i have since formally emailed Vaillant asking for the names of Vaillant certified companies both on Arran but also on the mainland.  I have had nothing back. 

i can probably get someone to do a service but, should anything go wrong subsequently, don’t want to be told “that company is not accredited” and find my guarantee is therefore void.

Can anyone suggest a way forward?

I have some questions about flushing my system, cleaning it and adding inhibitor.

I had a small leak in the system pipework, so drained the system down to fix it (longer story which I will also post about).

Bit of background, the system is 2 years old - everything was new apart from one old retained towel radiator and one small section of 22mm copper piping on the radiator circuit (maybe 5m total). All other pipework and radiators were new.

Whilst the system was fully drained, I took the opportunity to flush the system using the fill and flush loop. I closed all radiator valves and then opened one at a time flushing each radiator in turn until the water ran clear. The water coming out was orange brown in colour. I thought I was doing well, but once the system had settled for a while, if I flushed again more orange brown coloured water would flush out before running clear again. Is this normal, is this colouration from rust? Should I keep flushing? Picture of sample of water after much flushing below (ignore the black floaty bits which were in the container before).

I've bought some Sentinel X400 cleaner and X100 inhibitor. The instructions say the X400 cleaner should be circulated for a minimum of two hours at normal operating temperature and can be left in the system for 3-4 weeks before draining and refilling with the inhibitor. As the heating will not be back on until October, should I add the X400 cleaner now, and just circulate it around the system (radiators) for 10 mins per day as the heating is not on, or should I wait until October before adding it at which point it can work in a heated system? It will get circulated through the primaries and ASHP for 30mins per day during DHW cycles. The heating only ever runs at 32C LWT in October, so maybe not a huge difference to just pumping cool (25C) water round the system now for a few days to clean? I don't expect the system to be full of sludge so it's really a case of just wanting the system to be as clean as possible before refilling with inhibitor and being good to go for the next couple years.

If I don't add it until October, will my system be OK running for two months (DHW only) with just water and no inhibitor?

We are in a soft water area.

We are just starting our heat pump journey, we have a 1962 build 3 bed detached house which has the usual large windows. We did a fair amount of upgrades done when we moved in 15 years ago, re wire, replacing an old floor standing gas boiler with numerous radiator changed from poor performing ones new hot water cylinder and moving to a sealed system, A classified double glazing etc. We have solar and 10kW battery storage and run 2 ev’s.

We have had someone from ARIA to do the initial pitch, lots of videos, slideshows etc and an initial estimate subject to survey. Main concern is their design includes a buffer tank which seems a bit overkill and watching numerous YT videos question their use. Current recommendation is a 6kw outdoor unit and 250l cylinder.

Heat Geek certified installer coming on Monday to do a survey so should get an idea of heat loss and a better idea on cost over initial online estimate.

Did the initial online quote with Octopus, energy provider, requested a call but currently finding it impossible to get anyone to talk to me. Was hoping to get a rough idea of amount of energy used by their heat pumps to get an idea if it is worth increasing my solar battery storage.

Looking for any recommendations for the Reading area for us to consider as it looks like we won’t be having Octopus through the door now.

Sorry for the long intro.

Cheers

Ian

I also worry about AI interactions if a homeowner has, say, a Powerwall and is on an Octopus tariff such as Intelligent Flux or Cosy. I am not sure how all these integrations will work together.

Thoughts?

Your heat pump data is in one app. Your design documents are buried in email. Your maintenance history is somewhere else. Your performance figures might be in a spreadsheet. Your solar, battery and tariff information live in completely separate systems. Then, if the heat pump is replaced, years of useful history can effectively disappear with it.

That is the problem HomeTherma is trying to solve.

HomeTherma is a homeowner platform designed to create a long-term record of your heat pump, your home and, increasingly, your wider home-energy system.

You can use it to record your property, heating system, controls, emitters and hot-water setup; track performance over months, seasons or years; keep a Timeline of changes and upgrades; store documents; manage maintenance; and build a historical record that survives when equipment is replaced.

The deeper you go, the more useful it becomes. HomeTherma can use the information you provide to give context around performance, highlight useful gaps in your record, support comparisons where enough relevant data exists and help you understand what may be worth looking at next.

It is not designed to diagnose faults or replace a heating engineer. The aim is to make homeowners better informed and give them a much clearer picture of their own system.

And it is not just about heat pumps forever. HomeTherma is built around the home itself, so tariffs, solar PV, batteries, EVs and other energy technologies can become part of the same record over time.

Who is it for?

If you own a heat pump and have ever thought:

“I really should keep all this information somewhere.”

“I have no idea where that commissioning document went.”

“I know my system is performing differently, but I cannot easily compare it with last year.”

“I changed something six months ago and now cannot remember exactly when.”

“I wish all of this lived in one place.”

…then HomeTherma is probably for you.

There is a free version, which lets you start building the core record of your home and heating system, track basic performance and preserve your system history.

Premium adds the deeper stuff: Documents, Insights, Benchmarks, Annual Reviews, Energy, Maintenance, advanced performance context and system comparisons.

HomeTherma is still in beta.

That is important. There will be bugs. Some features will change. Some things will undoubtedly need simplifying, improving or completely rethinking as more people use it.

And that is exactly why I am opening it up now.

For the early users who come on board during this beta period, I want the relationship to work both ways. If there is something you think HomeTherma needs in order to make the product genuinely useful for you, tell me. Feature requests and suggestions from early users will get priority while the platform is still being shaped.

I am not interested in building features because they sound clever. I want to build the things homeowners actually use.

To encourage a few more people to get involved at this stage, I am also running an early-adopter offer.

For a limited time, you can get 75% off HomeTherma Premium for life.

Simply use code: EARLYTHERMA

The normal Premium price is £39.99 per year. If you subscribe using EARLYTHERMA during this offer, your 75% discounted rate stays with you for as long as you keep the subscription active.

This is very deliberately an early-user offer. You are getting a substantial discount because you are joining while HomeTherma is still being finalised, tested and improved.

If you do sign up, please push it to the limit. Tell me when something makes no sense. Tell me when something feels unnecessary. Tell me when you think I have missed something obvious. And equally, tell me when something is genuinely useful. There is a full support system for posting tickets.

That feedback is going to shape where HomeTherma goes next.

You can take a look here:

https://hometherma.co.uk/

See you there.

I’m still trying to get my head around heat pumps and how much difference the settings really make to running costs. There seems to be quite a lot of conflicting advice, especially around flow temperature, weather compensation and whether it’s better to let the system run steadily rather than turning it down for parts of the day.

For those who have had an air source heat pump for a while, what changes have made the biggest difference to your electricity usage?

I’m particularly interested in real-world experience rather than manufacturer figures. Things like changing the flow temperature, adjusting the heating curve, improving insulation, or changing the heating schedule.

Also, has anyone found that a small change in settings made a surprisingly big difference to comfort or efficiency?

Would be really interested to hear what has worked (or not worked) for other owners.

In a quiet street and plenty of open bedroom windows as everyone tries to cool down at night,  the first 5 minutes of running at the higher speed is quite noticeable even with the Grant  'Silent Mode' running. Once it drops to c 400 rpm and the compressor slows down it's fine and hardly noticeable. But annoying Silent Mode starts with 5 minutes of noticeable noise.

I can see in the Service Parameters, Heat Pump and then Heat Pump Settings it is possible to manually reduce Maximum Pump Speed from factor of 100 ( presumably the compressor) and Fan Speed from 0 to 4 by reducing rpm from preset ( with maximum of 1000 rpm).

Call to Grant Technical Support says no option to set or link Compressor / Fan speed to 'Summer' mode when just running DHW but OK to manually adjust under Service Parameters to experiment.

Anyone else with a Grant Aerona R290 been operating 'Silent Mode' over night and coming across initial ramping up at start of scheduled slot and using Service Parameters to adjust down?

Thanks in advance, Chris