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Gaslighting in the heat pump industry – has anyone else experienced this?

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Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHPs)

Last Post by Batpred 8 months ago

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Mars

(@editor)

Illustrious Member Admin

Joined: 6 years ago

Posts: 4874

Topic starter 07/02/2026 10:08 pm

What’s remarkable from this very short thread is just how different all the audits are, and there’s no consistency into what’s looked and evaluated.

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Fiona

(@fiona)

Eminent Member Member

Joined: 2 years ago

Posts: 23

09/02/2026 11:10 am

Posted by: @editor

↑

This is something I’ve been aware of for a long time, but it’s becoming more noticeable and I’m increasingly concerned by how often it comes up when homeowners start digging into problems with their heat pump systems.

When things go wrong, there seems to be a fairly consistent pattern across parts of the industry (installers, manufacturers, certification bodies, consumer codes and others) where responsibility is subtly deflected away from the installation itself and placed back onto the homeowner. Poor performance becomes 'expected behaviour', missing design documents are said to have "definitely been provided", high running costs are blamed on how the system was "used" and genuine concerns are reframed as misunderstandings rather than addressed head-on.

I’m seeing this more and more, not less, and I think it’s a problem the industry needs to be far more honest about if it wants to build trust with homeowners.

I’m going to work on a video looking at how this kind of gaslighting shows up in the heat pump world, how to spot it and what homeowners can do when they feel they’re being deflected rather than helped.

If you’ve experienced this yourself (whether from an installer, MCS, a consumer code, a certification body or anyone else involved) feel free to share your experience here. It doesn’t need to be a rant (but it can be if you want) and you don’t need to name names unless you want to. Examples, patterns or even just a "this sounds familiar" are all useful.

Don't want to go public? DM me.

I think this is a conversation worth having and it’d be good to see how widespread these experiences actually are.

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Fiona

(@fiona)

Eminent Member Member

Joined: 2 years ago

Posts: 23

09/02/2026 11:13 am

I wanted to comment as have been recently thinking exactly the same thing. That there appears to be a lot of gaslighting going on especially in some of the chats on Facebook for example where people who say they have problems with their heat pump are made to feel stupid or that it’s their fault they’re having a problem. So thank you for highlighting this!

👍

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Batpred

(@batpred)

Noble Member Member

Joined: 2 years ago

Posts: 1158

09/02/2026 7:29 pm

Posted by: @fiona

↑

That there appears to be a lot of gaslighting going on especially in some of the chats on Facebook for example where people who say they have problems with their heat pump are made to feel stupid or that it’s their fault they’re having a problem. So thank you for highlighting this!

Yes, anyone trying to get a sense of what a heatpump will look like specially in term of SCOP and running ££ via the quick question/comment/reply that tends to be the norm in Facebook must be easily confused. Simple for an installer looking to get some leads via FB and possibly an admin to provide a quick reply and force the poster into a long explanation. Few do it...

Much better to read the book and some of the posts here to get a real sense I think

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