A/C

[richlist]

The planning portal under "heat pumps" also says;-
solely for heating purpose &
must comply with microgeneration scheme.
With those rules A/C could never be installed.

I'll let you know if I get any joy from the council.

Surely that would depend on how you read 'solely for heating purpose'...Air conditioning IS solely for heating purposes, it's just that that heating purpose could be described as below ambient temperature or low temperature.

[dubre]

Generally....heating means to maintain or raise temp....but...I may well be on a loser here...my wife agrees with richlist.

still no response from councic planning dept.!

[MyNameIsUrl]

...solely for heating purposes...

surely the a/c complies with the requirement: it is heating the air outside the building (which it does by extracting heat from the inside)

[funduffer]

The planning portal under "heat pumps" also says;-
solely for heating purpose &
must comply with microgeneration scheme.
With those rules A/C could never be installed.

I'll let you know if I get any joy from the council.

dubre, just for clarification, I asked Leeds City planning about this, particularly the clauses itsallaguess quoted. I asked (verbatim):

I am wanting to fit 2 air conditioning units in my property. These are each powered by an air-to-air heat pump located on the outside wall of the house (power ratings of 2.5kW and 3.5kW).

I have looked at the government planning portal: https://www.planningportal.co.uk/permis ... -heat-pump

I can see that what I am proposing meets all the conditions for not requiring planning permission, except possibly one:

Only the first installation of an air source heat pump would be permitted development, and only if there is no existing wind turbine on a building or within the curtilage of that property. Additional wind turbines or air source heat pumps at the same property requires an application for planning permission.

I am struggling to understand this.

Does first installation mean the first time heat pumps are installed in the property, or does it mean installation of the first single heat pump? I want to fit two separate air conditioning units at the same time. There are no existing heat pumps, nor wind turbines on the property.

Also the first condition states: Development is permitted only if the air source heat pump installation complies with the Microgeneration Certification Scheme Planning Standards (MCS 020) or equivalent standards. I believe this refers to air-to-water heat pumps used to provide heat for central heating systems, so maybe small air-to-air heat pumps for air conditioning units do not require planning permission anyway?

Can you advise?

Their reply, verbatim, was:

In relation to your original query, the permitted development restrictions relate to a single heat pump only and not the first installation of multiple. All air sourced heat pumps fall under this category no matter the size of them.

Due to this, if you wish to have more than one heat pump at the property you will need to apply for Householder Planning Permission. The cost for this will be £206.

I would be very interested if you got a different reply from your own council!

FD

[Itsallaguess]

Their reply, verbatim, was:

In relation to your original query, the permitted development restrictions relate to a single heat pump only and not the first installation of multiple. All air sourced heat pumps fall under this category no matter the size of them.

Due to this, if you wish to have more than one heat pump at the property you will need to apply for Householder Planning Permission. The cost for this will be £206.

Can I just check for the sake of clarity here, given that there are internal and external 'installed elements' with air-to-air heat-pumps, where one external element may be designed to supply two internal elements...

Where the above reply says 'the permitted development restrictions relate to a single heat pump only' - are we assuming that this is discussing external elements, and not internal ones?

On the face of it, by my understanding, it's really only the external unit that is doing the 'heat pump' function, but I just thought I'd check for clarity as to other peoples understanding...

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[funduffer]

Their reply, verbatim, was:

Can I just check for the sake of clarity here, given that there are internal and external 'installed elements' with air-to-air heat-pumps, where one external element may be designed to supply two internal elements...

Where the above reply says 'the permitted development restrictions relate to a single heat pump only' - are we assuming that this is discussing external elements, and not internal ones?

On the face of it, by my understanding, it's really only the external unit that is doing the 'heat pump' function, but I just thought I'd check for clarity as to other peoples understanding...

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

I believe the rules refer to just the external units. So if you fitted an external heat pump driving two or more internal air con units, then planning permission would not be required (provided you meet all the other conditions).

I considered this for my installation, but since the air con units were to be on opposite sides of the house, it would have involved a huge amount of pipe work transferring the working fluid between the heat pump and the two remote internal units. It only made sense for each to have their own smaller dedicated heat pumps on opposite sides of the external walls.

I have only fitted one, to avoid planning permission. I may fit another, but will probably wait to gain more experience with the one I have.

Very happy with it so far, both for heating and cooling.

FD

[dubre]

The mystery deepens.I have come upon two references which state that the first unit is not permitted development because :-

1. they are heat pumps
2. they are not solely for heating.?

more later...maybe