@goody does your FTC have a Mirsubishi WiFi interface module connected (small white cabled box with a series of indicator lights)?

Posted by: @skd

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@goody does your FTC have a Mirsubishi WiFi interface module connected (small white cabled box with a series of indicator lights)?

 

Posted by: @goody

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@skd

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There is not a system to select

There are tutorials on youtube that go through the procedure.  I can't attach links here, but if you search "MelCloud wifi connect" on youtube a number of short walk-through videos should come up.

Posted by: @goody

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Out of curiosity what type of house do you live in?

Small listed semi-detached cottage, original parts from mid 1700s, with later additions. All solid stone walls apart from 1980s addition of one bedroom and upstairs bathroom with cavity walls. Single glazed throughout with some secondary glazing added by me, more to be added. Many of the windows double up as ventilation grilles, the irregular cast iron casements in shallow irregular rebates in oak frames means you can see daylight between them in places. Short of injecting mastic everywhere there is no practical way they can be sealed of themselves, but the secondary glazing does go a long way towards stopping the leaks. Being listed is important, it matters of itself, and has knock on effects eg removes permitted development option.

One or two of the installers I approached said I couldn't have a heat pump, wrong sort of building. On the plus side, credit for giving their honest opinion (which is what it was, opinion, not fact), rather than flogging me a system anyway. I took them outside and invited them to take a look at the dozen or two surrounding properties, and point out those that could have a heat pump. There weren't any. I then asked how was the government going to meet its targets for ASHP installations if ASHPs are so crap they can't be installed in old leaky buildings, and then, while waiting for their answer (there wasn't one),  asked what sort of heating do they suggest should be fitted to old leaking buildings off the gas grid when the government bans new fossil fuel systems. Again, no answer.

There is a vast amount of air-headery about this whole business. I took a very pragmatic view: I needed heating, using standard mains electric heaters was prohibitively expensive and woefully inadequate (mean indoor winter temp over last few winters 11 degrees), fossil fuels are on the way out (I had oil before until the 25 year old tank developed a truly minute leak that nonetheless condemned it), the bottom line is we need to make ASHPs work in buildings like mine, and the only way to do that is to try and see how to make one work.

The whole process took over a year. It was a gruelling marathon which nearly cost me my sanity. I could have just replaced the oil tank, at a fraction of the cost, and be done with it, but I decided to 'do the right thing', and go green, only to come across obstacle after obstacle, all caused ultimately by the authorities that are supposed to be promoting heat pumps. Both my local councillor, a nominally green Lib Dem, and my MP, a true blue Tory, were useless. My point is that putting so many obstacles in the way, from the pig-headed stubbornness of 'you can't have a heat pump in your sort of building', through  the many regulatory obstacles, to the gamut of incompetent installers (I've seen my fair share of them), means home owners need almost superhuman powers of endurance to even get a heat pump installed. It simply shouldn't be like that.

Its early days, I haven't had the heat pump for a whole heating season yet, but an early assessment is that it is fine for DHW, and is also fine in mild weather, with running costs on a par with oil, but it is both inadequate and very expensive in cold weather - which is of course the Achilles heel of heat pumps. Only when I have a full heating season's use of the heat pump will I be able to say whether the lower costs in milder weather offset the greater costs in colder weather. Come the spring, all will be revealed!

Posted by: @cathoderay

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[...] means home owners need almost superhuman powers of endurance to even get a heat pump installed. It simply shouldn't be like that.

You don't need them, but the problem is that you MAY need them. No, it shouldn't be like that.

Posted by: @goody

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The controller is in the airing cupboard in the bathroom. It was inaccessible, until i relocated to just inside the airing cupboard door after Hero Renewables left.

Yeah, that's still going to mean that the room temperature sensor on it won't reflect the house temperature, so using "auto adaptation" and "room" modes won't wok well. Outside the airing cupboard door would be better. Outside the bathroom door would be even better.

I wonder if a crude test of a heat pump installer is where they want to put the main control. If it's shoved in a cupboard or completely inaccessible, like an old boiler control, then they may well be intending to install a boiler-like system with an external on/off switching controller, so run away.

Posted by: @oswiu

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@goody my greatest simpathy goes out to you. It is so annoying that these systems in place to supposedly protect consumers are least helpful when most needed. If they were forced to protect consumers even after the installers went bust then I would guess that they'd be unwilling to allow these cowboys to operate in the first place.

MCS, Trustmark and a whole lot of similar trademark licensing schemes are just another sort of cowboys, aren't they? They charge money up front for their brand and require a load of hoops to be jumped through, with almost as many about use of the logo as anything practical, then if they turn out to have licensed it to someone incompetent, they terminate the licensing and tell ripped-off consumers to go fondle themselves!

Meanwhile, the licensee has been able to charge more (overcharge?) for their incompetent work because people misunderstand "MCS" as something that can help them if there's any problem, rather than insist on real guarantees from manufacturers and insurers. As you say, they should have to stand behind work that was done while the installer was using their brand, including if the installer was doing so illegitimately if the brand licensor does not offer a website and a phone number for people to validate brand users' registration numbers.

Posted by: @goody

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Can anyone recommend an installer who is extremely knowledgable with gas boilers and air source heat pumps around the Cheshire/Staffordshire/Stoke on Trent area?

Looking at the Transition Towns site, the following groups in your area may have relevant expertise and recommendations of installers:

• Congleton Sustainability Group
• Transition Chester
• The Stoke Model, Stoke on Trent
• Transition Northwich

There are others in the same geographical area, but the ones above have provided an explanation of what they actually do, and that text mentions 'energy'.

Please provide feedback here if any of these groups turn out to be particularly helpful, or knowledgeable about heat-pumps.

Posted by: @transparent

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Posted by: @goody

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Can anyone recommend an installer who is extremely knowledgable with gas boilers and air source heat pumps around the Cheshire/Staffordshire/Stoke on Trent area?

Looking at the Transition Towns site, the following groups in your area may have relevant expertise and recommendations of installers:

• Congleton Sustainability Group
• Transition Chester
• The Stoke Model, Stoke on Trent
• Transition Northwich

There are others in the same geographical area, but the ones above have provided an explanation of what they actually do, and that text mentions 'energy'.

Please provide feedback here if any of these groups turn out to be particularly helpful, or knowledgeable about heat-pumps.

Sorry to resurrect, but did you have any luck tweaking the system to have better efficiency, @goody? 

Hi,

Can anyone recommend a good, reliable and trustworthy ASHP installer in the north Hampshire area. I have a Mitsubishi ECODAN. The installer I reached out to was less than complimentary about ECODANs and wouldn't touch it!

I wasn't sure where to post this, I thought I had seen a generic thread where members could recommend installers but I've not been able to find it.

Thanks
Rob

I'm not sure if they go as far as North Hampshire, but worth asking the question nonetheless. The people we used for our Ecodan are Dore Woodman, based in Gatwick. Do a search for them on this forum and you'll find plenty of posts from me detailing our experience of them - positive, I might add.

Posted by: @marcexec

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Sorry to resurrect, but did you have any luck tweaking the system to have better efficiency, @goody? 

@marcexec Hi, after having couple of winters where the electricity was costing me over £30 a day, in Feb 2025, I decided to have the air source heat pump removed and replaced with a combi at a cost of £2600. Bearing in mind with recent energy price fluctuations, our bill has gone down by about a third £3000 to £1900 and our well insulated 1930's home is now once again ...WARM . Thanks