Welcome to the forums @deltona.

What a shocker!

I’m going to be very blunt here, because this is exactly the kind of practice that leads to poor performance, angry homeowners and heat pumps getting ripped out a few years later.

The Ecoheat angle is a massive warning sign. If anything goes wrong with this system in two or three years, you are completely exposed. Parts availability, technical support, warranty escalation… all of that suddenly matters, and this is where these installs fall apart.

I get several emails from Chinese OEMs every week, and they’re cheap. Really cheap! 

This is advice I give everyone: only buy recognised heat pump brands with a proper UK presence, published data, real warranties and established technical support. If anything goes wrong with an obscure unit like this, you’re stuck, and it will be you, not the installer, picking up the pieces.

If you’re comfortable doing so, I’d strongly encourage you to name the installer too. Not to witch-hunt, but because this is exactly the kind of practice other homeowners need visibility of.

You were absolutely right to challenge the numbers. Walking away from this was the correct decision.

@deltona

Rings just about every alarm bell going. Walk away and congratulate yourself on doing due diligence.

Posted by: @bontwoody

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Rings just about every alarm bell going. Walk away and congratulate yourself on doing due diligence.

🎄 Dashing through the quotes,

On a BUS that’s gone astray…

Ecoheat and mystery maths,

No thanks... not today!

Jingle bells, warning bells,

Alarm bells all the way…

Oh what fun it is to spot a bodge

And walk the hell away!🎄 

Sorry hit 'add reply' too early, this forum layout will take some getting used to, never used a Wordpress forum before. Registering was messy.

That ^ is their latest ad, it wasn't live when I applied, but adds to the weirdness and what he refers to in his response to me.

@editor Don't worry about being blunt, i'm from Yorkshire 🤣 

Things which will stop me from posting are overbearing moderators, having my posts withheld for moderation* and them being changed, that's two steps too far for me. I've seen Social media become unsocial media since it's birth to what it is now, it's not good.

* Edit that seems to have lifted now, understandable.

Exactly how cheap is a cheap heat pump?

I think that is part of why the deal fell apart, but not completely. Why he's not willing to negotiate further I don't know, maybe I've backed him into a corner. I think i'm right in saying his extras part list is fiction.

Something else I never mentioned was time scales, all of this happened very quickly. On the one hand it's impressive efficiency, on the other you wonder if it's done on purpose so you don't get thinking and research time, just carried away with the idea of free goodies. Also the fact that a decent tradesman shouldn't be able to quote a job one week and fit it the next, they should be booked up for a few weeks in advance.

There is another interesting angle and that's that people are going to be thinking of fitting their own now and in the future. The manufacturers are moving that way. Right now a keen DIYer can take a gas Combi out and put another one in it's place, it's not difficult. All you will fall foul of is not complying with certain Regs and really, it's your house so that's up to you. I put a full heating system in my last house and a full rewire too, it was never an issue.

So the same will be for ASHP, once the system is in place and working you've got something solid in front of you to look at and replace/add to or adjust accordingly. So if this chap ASHP only did us a few years we would still be quids in as I could then get my own and replace it. By that time prices will perhaps have fallen, pumps will be even more advanced as will knowledge. Right now you can buy ready to fit ASHP with cylinder with the plumbing already done, ready to drop into place and connect up.

The industry will 'dumb down' products for idiots and unskilled to fit, it always has done. 

At this point I have to say I am a tradesman and have been for decades so have the tools and knowledge that comes with that. Although not a Sparky, plumber nor heating engineer, I have dabbled as trades can and do overlap.

So when I look at it from that POV then it's a heating system for free for me to work with in the future. On that basis alone I could back down and get them in, but I think first I'll try find someone local who does BUS and get some alternative quotes.

Oh and also time to buy your book and digest it.

@deltona Agree that contractors grabbing ECO4 contracts, speed, no time to understand what you have agreed to. So called tradespeople move into your home and take over. 12 months after I agreed to the retrofit I still have a heating system that doesn't work, back to wood burning stove for heating and still so much remedial work needed inside and outside.  Everything seemed to be tick box exercises  to be completed against the clock without thought that this was my home. 

It is so frustrating as I have always done a lot of maintenance myself and employed skilled, trusted tradespeople for jobs beyond me. Now I am not well and can no longer afford or have the ability to put any of this right myself. Can't explain how I feel, insulted; hurt, not worth having a decent job, anything goes, diminished.

Don't know who owns the installation but I am tempted to advertise on eBay and use sale money  to make my home comfortable again.  

@dwynwen Do you know whether the ECO4 installation is carried out for the benefit of the house - or the occupant(s)? Regards, Toodles.

@toodles Don't wish to be offensive but what a silly question. It is obviously for the benefit of contractors, numerous layers of bureaucracy, and all the others with their spoons in the retrofit pie, or gravy train or whatever the expression.

When I first complained I was told by local councillor that I should be grateful as I had tens of thousands of pounds worth of work for nothing. He declined to visit to see the installation, the lack of respect for my home and its surroundings.

Posted by: @dwynwen

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@toodles Don't wish to be offensive but what a silly question. It is obviously for the benefit of contractors, numerous layers of bureaucracy, and all the others with their spoons in the retrofit pie, or gravy train or whatever the expression.

When I first complained I was told by local councillor that I should be grateful as I had tens of thousands of pounds worth of work for nothing. He declined to visit to see the installation, the lack of respect for my home and its surroundings.

@dwynwen, I have plenty of sympathy for what you're saying and we've had many forum members expressing similar views. I think, though, that even within that context @toodles was just trying to find out if the theoretical intended recipient of those dubious "benefits" is the owner of the house or the occupant. Obviously, whatever's delivered - however well or badly - will become owned by the owner of the house but it's less clear whether it's the property owner or occupant who is the "customer" that is supposed to be consulted (or ignored) within the Eco4 process. That's not quite so silly a question as it might first seem.

Can you take this debate elsewhere please, it has nothing to do with me or this thread.

Thank you.

@majordennisbloodnok 

Thank you for that. My answer was light hearted sarcasm, OK, lowest form.... and,  as I said, not meant to be offensive in any way.

I thought the scheme was for the long term benefit of the environment, climate change mitigation, a safer future for children and grandchildren. And, of course, for the relatively short term benefit of the occupant, whether tenant or owner.

Perhaps I should sign off as Eccles.... think that was the dozy Goon.