I recently moved into a new apartment building with geo thermal heating and cooling.  Two water pipes and what I am assuming is the heat exchanger is located in a closet along with electric water heater.  The noise of circulating water, which is constant 24/7, is so loud and annoying that I have resorted to wearing ear plugs.  Only turning up the volume on the tv seems to drown it out!  The maintenence man is telling me this is normal because that is how geo thermal works.  I have asked a few other tenants if they are experiencing this type noise and they have not.  Is it possible that this is a normal functioning sound???

I have specified several geothermal heat pumps since the 1970's.  I have not heard a noisy one yet.  I suppose they do exist.  What brand name?  How old is the unit?  Is the return air grill in the door to the closet?  Is the noise from the closet or can you hear water running throughout the apartment?  Are you sure the noise is from water?  Could it be noisy ductwork?  Do you ever hear the noise when the heat pump is not running? 

I will step aside and let the pros help you.

Thanks for your quick response. The manufacturer is FHP Manufacturing from Ft. Lauderdale,FL. Unit is approximately 3 mo. old. Not sure about the air grill. The closet doors are bi-fold louvered doors. The noise is definately coming from just the closet. The noise sounds like a bad toilet running, only magnified many times. This is constant..even when breaker is shut down.

Based on my experience with my own GSHP system, you may have a shot at reducing the sound. You of course would have a water inlet pipe and another for the return. The HP is extracting heat from the water flow and returning it a few degrees cooler. There may well be a flow regulating device in the loop, likely on the return line. You probably also have a pair of isolation valves, for unit servicing purposes; normally these will be in the open position. Your saying that the water flow noise goes on 24 hr a day seems odd. Normally the water would flow only when the unit is in operation. If the unit is undersized, then of course it would run all the time, but then you'd notice that it couldn't keep up with heat loss and the apartment would get cold. On the other hand, maybe the unit does run all the time, with electric heat staging on as required. Or maybe the plumbing of the units for the complex just made it simpler just to keep the water flowing all the time, even when the unit isn't running to extract heat. That would be a shame, as the pumping power is a drag on the coefficient of performace (COP).

Anyway, what I did on my unit to reduce noise dramatically was two things. First, I noticed that the water flow noise was being transmitted through the floor system to my office space above the HP. The water lines were hung from the joists with strap hangers nailed on. I rehung the pipes, using rubber stoppers with the straps wrapped around the rubber. The rubber won't really pass on the vibrations the way the rigid attachment did; problem solved. The other thing I did was to reduce the pressure drop across the unit and the flow regulator device by partially closing the isolation valves together so as to minimize the noise. That really cut down the noise, which had been coming mainly from the flow regulator. You might try that.

Thank you! I am printing this and giving to the maintenence person. Trying to get any help from the heating and cooling contractors is like pulling teeth. Two of the tenants here have had NO heat for 3 months and have resorted to using space heaters.

Dick is correct that throttling upstream and downstream of metering device can greatly reduce noise. If overdone it can keep system from functioning.
A photo would be really helpful.

Thanks Joe...I can't find anything on the forum page that lets you attach a photo. Could I send a pic to one of your websites listed?

If you click "add reply" vs using "quick reply" there is a place for attachments.

Benn, I'm guessing that the flow to the apartment is a manifold system, with the flow to each unit a branch from a main and the return going to a return header. If the headers are sized too small for the total flow, the pressure drop may be excessive, resulting in more flow to the units closest to the pump (and at highest pressure, leading to excessive regulator noise) and less to those farthest away, particularly if those are on a second or third story of the structure. Someone somewhere ought to have plans for how the system was laid out, including what valves there may be for controlling distribution of the water. That might be the key to solving your noise problem and your neighbor's lack of heat prob lem.

Thanks Dick...This is a 32 unit apartment complex with all apartments on second and third floors. I am located approximately in the middle of the second floor above the first floor offices and community room. Tenants without heat is second floor at the extreme end of the building, so you may have a very valid point.

As an afterthought, Dick, I will ask the neighbors on either side of me if they are experiencing the same level of noise. @Joe..tried to upload a photo and the site wouldn't let me, said the size was too large (sorry, I don't have photoshop)

Benn, there are free utilities available for download that will resize pictures for you. The one I use is Irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com). That will let you resize to a smaller file that is still very viewable; you save it as resized, usually with another name.

In your apartment complex, can you ask the tenants on the third floor at the extreme end of the building how their units fare? One story above the ones without heat would mean that much more pressure drop, so I would think that if piping size were the problem then those would be without heat also.

Okay..going to try to download photo.  I will be talking to other tenants tomorrow.  Thanks for all the help!

Unfortunately, I can't see what I hoped to- solenoid and isolation valves etc.

Well, I spoke with the tenants on each side of me and neither one have the noise issue. Actually the one to the left of my apartment has her heating unit directly behind mine. Also, spoke to tenants without heat and the people above them are not having any problems. It seems I am the only one with constant water noise. The maintenence person here is not familar with geothermal and relies on what the contractor tells him, which in my case is that this is "normal". So frustrated!!!

a lot of times when you hear water traveling through pipes, it means there is air in the pipes. If it is only in your apt. then its likely it that there is a fitting or a valve in your apt. that is causing this noise.

A big THANK YOU to all of you that was kind enough to respond to my post. I am printing all the info and giving it to our Maintenence personel, and with any kind of luck, get results.

The biggest thing is to break up points of resistance while maintaining flow. So if you have valves on either side of the heat pump closing both partially may help. If the water never stops flowing, you may have a bad solenoid.

A quick update...FINALLY, after 4 months, peace and quiet!!! Sorry to say after mentioning BBB and Attorney General, results came through..Problem was a faulty valve that was replaced this morning. You guys were spot on! Thank you...