Heat pump outdoor unit outside bedroom, to loud?

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SomeoneSomewhere

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#2109104 16-Oct-2018 20:24

David321:

Thanks for the info people, I have just seen a photo of the unit which has a sticker on it with the correct model number and it says its 69 DBA, but the Mitsubishi website says 56 on the specs of the model, one must be wrong!

Either way I think ill get the unit installed our bedroom and pay for relocation if its to loud.

69 is on the high side. Is it an older model? Often only a letter or two gets changed when they update them.

Note that it will be quieter than the posted value if running at less than full power.

David321

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#2109456 17-Oct-2018 10:30

Well the sticker one the unit says 69 but on the Mitsubishi website it says 56 under the specifications so I am not sure what is right.

_David_

SomeoneSomewhere

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#2109965 17-Oct-2018 18:07

David321:

Well the sticker one the unit says 69 but on the Mitsubishi website it says 56 under the specifications so I am not sure what is right.

Are you certain that it's the same model? Ones a few years old probably can't be found online.

Note: "GE50" only refers to the capacity and the type of unit (high-wall, floor console etc.), not the generation.

David321

485 posts

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#2112562 23-Oct-2018 07:29

Hi there,

Yes that is the strange thing, here is the link I am referring to, the model number is the same as the sticker on the outdoor unit as it is on this link (https://www.mitsubishi-electric.co.nz/product/nlaproduct.aspx?item=69003B), but the sticker on the outdoor unit (which also has the same model number) says 69DBA.

So its unclear how lound the unit is, 56DBA as the link says, or 69 as the sticker says, its quite a big difference also. I am inclined to believe what the sticker says on the unit as the data on the Mitsubishi website could be a typo.

PS: I have tried to upload a photo of the sticker here but am unable to do so, nothing happens what I click upload.

_David_

Fred99

13684 posts

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#2112583 23-Oct-2018 08:57

David321:

Hi there,

Yes that is the strange thing, here is the link I am referring to, the model number is the same as the sticker on the outdoor unit as it is on this link (https://www.mitsubishi-electric.co.nz/product/nlaproduct.aspx?item=69003B), but the sticker on the outdoor unit (which also has the same model number) says 69DBA.

So its unclear how lound the unit is, 56DBA as the link says, or 69 as the sticker says, its quite a big difference also. I am inclined to believe what the sticker says on the unit as the data on the Mitsubishi website could be a typo.

PS: I have tried to upload a photo of the sticker here but am unable to do so, nothing happens what I click upload.

You probably need to resize the photo - a full resolution jpg file of the image probably exceeds the 2MB upload limit.

I just checked the outdoor unit to our Daikin pumps. One has a regulatory label with dBA stated as 60, which seems to be there to meet some standard of measurement that might apply in Australia. The other unit doesn't have sound level on the label at all. Perhaps they don't sell that model in Aus.

It wouldn't surprise me that the two figures you're seeing for the one unit are both correct, but measured to different standards - one a "sales and marketing figure" the other to meet statutory requirements (for building codes etc) in one of the markets where they're sold.

In the data presented, makers consistently don't state the distance from the appliance that the measurement was taken. Was it one metre or 3 or 10? That makes a really big difference. Sometimes it's in the fine print or in a Q&A. It's probably required to be measured at a specific close distance and under standardised test conditions to meet building code/design requirements etc. I'd expect that to be the higher of two figures of course - and possibly the only one to be trusted in comparisons between brands.

Makers of things like cheap portable petrol generators obfuscate sound levels to make things appear to be better than they are, when I was looking there were plenty of Chinese made $500 generators claiming to be the same dBA level as $2,500 Honda models, and took a lot of digging to find the measurement method - if at all. If something seems too good to be true, then...

Personally I wouldn't put a heat pump outdoor unit under a bedroom window - if there were better options. I also wonder why decades since computer makers realised that every ATX tower or desktop case, monitor, printer, didn't have to be butt-ugly designed and the same bland vile colour, most new heatpump outdoor units still look like they were designed in the 1980s, and with a few exceptions the same applies to the indoor units.

raytaylor

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#2114749 27-Oct-2018 00:18

I have a small heat pump unit in my bedroom, OD unit is outside an adjacent bedroom and they hear the unit so I turn it off at night.

Ray Taylor

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Fred99

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#2114828 27-Oct-2018 11:05

dBA as a measure might be a bit difficult too. While the A curve may arguably well represent human hearing response (in air), I'd expect the lower frequencies would conduct through framing, wooden floors etc pretty well. So while the higher frequency components of the pump noise might attenuate with distance from the unit as expected, conversely the lower frequency hum/vibration might be transmitted conductively to your head/ears quite well.

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