@jamespa OK. Think I am suffering from info. overload so will read posts again, make notes, and start experimenting tomorrow. Will let you know results.

Posted by: @dwynwen

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@jamespa OK. Think I am suffering from info. overload so will read posts again, make notes, and start experimenting tomorrow. Will let you know results.

 

Sorry, me too suffering from overload, I may have mixed your system up with another on this thread.  I've gone back over my recent posts and edited out any obvious muddles i made (so they should make more sense if you read them again)  However if something doesn't seem to follow when reading the posts do ask, it could well be the mix up. 

If you post the extra info requested upthread when you have time I will read again and suggest experiments to do, but please don't fo them randomly as it will probably make things worse.  These things have to be done in a logical sequence and in combination.  Fundamentally though you are trying to get it running largely without external controls (including preferably without external thermostats) or trvs,  operating most or all of the time, at the lowest possible temperature you can consistent with heating the house.   @rob_cirrus_energy describes above how to do this with the vaillant arotherm, the principles are similar with the Samsung but the detail different.

@dwynwen when I was at the end of my tether (the installer was not responding to me and the system wasn’t working) I did a bit of research and discovered MCS - the Microgeneration Certification Scheme - essentially the governing body for industry standards.

https://mcscertified.com/

If you follow the link, there is a very useful section entitled ‘what to do if things go wrong’ ..

Essentially, if your installer is MCS affiliated, you have redress. If your installer won’t play nicely tomorrow, you can write a formal letter requesting they put right the problems within 14 days. If they do not respond you inform MCS and their complaints procedure is instigated. I mentioned this to my installer and hey presto! - they began to respond appropriately.

Worth a try I think . Good luck 

Posted by: @dwynwen

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thought I was becoming a  serial complainer or finding fault for the sake of it.   A so-called friend said I should be grateful as it was "free" - they also said most of it would be unacceptable in their house! Strange how you begin to doubt yourself when stressed and feel out of your depth.

There is so much I would like to say, how bad I felt when things were unnecessarily destroyed or damaged, so little respect shown for my home. It wasn't posh but it was OK.

As I said earlier, it wasn't free, it was just free to you (and for that you should be grateful, but only if they don't botch it/abuse you). Someone, in your case 'the taxpayer', did pay for it. To turn things round the other way, I could, without wishing to be onerous, almost say you have a duty to the taxpayer who put up the money to see that their money isn't wasted! I might even rhetorically suggest why not ask your so called friend why don't you have a duty to complain! But that is only part of it, there is also the persistent workhouse mentality that still rears its ugly head today. I am absolutely not woke, but I am also absolutely sure that everyone should be treated decently, and I find the idea that because someone has received charity eg a free to them heating system (which 21C Britain should be pretty much a given), they can then be treated like a third rate citizen to be treated like a bit of dirt abhorrent. I have no doubt many others here on the forum and elsewhere are entirely sympathetic to your predicament, and will do what they can to help.

As I said earlier, being the recipient of 'charity' does one's head in, normal thinking gets squeezed out, and we become, in the modern jargon,  disempowered. That is what needs to change, and as I say I am sure there are many here who want to help achieve that.          

Do take heed of @jamespa's advice, be methodical, one step at a time. It makes it easier for both you and us to understand things, and helps reduce information overload.

@jaynieq - unfortunately, MCS are part of the problem, not part of the solution. A headless chicken in search of a fast food outlet pretty much sums them up. But what you do have is this forum.

PS I should add of course add that mention MCS, as you did, is always a card worth playing.       

@jaynieq thanks. Will let you know what happens tomorrow.

@cathoderay wow… I hadn’t realised that about MCS..  I love the analogy! But yes, it did seem to work in my case. 

And workhouse mentality sums it up perfectly. It reduces us to forelock tugging subservients… Or at least, that’s what it did in my case. More fool me! 

@cathoderay First, don't care if you are woke, a lot is just how to live decently.

Thanks for your support. I am usually quite self sufficient but this has demoralised me. You are correct about workhouse mentality, it is alive and well. Having said that most of the sub-contractors have been kind and helpful while pulling my home apart. Don't know what to think, still confused, still cannot believe that skilled tradespeople could be satisfied with less than industry standard work.

Enough. Time for some tea and mindless entertainment. Thank you again for support.

Posted by: @dwynwen

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First, don't care if you are woke, a lot is just how to live decently.

Very briefly, I said I'm not woke! People have managed to live decently (and badly) for 1000s of years without wokery ever coming into it.

@cathoderay Didn't suggest you were woke, said didn't mind if you were.  Always thought woke was used by the hang and flog brigade as an insult against reasonably decent people. My apologies if I offended you.

Posted by: @dwynwen

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My apologies if I offended you.

Not at all. Woke is used the way you suggest but it can also be used by more moderate people to mean excessive sensitivity to other people's feelings, to the point where things that need to be said don't get said. The point I was trying to make is that treating people decently is a universal timeless good, it doesn't rely on nor is it based on being woke. Now time for mindless entertainment for us all!  

@jaynieq MCS are completely toothless as has been explained above. Do you know if your installer is registered with HIES? If they are, there’s far more chance of getting a positive resolution.

ECO4, and the previous iterations, are funded by Energy suppliers being legally obligated to help reduce the nation's carbon footprint. ECO4 does this by funding lower income people and people in certain areas of disability to improve their footprint and in doing so help them reduce their energy costs. It is not taxpayer funded and recipients are entitled to it. As has been said, it is not "free" and there is no reason for an install under it to be second rate.

The way people here have been treated reminds me of our experience getting Matt's extension built under a DFG grant. The council numpty who came for the initial survey, someone who had been doing this for 20+ years had (and has) ZERO consideration for the wellbeing of the user, ZERO consideration for the continuing lifestyle of others in the dwelling BUT he was/is a normal example of the people a Council uses. We fought for 18 months to get what Matt required to meet his MS needs. Stupidly, what I demanded has cost less than would have been the case. At the time it made me think, and write to our MP (useful as a chocolate fireguard !! ) , about how many people in Matt's position, and worse, do NOT have someone around to moderate the useless  Social Care System the UK is  saddled with :

and how much public money is wasted by idiots specifying equipment/buildings that are not suitable for (and so need replacing/amending) the use intended.

Above is slightly off topic I know but the point is the system takes advantage (of people that can least fight it) in the same way as some contractors seem to be doing with ECO4.