A COUNCIL tenant from Humbie has claimed that he and his wife have been unable to use their heating system for a year, because its constant high-pitch whining noise was driving them “crazy”.

Michael Harvey, of Kippit Hill, likened the situation to Chinese water torture, and spoke of his despair at East Lothian Council’s insistence that the air source heat pump system – which requires a fan unit in their garden – was fine and no further action would be taken.

The Harveys’ property had the system installed two years ago, in a council trial, but Mr Harvey claimed that there had never been a health check on it, and said that the situation had left him and wife Jennifer severely depressed.

The 52-year-old, who cares for his wife, also 52, who has chronic arthritis, said that a change of pumps in the heating system had had no effect.

He says they have had to fork out £100 for electric heaters after the council did not respond to his request for them.

Now the Harveys, in a bid to reduce the noise, just use the system for hot water but not heating.

“Anybody else coming in can hear it – it’s funny the council can’t,” Mr Harvey told the Courier. “You can hear it over the telly or when you’re in your bed.” Mr Harvey, who has a heart problem, said that the council was initially very helpful when he and his wife were moved to the village following three months in homeless accommodation, after being forced to leave their previous private home of 21 years due to dampness.

As well as the heating system noise issue, the couple also claim that they are suffering from alleged anti-social behaviour by neighbours.

In requesting a new heating system, Mr Harvey said: “I certainly wasn’t depressed [by the anti-social behaviour]. . . it is the heating system noise that’s driving me crazy.” The couple are now contacting county MSP Iain Gray about the problem.

A council spokeswoman said: “We are unable to discuss individual cases.

“However, I can assure you that our teams take tenants’ concerns very seriously and work very hard to rectify any issue as soon as we can. “If a tenant remains unhappy with our response, then we would ask them to make full use of our complaints procedure to find a resolution.

“We are installing air source heat pumps in a number of our properties now. “They are quiet, effective and fuel-efficient and can help tenants to make big reductions to their heating bills. We have installed about 85 so far (county-wide) and quite a few tenants have commented on how good they are.” Air source heat pumps work by extracting heat from the air, using this to heat water which is then distributed around the system, similar to other hot-water-based heating systems with radiators.

Another 60 such systems are due to be rolled out to other council properties.

With air source pump heating, unlike gas central heating, there was no requirement for an annual safety check, said the spokeswoman. When called out to look at issues with any heating system, the council carried out immediate checks to ensure safety, she added.