Where can the outdoor unit go, and how loud is it allowed to be?
The outdoor unit is the part of a heat pump decision a homeowner cannot settle from a product brochure, because the answer is written in their own municipality's bylaws and it is different in all thirteen. View Royal effectively allows a ground unit in the back yard only, three metres off any side line. Oak Bay allows it anywhere, including inside a setback, as long as it is 1.5 m from the line. Sidney wants a screen that still works in February. Six municipalities publish nothing at all about siting, which is also an answer. This tool reads your municipality's own rule against the spot you are considering, then gives you the noise limit a neighbour could hold the installation to and the exact lines to require in the quote.
What you enter
- Your municipality (required — the rule changes completely at the boundary)
- Which yard the unit would stand in: front, exterior side, side or rear
- Roughly how far the spot is from the nearest lot line
- Whether a neighbour's window or patio faces it, and whether it is a corner lot
- Optional photos of the spot, used for that answer only and never stored
How it is calculated
- Every municipality's siting rule was read from its own zoning or land use bylaw and recorded as a quote; the structured version used here is read off that quote and shown beside it
- Your yard and distance are checked against the published rule — a distance band that straddles a published minimum is reported as 'measure it', never as a pass
- Noise limits come from each municipality's noise bylaw, including where the limit is measured and, in Victoria, the 5 dB tonal correction its bylaw applies to the hum of a heat pump
- Photos, when supplied, produce hedged descriptions of what is visible and never change the verdict
What it is not
- It is never an approval. Only the municipality can tell you about your address, and the call is free
- It cannot tell you whether an installation will meet the noise limit: that is a reading taken at a point of reception, not a specification sheet
- Six municipalities publish no siting rule and six publish no decibel limit. 'Nothing published' is reported as exactly that, not as permission
- Strata, covenants and easements can all forbid a spot the municipality allows
Your lot
Two answers are enough to get the rule. The rest sharpen it.
Choose a municipality to start.
All thirteen, side by side
No municipality publishes this comparison, because each one answers only for itself. Also available as open data with a CSV and a JSON.
| Municipality | Front | Exterior side | Side | Rear | Min. from lot line | Noise limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| City of Victoria | not published | not published | not published | not published | — | 55 day / 45 night |
| District of Saanich | not published | not published | not published | not published | — | 50 day / 45 night |
| District of Oak Bay | allowed, screened | allowed | allowed | allowed | 1.5 m | 50 day / 45 night |
| Township of Esquimalt | not published | not published | not published | not published | — | no number published |
| Town of View Royal | not permitted | not permitted | not permitted | allowed | 3 m | no number published |
| City of Colwood | not published | not published | not published | not published | — | no number published |
| City of Langford | zone setbacks apply | zone setbacks apply | zone setbacks apply | zone setbacks apply | — | no number published |
| Town of Sidney | not permitted | not permitted | allowed, screened | allowed, screened | 1 m | 55 day / 45 night |
| District of Central Saanich | not permitted | not published | allowed | allowed | — | 60 day / 55 night |
| District of North Saanich | not published | not published | not published | not published | — | 45 dB |
| District of Sooke | zone setbacks apply | zone setbacks apply | zone setbacks apply | zone setbacks apply | — | no number published |
| District of Metchosin | not published | not published | not published | not published | — | no number published |
| District of Highlands | not published | not published | not published | not published | — | no number published |
“Not published” means the bylaw says nothing about where an outdoor unit may stand. It is not permission, and it makes the noise limit the rule that decides the spot.
Your next step
Once you know where the unit can stand, the next question is which permit your municipality requires and who is responsible for it.
Check the permit and who pulls itGuides that use this tool
Last updated 2026-10-06. Estimates are our labelled calculations from published local evidence; official figures are quoted from the sources shown. Methodology · Sources · Report a correction.