Sorry to hear that. 

When you say the company was a subcontractor, subcontractor to who?  The company that took the money from whoever paid is responsible in law even if they subbed it out!  

I can't advise on complaining (because the experience of many here suggest it's quite likely to be a waste of time) but if you share what the problems are that you experience and what the engineer said was wrong, as well as some details of house and installation, I might be able to suggest ways forward.  Personally I think that on situations like this, self help is often the best help.  Frequently when broken down problems aren't as intractable as they first seem.

I would probably in any case suggest contacting Grant and being persistent, they won't want their reputation damaged.

The installer managing all the work was EnergySmart.  I didnt realise it at the time but the company who did the actual work of installation was called Building for Humanity who I believe have gone out of business. 

When I tried to get a service done, some of the problems pointed out were an incorrect positioning of the heat pump, too close to an exterior wall,  It wasnt mounted on a solid surface, just on gravel.  Poor exterior insulation and none at all where pipes went through an exterior wall.  Incorrectly fitted controls.  No system filtration.  System running on microbore pipework when I was told originally it would be changed.  Radiators were changed but we are lucky to get to 30deg C radiator temp.  No proper commissioning or handover carried out.  We were never given an MCS Cert for the installation, I have just had to obtain that seperately.  

I have tried Grant initially but the response was basically they have no control of poor installation issues.

All a bit of a nightmare!

Sorry to hear that.  Quite a lot of that (except the microbore pipework which may or may not actually need changing) is fairly easy to fix, but some is more difficult.  Some may be mischief making ie not a real issue.  BTW the reason for changing radiators is so that they can run cool whilst still giving out enough heat, so you shouldn't necessarily expect them to get particularly hot.

If you want to fix this you will need to get more specific.  This is the case whether you attempt some self help or want to escalate a complaint.

1. Who actually paid money to who (ie who was the contract between)?  If you dont know that, who did you sign a document with and what did it say?

2. Leaving aside what you have been told by someone who may be motivated to rubbish the system, can we focus on the user experience.  What actual problems are you experiencing with heating, eg are you warm enough when the heat pump is left on 24x7 or not?  What other problems are you directly experiencing?  Please be specific if you want advice.

Ask one of the mods to message me and I will put you in contact with someone who went through the same situation. 

Thanks JamesPa.  I think the problems started from the original design. There is EnergySmart saying that they will replace the microbore pipework and then the installers who said it didn't need doing.  I understand a system can be run on microbore but what adaptions are needed and how do I know this has been taken into account?  I also understand why the radiators have been changed to double panel units, but we are lucky to get a surface temperature of any more than 28 to 29Deg C.  And in general the house (it is actually a stone built converted chapel) does not feel as warm a it used to.  We very rarely get a temperature of more than 19deg C on the controller, low 20s was the previous norm.

Project management of the installation was poor.  The team from Building for Humanity did the installation work.  I did have to call them back a few weeks later because there is some sort of expansion vessel in the system.  Instead of being mounted in a proper mounting bracket (which are available) it was cable tied to an anchor in the wall, very precariously.

After the installation was complete, along came an electrician to wire it up.  Job done, switched on, but no final commissioning visit to make sure it is set up and running correctly and to explain how it works.  I fell into the trap of setting the timing system to run like it was operating a combi boiler, but after buying the Bodge Buster book I saw recommended on here that I realised that was the wrong way to operate it.  Having it simmering away in the background so to speak does give a better result.

The installers never gave any info about service requirements, which is why I looked for someone myself, on the Grant website.  I understand your point about mischief making but I think the comments raised about why a service could not be done because of the installation standards are valid.

The cost was paid by Durham County Council on an Eco4 warm homes scheme triggered by my wife's health issues.  Now we have a not quite so warm house.  Even though paid by someone else..that should not be an excuse for a lesser standard of service or installation.

Domestic Hot Water is an issue as well.  Sometimes it is fine, most of the time not quite as hot as it was from the gas fired combi boiler, other times..none at all.  There is an immersion heater but the switch is in the garage by the system.  A little bit of good planning would have been to extend this into the house so we don't have to go outside and into the garage to switch it on.

Isn't there some sort of adjudication system or third party audit that can come along, have a look at a system and say either yes, it is has been installed correctly and is operating as it should, or the opposite, poorly designed and installed and not capable of operating properly unless the identified points are addressed?

Thanks

(PS to be fair, EnergySmart did have some very good staff mainly a couple of plasters who did a great job finishing off after roof insulation fitted. Not an easy house to do as they needed internal scaffolding!)

@wesleyp1874 

OK so the installation was paid for by Durham County Council.  Do you know who they paid?

However lets focus first on you.   From what you say this is quite possibly easily fixed by some simple adjustments that you can make, but to be certain we need a bit more info:

You say

• the DHW works most of the time.  Please ignore the fact it isn't as warm as previously - thats actually a good sign - it means its been set up with a thought to efficiency.  The real question is - is it warm enough and if not for what is it not warm enough and how far out is it.  Please describe the symptoms and circumstamnces?
• The house rarely gets to more than 19C.  How do you run your heating.  The optimum way is 24x7 with TRVs and thermostats turned to maximum.  You then adjust the weather compensation curve so the house is at the right temperature.  Are you running it 24x7 or are you (or a thermostat somewhere) turning it on and off?  Have you turned your thermostats and TRVs up to full?  Do you know what your heat curve/weather compensation settings are?

Honestly from what you say I think its quite probable you dont have a major problem that cant be easily fixed by control tweaks, but to be certain you need to provide more info.

What model of Grant heat pump do you have exactly and do you have the design documentation for the system?

Posted by: @wesleyp1874

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Isn't there some sort of adjudication system or third party audit that can come along, have a look at a system and say either yes, it is has been installed correctly and is operating as it should, or the opposite, poorly designed and installed and not capable of operating properly unless the identified points are addressed?

Not really, and even if they did its unlikely to help based on what we see on this forum.  There are complaint routes but they rarely succeed, so lets cross that bridge if we identify there is an actual problem that cant be fixed by some simple tweaks to the controls. 

If you answer the questions in bold italics we can take the next step.