@hcas I do agree, such a pity that they slipped on such a silly thing. I do not like when the sales spirit, I'm a sales trainer myself, overrides the service quality first approach. Anyhow the first question I'm going to ask on the 21st will be about the thermostat.

@ivanopinion They do not give an option to adjust the weather compensation yourself. There is no way of seeing flow temperature data, energy data or SCOP right now. I spoke to a guy at the Aira stand at Everything Electric Harrogate, they say they monitor the performance of the heat pump for you and have access to lots of data back end. It will modulate the flow temperature depending on the current outside temperate, they also say they use weather forecasts to adjust the system in advance. They can adjust weather compensation in the background if needed. The only datapoint I will currently have to work on, is from my smart meter half hourly energy usage. It will be hard to tell if the heat pump is cycling too much right now. I'll post some screen shots from the app. I think this hands off approach will suit a lot of people though who just want a cosy house.

Posted by: @mikeh

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I think this hands off approach will suit a lot of people though who just want a cosy house.

I imagine you are right. If my parents got a ASHP, for instance, they would just want the simplest operation. I'm trying to tell myself that even though this means Aira will operate sub-optimally, it is probably only going to cost an extra £100 or so of electric, so not worth paying thousands more for an optimal system. But I think it will continually niggle with me.

 

@ivanopinion It niffs of ‘Granny knows best’ I think.😧 With Homely, I am able to see what and when; this does provide food for the inquisitive mind.   Regards, Toodles.

Update from the final (ish) day. The lagging has all been completed and the large trunking has been closed up. The heat pump's feet were levelled and all areas of work have been hooved up and cleaned down. There is some rubbish left in the front garden but there is a waste collection due on today. A few areas needed a bit of a further clean down after they left and one of the carpets needed further attention and needed pushing into the grippers more. But over all, they left the job looking clean and tidy. The big issue is that we still have no further update on the lack of thermostat. I wasn't at home at the end friday when they left, but I told my wife to not sign anything or if they insisted, to note only hot water completed. But they didn't ask for any signature. I emailed Friday while they were still on site, but didn't hear back. I will be calling today to get an update.

The heating did come, on Saturday morning when we really didn't need it but luckily it didn't stay on long as we have no way of stopping it! I'm guessing but I think it must have dropped to maybe 13 degrees outside and triggered it to come on until it warmed up outside. It showed that the radiators still need work, as two did not warm up at all. Which is not a surprise with no radiator balancing taking place, with 6 new radiators and the new heat pump down stairs rather than boiler in loft.

On the upside, I'm impressed so far with sound levels and the amount of hot water achieved. We had guest staying all weekend and it never ran short of hot water with 4 adults and 2 kids showing. I'll keep in touch with how the call back goes.

@mikeh, please share some photos when you get a chance. Would be good to see it.

Posted by: @mikeh

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lack of thermostat.

Really wouldn't fret too much, the thermostat on a heat pump should only be treated as a house over heat cutout, so set a degree or two above target temperature. Normal day to day running, the thermostat should not even come into play. Your WC curve taking care of the heating itself. It should also auto sense how much heat is needed by the return temperature and dT and modulate output or even stop based on that. Basics are more heat being extracted from radiators, the more the return temp drops, so more energy added by heat pump to compensate. Opposite true for less work being done.

@johnmo Surely there is some means of ‘programming’ your preferences for a heating schedule - or is this all built into the non-existent thermostat? Toodles.

@mikeh Interesting comment about radiator balancing. When would that take place?

@hcas I’m not mikeh of course but I did write an article on the subject:

https://renewableheatinghub.co.uk/how-to-balance-radiators-the-role-of-the-lockshield-valve

Of course, the installers should be carrying out this work upon completing the installation as part of the commissioning. Mine was unfortunately carried out on a very mild day in February and as I knew they were itching to go home after a gruelling 3 weeks of installation work(!) [don’t ask] and the day had been a very long one, I suggested they do a cursory check that all radiators were heating up at a reasonable rate and leave the balancing to me to do later. Regards, Toodles.

Yeah the problem is that they couldn't even do a cursory check because they couldn't force the system to heat up. I feel a bit better knowing that they weren't feeding me a BS line about the system automatically kicking in when the outside temperature drops. At least I know now that the the system will heat up now. my assumption is that they will have to come back to sync the new thermostat when ever that is ready and at that point they will balance the rads. Just need to get that confirmed now. 

Posted by: @toodles

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@johnmo Surely there is some means of ‘programming’ your preferences for a heating schedule - or is this all built into the non-existent thermostat? Toodles.

Not much of a fan of programming time schedules for heat pumps (unless doing batch charge heating a floor), just leave to heat based on WC, set back a little if you must - but mostly a comfort thing rather than energy saving in reality.

Mine is effectively either cooling or heating mode and nothing in-between. Currently switched between the two modes by a thermostat, but thinking of replacing that with a hard wired switch.