What permits and rules apply to a heat pump on a BC house?

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Connecting one takes an electrical permit, its refrigerant may be handled only by a certified technician, and the outdoor unit must meet the local zoning setbacks and noise bylaw. An air-source heat pump moves heat between the outside air and the house through a refrigerant loop, with a unit outdoors and one or more inside. Three sets of rules meet in it: electrical work under a permit, refrigerant handled only by a certified technician, and the outdoor unit's place on the lot under local bylaws. Look up the address or PID on PlaceDossier to see the record for that lot. The electrical permit: Technical Safety BC lists connecting a heat pump among the work that needs an electrical permit, issued by it or by a city that issues its own; a homeowner may do some of the work on their own house under a homeowner permit, within that permit's limits (see doing your own electrical and gas work). Richmond's bulletin says a heat pump added to an existing house needs its own electrical permit, and removing a gas furnace a gas permit to cap the line. Refrigerant: A heat pump is air conditioning or refrigeration equipment under BC's Ozone Depleting Substances and Other Halocarbons Regulation, and its refrigerants, the HFCs among them, are covered (ss. 1, 3; Schedule A). Only an approved person, with trade credentials and an environmental awareness course, may service it, and an owner must not knowingly let anyone else (s. 7 (1), (3)). No one may release the refrigerant, and old equipment is disposed of only once it's recovered (ss. 4 (1), 15). The building permit: Whether a council also asks for a building or development permit for the unit differs by council (our reading). Sidney's guide asks for a minor development permit where the lot is in a development permit area ($150), and a development variance permit to place the unit where its zoning doesn't allow ($250). In a new house, the heat pump's electrical permit is part of the whole house's (Richmond's bulletin); what a new house must meet is in the energy step codes. Where the outdoor unit goes: Zoning bylaws set it. Richmond's needs 1.2 m from the property line, and not on a porch, a driveway or a statutory right of way (Zoning Bylaw No. 8500 s. 4.18, as its bulletin quotes it). Sidney's keeps it out of the front and exterior side yards, 1 m from any lot line, behind a year-round opaque screen (Zoning Bylaw No. 2275 s. 5.1.12). Oak Bay allows it in any yard 1.5 m from the line, screened in front. Noise: Noise bylaws set what the unit may make at the neighbour's: 55 dBA by day and 45 at night in Richmond's quiet zones and in Sidney, 50 and 45 in Oak Bay. A maker's sound rating is measured in a lab, not at the property line, so where the unit sits matters as much as the model (Oak Bay's guide). Richmond puts meeting its bylaw on the homeowner. The cold: A heat pump's output falls as the outside air gets colder, and the lowest temperature it runs at is the maker's figure (our reading). A lot's report gives the nearest station's January mean, its 1991-2020 low and the heating degree days, which say how cold the winters get and how much heating they take. Rebates: The Province's CleanBC Better Homes program and BC Hydro list the rebates on offer, which change through the year; some must be approved before the work starts (Sidney's guide). We don't repeat the amounts: check both pages before you buy. What it means for a buyer: A heat pump's papers are what you can check: the electrical permit (Technical Safety BC's Permit Lookup Tool shows whether one exists and is closed), the installer and the service record. On a strata lot, the strata's approval comes first.

What permits and rules apply to a heat pump on a BC house?

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