@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.

@jwilliams89, when you get your quotes feel free to start a new thread pertaining to your property, and if there's anything that sounds odd or you want feedback, please drop it in there.

On an installation note, something that doesn’t make much news is Octopus’ heat pump roll out, which I guess is a sign they’re doing a decent job. Is there anyone on the forums that has had a heat pump installed by Octopus?

@editor I din’t have an installation carried out by OE but… I did request a survey with a view to having them install an ASHP in the initial days of their entry into installations of same.

Two engineers spent 3 hours here doing a very exhaustive survey; one electrician and one plumber each carried out an inspection of every aspect relevant to their interests. They even checked the water pressure on the outside water supply (the furthest point in the pipework to the house), they also took numerous photos of the inside and outside of the house, including details of drains, downpipes and brickwork! We spoke at length about my wishes, the siting of components, space available for a DHW tank etc. Every room was measured, heat loss calculated; the need for replacement radiators and their siting in the various rooms. Scaffolding to H&S guidelines was another consideration due to an  acrylic patio roofing structure that would restrict access to brickwork for pipework to the airing cupboard wall.

Due to my specific needs regarding the siting of the monobloc and the difficulty of siting a DHW tank, there was some difficulties in stating that they could actually carry out an installation.

In the early days of OE carrying out HP installations, they were working on a fairly narrow range of installation situations at that time and they didn’t think that their ‘scope of work’ would quite cover my situation as yet.

Over some weeks, the possible installation was discussed by e-mail with the office-based planning people but, in the end, we agreed to call off the application for an installation.

I found the whole team very genuine and that they were bending over backwards to try and accommodate my specific requests. I will forever be grateful to OE for their assistance and the way in which they helped me to consolidate my plans for a working ASHP +DHW installation. I learnt a great deal from their team and would certainly have chosen to have them install had it been practical and possible at that time. Regards, Toodles.

Posted by: @editor

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On an installation note, something that doesn’t make much news is Octopus’ heat pump roll out, which I guess is a sign they’re doing a decent job. Is there anyone on the forums that has had a heat pump installed by Octopus?

Having seen a photo of the new Octopus heat pump unit I'm glad the declined to quote.  A purple box is not going to blend into the background.

Posted by: @noburn

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Having seen a photo of the new Octopus heat pump unit I'm glad the declined to quote.  A purple box is not going to blend into the background.

😆 😆 😆 

Greg Jackson might like it, but not everyone wants a bright purple waste bin on their patio.

@noburn At the time of my survey, Octopus were installing Daikin heat pumps such as the one I had installed by Cinergi later. I suspect that some installation might get the Adam from Heat Geek treatment and have a tarpaulin thrown over them! (Adam was doing some silly things by restricting the air flow to a heat pump to sort of prove a point!) Regards, Toodles.

The installer seems to be gaining some national notoriety. See from 22:50 onwards. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001vnfx/rip-off-britain-series-15-40-my-house-is-a-building-site  

And good Lord, I just took a look at their Trust Pilot feedback, wish I hadn't! Some quite distressed individuals.

I inherited my ASHP (NIBE F2040) when we moved into our bungalow in 2019. System installed 2015.

I voted 'poor' in above survey, but almost chose the worse rating.  Costs to run my ASHP are exorbitant in winter months.  Twice that compared to my previous 4 bedroom house which was Gas Centrally Heated. Our ASHP is regularly serviced by NIBE trained engineers but they are unable to improve efficiency. I have reached out to a few local ASHP installers to request they assess the existing installation for anything that could be improved but no one will entertain this.

Home insulation has been assessed and rated very good (nothing more to do).  I have solar panels and solar water heating.

Previous system was an Oil Boiler and wish it was still here.

Posted by: @tp1964

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I inherited my ASHP (NIBE F2040) when we moved into our bungalow in 2019. System installed 2015.

I voted 'poor' in above survey, but almost chose the worse rating.  Costs to run my ASHP are exorbitant in winter months.  Twice that compared to my previous 4 bedroom house which was Gas Centrally Heated. Our ASHP is regularly serviced by NIBE trained engineers but they are unable to improve efficiency. I have reached out to a few local ASHP installers to request they assess the existing installation for anything that could be improved but no one will entertain this.

Home insulation has been assessed and rated very good (nothing more to do).  I have solar panels and solar water heating.

Previous system was an Oil Boiler and wish it was still here.

 

If you would care to provide more details, with wide angle and close-up photo's, we may be able to identify problems and suggest improvements.