Your Heat Pump Problems And Misconceptions SOLVED | Consumer Advice

Messages are timestamped below! 00:59 Message 1 I had a pre-installation visit from British Gas installers. All my 15mm pipes throughout the house would have to be replaced with mainly 22mm - and some 28mm pipes - if I went ahead with the installation. Such information was not forthcoming when the system designer visited. I don't think that I'm prepared to have my house ripped apart to such an alarming extent. I live in a 1975 built detached house. 06:00 Message 2 I have solid fuel park ray back boiler council are changing it to airflow heat pump. l not sure on that system as uses electric and they said all my radiators need changing and pipe work need replacing so rip up carpets an floorboards in all rooms would they be better fitting Ipg gas tank and leave all radiators as they are all new and just fitting gas tank and boiler or someone from... 08:42 Message 3 Having my ashp fitted Thursday. I need to get a EPC done to claim RHI. What is the minimum requirements for the RHI and EPC. All walls are insulated, new double glazed windows and doors. Ufh both floors. Will get the loft insulated. Is there anything else I need, do all walls have to be plasterboarded and kitchen fitted ? Don't think I will get all that done by march 2022. Also can anyone recommend someone to do an epc near bolsover chesterfield. Cheers 11:00 Message 4 What to do when a client insists they don't want 2 rads changed because the rooms have been decorated ? We're changing most of the other rads but has anyone been able to get round this for MCS? 12:28 Message 5 I've got to be honest, I joined this group with excitement having bought a new home, even though it runs on bottled gas. I imagined a lovely homely air source heat pumped, ufh, big rads upstairs, hot water, blah blah blah... But the amount of posts I see on here and other sites, people with multiple problems from poor install, error codes, heat loss, warm water, clunky noises, one had a cat crapping in front of their pump and they swore they could smell it in the house It seems there's more problems but "eventually the tech will improve and the world will be saved", It's starting to push me towards an underground gas tank I'm just losing faith that air source heat pumps are fit for purpose 15:04 Message 6 I have had quotes for both air and ground source heat pump installations. What I am concerned about is that this is only one part of the system and reading posts a complete system has to be designed correctly to work efficiently. The project I am working on it's significant and has to be completed in stages which makes it a little more complicated. Should lengage a heating system designer to specify the complete solution or rely on the heat pump installers to advise? Good design, competent installer, and decent kit along with post install support are the key elements imho. 16:50 Message 7 I'm reading posts about low electricity bills. I had a heat pump installed in November and it took until February to sort out problems with the installation. I have real concerns about whether the capacity of the system is adequate. It still seems to struggle to get warm enough although I can't be sure until we have cold temperatures. And the costs are astronomical. My bills are still £200 plus each month even in April when it was hardly freezing. Any advice on what I can do? It's been a complete nightmare. My house is not big - a small bungalow with a loft conversion. 18:32 Message 8 Hi. We're in Devon. How do we get an independent check of our air source heat pump? We're not working again, just had upgrade and our pressure keeps dropping. Bit concerned our as system has only be in 2 years and our electricity bills are insane and system keeps failing. 20:32 Message 9 Looking for a local engineer to Bedfordshire for some advice on a badly installed ashp. Customers electric bills over £350 a month and is still not heating up the house or hw. The property is only Two years old and has Ufh throughout. 21:24 Message 10 Tbh I have never had such an expensive heating system.. Not sure I like ashp. Noisy and ugly 22:28 Message 11 From the Times today 'The future homes standard will require low-carbon alternatives to gas boilers, such as electric heat pumps, in all new homes by 2025. But EY, the consulting giant, found that there were only about 1,200 qualified heat pump installers in the UK, while almost 10,000 will be required by 2025. Lots of scope for new HP engineers and I assume good margins for years to come. 24:53 Message 12 So own up....who's had a heat pump fitted incorrectly on the __ heat trial?..... Daikin fella representing them came out and was none best pleased 6 out of 10 for the install being generous. Have asked __ for the report but they haven't sent it yet and so far have failed to keep 2 plumber appointments and 1 electrician one. How's everyone else doing? As the fella said everyone hes looked at is incorrect. Thanks guys 27:35 Message 13 Wondering if anyone can help What's the process in being mcs accredited how hard is it to get accredited what does it cost and ultimately is it worth it for a 1 man band like my self? 29:17 Message 14 Help appreciated please. Just got a free ASHP installed as part of a council /__ pilot initiative. Blokes who installed it were very keen to rush off on Friday and gave me the briefest of tips on how to work with it. Basically said: 'don't switch it off and just turn it up/down heat here, then left. So do I really never turn it off? My default with my old boiler was to have heating turned off unless it was cold. And my radiators upstairs were never on. With ASHP do I need to think of it like fridge and always have it on?

Hi, i am a plumber by trade and last year I was contacted by an agency recruiting installers of ashp on behalf of PH Jones which I'd part of British Gas. The job was to swap boilers in council properties for ashp. I agreed to go for it as I wanted to learn more about ashp. They have put us through a 3 days online course and off you go to do the installs. We were a team of 3 people ( 2 plumbers and 1 gas engineer) and had to install 2 heat pumps per week. When we arrived on site for the first installation we were told to run 28mm primary pipes and 22mm branching off pipes with new radiators. The cylinders came pre-piped . That was it- no much design or calculations, just chasing the figures of 2 installs per week. Just wanted to share why some of the customers are unsatisfied and the bad reputation of ashp. Thank you for the videos, they give me so much more understanding now 👍. Keep up the good work...

I recognise my comment :-) Good work guys on training people for the future and helping consumers understand heat pumps.

Kudos to you guys. Just responding to case study no2. Parkray is a brand of backboiler, not Parkhome as in static caravan. More likely a 50s brick semi! Keep up the good work!

Scary that British Gas are installing heat pumps that haven’t mastered installing a combi boiler yet

Thankyou so much for this discussion with Q&A on Youtube and not just Facebook. I hate fb and not used for 7yrs so far. I'm following your ASHP info very closely due to the frustrations and confusions I'm having for my 2nd winter since installation in May 2021

Loving the cheeky 'subscribe' you got in there! Quality editing makes these so much more entertaining - good work 🤣

I had an air source heat pump installed in February 2022. I chose an MCS certified local installer with many years' experience of renewables. The installation was very efficient and I was given information and advice as to using the control panel. I was very pleased with the heat pump. For the first time, my house was beautifully cosy and my bills were reduced. So what's the problem? Well my neighbours complained that it was too noisy. They complained to the local Council who sent officials to test the sound emission. The law in Scotland its that any noise more than 10 decibels above the background noise constitutes a nuisance and so the Council served me with a Notice of Abatement. This will be decided by the Sheriff Court. If I do not abate the sound sufficiently, the Council will forcibly remove my heat pump at my expense. This was rather alarming and, after some meetings with Councillors, I decided to install an acoustic enclosure, made by Environ to suit my Samsung heatpump and designed to reduce noise without interfering too much with the efficiency of the heat pump by allowing a flow of air in and out of the enclosure. Unfortunately, although some sound is reduced, the low level hum is worse than ever and, in the frosty days we have in the North East of Scotland, the hum has become a roar. My installer has examined the heat pump on several occasions whenever my neighbours hav complained. He finds it is performing properly. However, he has not happened to be there when it is roaring. It is loud enough that I hear it inside my insulated and double glazed house, with wooden shutters and curtains closed. I have contacted Samsung but have has no reply as yet. I would welcome any advice you can give me. I cannot afford to spend much more money in attempting to abate the noise as I have to keep enough of my life savings to pay for a new source of heat (an electric boiler since we have no mains gas in my village and I would not be willing to use a fossil fuel in any case) in the unthinkable event of the Sheriff court finding against me.

Nice to listen to real experts in the trade, who think Parkray is a Park Home!!! Parkray is probably one of the biggest solid fuel manufacturers recognised in our industry in the UK.

Thanks for producing these videos. I am confident that I can do my own heat loss calculations/measurements, system design and installation of an ASHP. I am not interested in any government subsidy schemes. Am I alone? Keep up the good work!

Great video. I have just had a Stiebel Eltron WPL 25 AS retro-fitted to replace an ancient oil boiler. Works brilliantly and mostly the house is warm and cosy with a COP of around 4.25 in every old house with limited insulation. Included with the package was their Easytron Connect system of TRVs which hook up to the ASHP controller. Some room temperatures never get up to target because the TRV rad valves close too early, I guess, because they react to the temperature of the water in the pipework and they then the rads go cold. Because the warm water continues to circulate, the pipework remains warm constantly keeping the rads turned off. Do you know this system and is my guess likey to be right? All rads have their TRVs mounted at the bottom of the radiators in a vertical plane.

Interesting information as always guys. Look forward to the next videos. All the best.

@HeatGeek What might make for a good video would be to follow up with some of these commenters and visit they to assess where the system has been designed wrong and if there is anything you guys can do to resolve the issues. I know it's a cost to you guys but would make for a good series of videos and maybe help end some of this misinformation and back up that it's mostly down to the design.

I've been really loving your consumer series - thank you for all the time and effort you put into it! My question is more around the logistics of going about having an install done. I have an early Edwardian house (1908), surprisingly with a cavity wall, suspended timber floors throughout the hallway, living and dining areas, a solid concrete floor in a relatively newly refurbished kitchen, and a single brick, single storey, 1994 extension out the back with a bathroom that needs replacing. Ideally, the cavity would be filled, and the loft insulation would be upgraded from 100mm to 300mm. I really want to take action, but I'm getting stuck not knowing where to start. Going to one construction company to handle the lot would be tempting, but based on the advice of your videos, I'm scared they won't subcontract to a heating engineer with the skills advocated for by yourselves. Where should I start? Would a heating engineer typically advise on the type of insulation to get for the property, install underfloor heating, work with a flooring company to replace the wooden floors, and also liaise with the fitters of the new bathroom? Or do homeowners normally just coordinate all of this themselves and hope that they don't miss any crucial dependencies between the various aspects of the job?

What are the positives and negatives of air to air heat pumps installed on an electric only property, witch and electric water boiler (assuming the building is properly insulated, say 2-3 bedroom).

Thanks for this. I think mine’s a very basic question. We’ve requested a heat pump survey through our energy company. We live in a link detached house with a garage on the side adjoining one neighbour and the neighbour’s garage on the other side. So In effect we only have 2 outside walls. At the front we have a porch and a curved bay window to the living room. At the back there are sliding patio doors into the garden from the dining room. So in effect the only outside wall where the heat pump could be placed is between the patio doors and under the kitchen window. About 10ft wide but there are recently fitted units in the kitchen behind this. My question really is what comes though the wall from the AHSP. Is it just pipe work and how much space does this take inside? Thanks

In Denmark it's so dificult to figure out which pump to get .... 2 different installers, who seem really good (also by the standards you set in your vids) have made 2 very different offers... 1 is a 9kw panasonic monoblok t-bloc with a buffer... the other offers a damn 14kw toshiba a2w unit with no buffer (split unit) ... 5kwdifference? i get even more confused xD i don't wanna be col in a -15-20 night ... this industry need more transparency

Consumer question for heat pump system design. We have a mix of 10mm plastic and 10mm copper microbore to all radiators. Is this a showstopper for system design?

I live in Nova Scotia Canada we’re temperature are traditionally much lower during the heating season than England . My system now is infloor firing an oil boiler . Which never burns more than 2200 liters of oil. Can I use this fact to size my heat pump. The water temperature to floors is never more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Outdoor reset by tekmar is used, with mixing valve modified to keep boiler fired with a 0.4 nozzle from turning burner on until mixing valve is fully open, burner than stays on until boiler water is at 190 F. All piping to each of the 12 zones is insulated until they reach the room to be heated.House is 22 years old , 3500 sq ft two car garage thermostat all set to 21c . All infloor piping kept 18 inches from outside rimer plate.This space was insulated and sealed for a thermal break. Full basement under main house , basement floor and wall all insulated , 2 inches styrofoam under floor studded wall with r12 fiberglass.wall stepped away from vapor barrier concrete walls.infloor is underfloor stapled up plates to run pipes.then insulated to r20. Looking to use Nordic air to water heat pump assembled in New Brunswick Canada . Any help would be appreciated thanks lionel.

Is temporarily setting your old heating system (e.g. gas boiler) to 45°c a good way to test whether a heat pump is suitable for your home?