Posted by: @editor

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Ultimate Renewables will be able to improve the quality of installations by educating the installer base.

I know there are very experienced experts on this site, so I apologise in advance to that cohort reading this, but I feel the customers also need to be educated.

Are there plans to provide a playbook to help installers educate the customer and leave them with digestible documentation following the install?

I know it is  difficult to design an optimum system when it is a retrofit [and quite expensive], but I think it should be relatively easy to provide the customer with the basics of what they will get from their design, and hopefully my thinking is clear in the image below.  Obviously not using that chart, but taking that idea applying it to all the parameters collected during the assessment.

A customers level of frustration is typically a function of expectations.  An outcome that matches the expectations [because the outcome has been provided in a digestible way] should be the goal.  When things don't work, customers will google stuff, and then they will wonder why does my system have/not have component xyz, or perform like abc.

If the expectations are set out clearly along the lines of

• this is how your system will run through the year
• this is the expected cost per year [by month]
• this is where your design sits on the chart of what is possible
• this is why you are on this part of the chart [your budget, your house, your location] rather than the part of the chart your friend with the passiv house is.

Also, If an installer can see much more clearly what they are delivering (holistically, covering the whole year) that feedback loop may help improve installation, especially installers new to heat pumps.  If this data is then made available, anonymised, the owner and the installer can compare to similar properties in the same area.

From linkedin

Also this may be the website given the email address they are using. Not live yet. 

ultimaterenewables.com

Hopefully their website will include a list of installers they work with. 

Ultimate Renewables Supplies is one of the UK's leading design and supply specialists in Heat Pumps, MVHR, Solar Thermal, PV & Battery Storage, UFH & Low Temp Radiators to installers and merchants across the UK. With 68 years of combined experience and 32 years installing domestic/commercial heat pumps and solar systems across Europe, our customers are in safe hands with Ultimate Renewables Supplies. We are incredibly passionate about heat pumps and how the system should be designed & installed to achieve maximum efficiency and work harmoniously with the property's UFH and/or radiators. We DON'T use buffers, low-loss headers, Glycol, 3rd party on/off controls, and flow-restricting valves in our heat pump packages. We only design and supply a "direct/open" system, the way heat pumps should be installed! Visit our working showroom or book our "Ultimate Heat Pump training course" (Open March 2023) to see for yourself & upskill your business. We have independent test data detailing a "direct/open" heat pump system using weather compensation controls is 30%+ cheaper to run than the same heat pump system using a buffer/LLH with 3rd party on/off controls. In addition, we generally achieve a SCOP of 4.8+ from our direct/open heat pump systems. So, with our comprehensive range of products, unparalleled technical knowledge, customer support, heat pump training centre, working showroom, free design service, MCS sign-off & on-site commissioning service, with have your back from design to handover.

 

Posted by: @jeff

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We only design and supply a "direct/open" system, the way heat pumps should be installed!

Awesome, what can I say !!

I don't know if they have applied for any funding from BEIS for their training? Or anything else they are doing? 

For example Heat Geek got funding to reduce one of their courses from £2600 to £270 for a limited time and number of people. 

https://courses.heatgeek.com/

Some support out there if you ask i suspect? 

Perhaps someone here could get an invite to their working showroom when it opens and report back. 

@editor don't say that. My wife needs no excuse to go the outlet

Posted by: @editor

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Perhaps someone here could get an invite to their working showroom when it opens and report back. 

It's a bit far for us, but I understand that the first showroom will be in Bicester – if anyone's close-ish and wants to check it out I can contact Simon and Brendon and make the appropriate arrangements to make it happen. I think they're aiming to start training sessions in April. PM me if you're interested.

 

I'm just outside milton keynes so Bicester's easy peasy. Plus, I'm just working through designing my own heat pump install according to Brendon's methods!

@heacol, do you think it'll be possible for @iancalderbank to visit your new facilities when they open?

Posted by: @editor

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@heacol, do you think it'll be possible for @iancalderbank to visit your new facilities when they open?

Thanks, Mars, To answer the first question, yes, everyone is invited to come and kick the boxes in the training room to see what we do and how we do it. We will be representing 5 different brands of heat pumps, so anyone can come and try them and see which one they like before purchasing, they will all be connected to the training centre so can be seen and heard running. We are non brand specific, it is not our place to choose, but it is our place to educate and ensure that all equipment that leaves our hands, is installed to produce the best possible performance, running costs and comfort levels possible for the end user. Our installers will be given the option of any unit, it will be between the installer and the end user to make that choice.

Once training is completed (we will NOT be teaching, we will be training with full understanding), the installer will have continued support and backup from our engineering arm. They will also be listed on our website (front page, going live on Monday) so the general public can choose them with confidence, once they have kicked the boxes, if they choose.

@william1066 we will be, to the best of our ability, to supply the estimated running costs and performance levels for all installation (on a month by month basis), however, we do not have X-ray eyes and cannot see weather insulation levels, ventilation standards and existing plumbing has been installed in a competent manner. Often issues, on retrofit and new builds, rear their heads when the system is commissioned, and this is beyond any installers control. Unfortunately, as the saying goes," you cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear". The biggest problem we have is with under floor heating, not being designed for low temperatures (which would benefit all technologies) and often results in unreasonable expectations. We will, however, be supporting installers to make the best purse possible with the resources available.

Our aim is to grow as quickly as possible, within our abilities to make it a national offer.

Our training is currently not certified, and I doubt if it will be for some time. All current courses are designed to teach the candidate to tick boxes, based around the BPEC model. As we use a completely different concept and method of training, we expect to have a lot of opposition to the certification process from the established teaching organizations. However, it has already received validation from sone of the major players in the industry and the manufacturers we have agreed terms with.

Thank you for the kind words above.

@heacol I wholeheartedly approve of what you are doing. Looking forward to being able to visit.

Will it be possible for the type of person  found in many areas of these forums (a self-designer, a self-installer or  a self-optimiser) to take your training or engage your services? Perhaps not with the intention of providing commercial install services to others (I wouldn't want to for sure!) but with the intention of doing the best possible job of designing, choosing and installing ones own system and maybe being able to "help" a friend or two (my use case). Or guiding their improvements to an existing system  where its already been installed in the suboptimal ways that you've posted much about.

@iancalderbank I do not see why not, part of the reason of having the engineering arm is to help people with existing systems that are not working well. They will be conducting predominantly repairs and modifications to systems as well as installer support, sign-offs and servicing.

The 3 partners in the business are all heat pump fanatics and feel that every good experience for an end user will lead to more units being installed (hopefully supplied by us). We all do a lot for the industry behind the scenes and want to see this box shifting approach ended.

And of course, hopefully we can make a living along the way. 😀