but since you cannot simply compare two kilos of noise at different frequencies, there is the "filter" (A) for this: a weighting of the sound pressure based on a frequency curve. This is supposed to correspond roughly to that of the average listener. However, first of all, like all pensioners, this person is already quite deaf to such hissing frequencies, and secondly, this standardization was established long before keywords like "sleep lab" or "psychoacoustics" came about. That’s the extent of what can be measured and on whose reduction protective measures are constructed.

Now to the sound itself: its propagation form varies with frequency, and accordingly, the sound pressure (measured in linear effective direction) decreases at different rates. High tones "require" less energy but are more sharply localizable: accordingly, for their perception, it is more important how "directionally" one faces them. For "noise protection," this means: low-frequency sound is better weakened by absorption, high-frequency sound better by diffusion.

How a board fence gabion would work there? – I’m at a loss.

: if he is reasonable, then just tell him to take care of such an enclosure around the unit. The closer the soundproofing is installed, the more elaborate the sundials are. In the second step, I would then consider soundproofing on your side.

By the way, I would also check whether you are even allowed to build such massive and high enclosures (the wood/stone gabion). There are development plans where that is not permitted.

Otherwise, I would google the following:

HERAS noise protection walls for high sound insulation

ThomTek® Perilux – sight and sound protection fence system

For the latter, I once heard a price of €400 + VAT per running meter

At least for semi-detached houses, one should in my opinion make it mandatory that only one heat energy system is used.

Sometimes you say things where ignorance just oozes out of the posts and jumps right at you

Then who owns the system? Who is responsible for maintenance and renewal? There are also people who want a semi-detached house but no owners' association ....

Sometimes you say things where ignorance literally gushes out of the posts and jumps right at you.

Who then owns the system? Who is responsible for maintenance and renewal? There are also people who want a semi-detached house but no homeowners' association....

Of course. Everyone wants their peace and preferably to have the next neighbor 1000m away. But from a socio-political perspective, it would make sense if systems for generating heat were not too small-scale. I agree with on that. Slightly larger systems would be more efficient.

That this also "has its price" is another matter.

From the Netherlands, I know some municipalities that require new buildings to be connected to the local district heating plant (even if you're just building an individual single-family home). In Germany, this is mostly only the case in developer settlements or in larger cities, or only in very few municipalities.