@toodles Thank you so much! I have some heat at least now, had to turn LWT up to 40 as just didn't come on. But seems to be ticking over nicely now slowly raising the temp. Although I think rads need balancing, had already suspected that as it's been so much hotter on upstairs ones. Heard today from the Daikin installers that someone from Daikin head office coming out on Thursday, they were going to pop over tomorrow to stop me over heating but told them what I have done and think I will be ok ticking over like this now until then to save the poor girl coming back again, she's been amazing all things considering.

I think my installers were in the right ball-park when they designed the system, although i may decide that a smaller hp might have been ok, i won't know til I've finished the insulation and been through a winter with the hp (was commissioned feb 23).

Schoolboy errors during the installation that i had to point out though: no circulation pump fitted on the house side of the lowlossheader/volumiser; and the expansion vessel connected on the wrong side of the cold water checkvalve - so it would vent through the pressure relief valve when the water was heating. They were setting the parameters by rote rather than understanding (i was asking technical questions and in the end he said i might as well do the setup myself as i knew more than he did), but to be fair, they had set WC to on, which judging by other's experience, earns then a few brownie points.

Some of you might recall I've added a few topics in the last few months researching Eco 4 and best ASHP practice. We bought a little house in Dumfries and Galloway last autumn and I've been renovating it since then. When we moved in I contacted a company fitting ASHP under the Eco 4 scheme called Eco Providers Ltd from Clitheroe area.

For those who don't know, the scheme has big draw backs, mostly in terms of the massive lack of regulation in terms of quality of job done, and I found that the system designers were designing a system which was basically the opposite of good practice, partially due to the way the scheme is set up. However, our funds are extremely limited so it was a case of needs must. At the beginning of December I was in the middle of deciding between two different companies, only to be told by the rep from this company that they would have the system fully installed by Christmas.

After weeks of not hearing from them I finally got back through to them in the second week of January, needless to say nothing had been done by christmas nevermind a full system. They seem to take the viewpoint that because customers are approaching them from a position of need that they can be treated with dismissal and a complete lack of care.

All in all to say that I finally had to complain today having still heard nothing concrete from them only to be told (after two months of waiting) by the manager that they no longer wanted to complete the job. When I told him this would leave a family with 2 kids without any heating or hot water and a house still only halfway renovated due to having to wait for the heating etc he accused me of being duplicitous and put the phone down. It's crazy that folk who are struggling are having to deal with companies like this. All in all to say I heartily DON'T recommend Eco Providers Ltd!

The Eco 4 scheme also has massive holes in it, it's really not fit for purpose. At this point it looks like we'll have to either live in a building site (walls down dust everywhere no heating) for a few months, or in a caravan. One of our only real options, being in Scotland, is the Home Energy grants and loans scheme.

This will provide some of the money as a grant, and the rest as an interest free loan, and we would engage a company ourselves. The obvious benefit of this would be that we can find the best company possible who will provide an efficient and bespoke package.

The downside is taking on over £12000 of loan we didn't expect to have. So we're looking for a company, or companies, to contact who are either in the south/middle belt of Scotland, or the North of England. I've rung Greenhome Heating already as they seem to be good, can anyone recommend other companies who they have good experiences of? Thanks!

@witchcraft, I’ve been looking through old posts and was curious to see whether you were able to make inroads with MCS with your complaint?

What a fiasco, promised over and over that I could get an interest free loan in Scotland for a GSHP from Home Energy Scotland / Energy saving trust absolute nightmare. The whole system is rigged not to help, limited "approved installers" after many applications and even as far as the money will be in the bank this week, never had a penny. 

The GSHP system they recommended in 2013 is still not right now in 2024 had a second NAPIT inspector this week, awaiting any help from MCS, RECC, all just interested in the fees they get from members.

I could write a book on the fiasco of just getting a heating system and another on the failed grant or loan systems and all the companies who make vast sums stopping people getting help which is money from the government.

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Not sure how to vote, current install is good, very pleased, but it replaced another that was like a kafka novel.

If you haven’t done so already, please can you vote on this poll, rating how you feel about your heat pump installation? Simply choose the option that matches your experience.

@editor I voted perfect 🙂

@jwilliams89 

are Heacol close enough? https://heacol.co.uk And the boss posts in this forum using@heacol

@editor No, Travis Perkins took them to court at the same time as I did and they put the company into insolvency and made the director bankrupt (my court case two days later would have had the same effect).  Long story short MCS are quite hopeless, my installer (and seemingly lots of others), were simply plumbers who know very little about ASHPs but have jumped on the green bandwagon, if you want something sorted go to the courts (it is much easier than you would think), I can pretty much commission Valiant HPs now.  To be fair Valiant themselves throughout have been really good and very supportive.

@witchcraft In england courts seem fine, sadly Scotland seems a lot more complicated, if I was in England I would have put it in court in no time

@judith Thanks, I've found two local companies who seem ok and are saying the right things so I'm getting quotes from them to see how it looks.