heatpump horror stories

[unguided1]

As the thread says
I will start the ball rolling

I was working in cornwall around Christmas last year when I was asked to inspect an installation in a large hotel in the west country, as it was on me way home I agreed to check it out.

I got there at around 8pm on a sunday night to find an 11Kw heat pump installed inside the boiler room on brackets about 3 feet up on brackets fitted virtually fitted into the boiler rooms ventilation opening. Turns out the renewable energy consultant employed by the big hotel chain had thought it would be a good idea to use the heat given off by the 2 x 200 Kw to feed the heatpump. This particular 11Kw passes 4000 cubic meters of air per hour over the evaporator I was forced to turn it off imediately because the 2 Gas boilers were open flued appliances and the heatpump was pulling the products of combustion back down the flues.

 

[quality]

I not seen anything that dangerous on a heat pump install

 

[unguided1]

Heres another one

Called to inspect a system that was having problems working properly in London after a quick look round I found some rooms with excessive heat and some rooms with no heat, all this on underfloor heating.

After really checking the system out it turned out that because no buffer tank or bypass had been installed the installer had not installed any actuators on half of the downstairs circuits hence some rooms over heating
The upstairs was all on radiators except for the first floor main bedroom which again was on underfloor heating. As there was only one room with underfloor on the first floor instead of installing a manifold, this was working off the flow and return to the radiator circuits with a zone valve that had been placed under the floor with no proper way of venting the circuit and as water always finds the least line of resistance it was going round the radiators instead of the underfloor, even more dangerous was the fact that when you isolated the electrics to the heating system the zone valve and room stat was wired into the ring main and still live.

There was also no pressure vessel or safety valve fitted to the system

 

[truemanufan]

Cornwall and London some travelling for work ey ? Lol! Looks like danger follows u !

 

[quality]

I must admit I have been to loads where controls have been not just incorrectly wired but badly and wrong .
Its hard to find an electrician who can wire a y plan let alone a proper control ciruit.

If you need drop me a pm or email the website I do this work all the time

 

[unguided1]

Cornwall and London some travelling for work ey ? Lol! Looks like danger follows u !

as me signature says if its not dangerous Im not doin it!!!!
and like a proper trollop you pay me enough and I will go all the way!!!!

 

[unguided1]

I cant believe no body else has a horror story on installs they have found, so here is another one.

Got asked to inspect a heatpump in worcestershire that apparantly kept breaking down and not working properly the customer had bought and installed this unit himself and was blaming the unit.
On arrival I found the Heatpump on the roof of the shed near the house the Flow and return pipwork from the unit travelled around 4 meters about 12 feet in the air between the shed and the house with no brackets or adequate insulation then about 6 meters within the property without adequate bracketing and no insulation. Apart from the heatloses involved this initself this should have no real effect on the running of the heatpump.

On further investigation I found that the system was that old that it was in fact a one pipe system which is a complete no no when using low temperature heat and when the customer had removed his old oil boiler he had not flushed out or cleansed the system at all. Looking in the roof to ascertain how he had changed an obviously open vented system into a pressurised system I found that the cold mains feed to the f and e tank had been connected to the cold feed of the system and a pressure gauge fitted to the old vent pipe. No expansion vessel or safety valve fitted on to the system either

So then I climbed onto the shed roof to inspect the unit itself and found that no Thumb vents had been installed on to the pipework so the unit had the potential of being airlocked and no Y strainer fitted onto the return pipework either therefore allowing any sludge in the system to potentially block the heat exchanger inside the heatpump

Unfortunatley I had to condemn the whole install and recommend that he immediatly got a professional heating engineer to sort the whole mess out.

 

[Bartdude]

I've not fitted a heatpump before but I will be fitting a ground source unit this summer. I've done lots of research and am going on the manfacturers course in a couple of weeks.I've been in touch with the manufacturers throughout and they carried out the initial site visit and gave their recommendations. Obviously people do just buy a unit and throw it in,which I find baffling!

Any little tips or tricks you think I should be aware of?

 

[unguided1]

Hi Bartdude

To be honest I dont bother with ground source, My main reason is the physical cost of the installation, also I do not like the idea of a heat pump working all winter delivering heat for heating and towards domestic hot water and then in the summer still giving heat towards the domestic hot water, this means that the Brine loops in the ground may not get a chance to recover.

Saying that correctly sized and installed there should be no problems.

Which company are you going with?

 

[Bartdude]

It's a Kensa heat pump.

The choice is all down to the customer,he already has one in another property so he knows what to expect. We've put the slinkies in already. It's only going to be supplying underfloor heating in the living area. Hot water is coming from a thermal store which is supplied by a woodburner and solar panels,with electric back up.

Kensa didn't advise that we try to heat a cylinder at all.

 

[unguided1]

Hi Bartdude

I know very little about Kensa heat pumps but I would say that I totally agree with them about not using them to do DHW I have just done a quick search for them on the MCS website and they certainly have an impressive list of heat pumps that are accredited, So as long as you keep to their recommendations you should have no problems. Once you have fitted yer first Heatpump you will not want to go back to ordinary plumbing, theyre just so easy to fit compared to condensing boilers.

 

[franz]

Hello unguided.Where is the best place to go for a course of this nature,am going to GRANT eng.in Devises later this month but thats solar.any courses you know of in the Cotswolds.?
cheers

 

[unguided1]

Hello unguided.Where is the best place to go for a course of this nature,am going to GRANT eng.in Devises later this month but thats solar.any courses you know of in the Cotswolds.?
cheers

Hi Franz

I would suggest that you do either a BPEC or LOGIC course you then get an industry recognised qualification that would be recognised by MCS if you decide to go down that route. The problem with doing manufacturers courses is they tend to spend more time promoting their products and how to promote and sell them than explaining best practices for installation

Regards
Mike

 

[franz]

Who would do these.college???

 

[unguided1]

Yes you can go on the BPEC or LOGIC web sites and they will have a list of colleges doing these courses

 

[unguided1]

Went to a ground source heat pump this week installed by a leading ground source heat pump supplier, the customer was complaining that they were extremly quick to respond when selling them the system that cost over 15 grand but now they are experiancing problems the company are hesitant to respond.

This one is down in west sussex not far from Bognor Regis the problem is that the ground loop entering the ground source heat pump is at -2 degrees it is leaving the heatpump at -7 degrees and has been like this for quite awhile as the customer is complaing about large electric bills. The ground is not likely to be able to recover very much over the summer as it the unit is also doing DHW. Given the customer a couple of choices to get over this just awaiting their decision

 

[ecowarm]

This is a lovely example, split aircon installed above an open flued boiler, the inside unit installed in a small upstairs toilet and you can see the customer had to blank off part of the outlet to stop it burning his head while sat on loo. He was pleased with it because if he left the door open it would heat upstairs.

 

[unguided1]

RAFLMFAO so wots wrong wiv dat den Eco!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so how did you dissapoint him turn of his boiler or turn off the split aircon

 

[ecowarm]

Turned off the aircon and he said he would get the original installer back out, he wanted me to price for a water source heat pump to take the heat from a river, which during the pre-visit phone call he asured me it was a fast flowing river on his property, but it turned out to be a shallow stream 2" to 3" deep and 3 foot across and he was disapointed it couldn't be used. Time waisters

 

[unguided1]

at least he is thinking in the right direction

 

[quality]

BBC - BBC One Programmes - Don't Get Done Get Dom, Series 5, Eco Heat Pumps

 

[unguided1]

Hi quality

Good find. I found that a very interesting programme indeed, Danfoss got a bit of a bloody nose over the fact that another company which they duly bought out specified the job incorrectly, As with any technology it is very important that it is correctly specified as well as installed, I really do feel for the customer in this instance.

I like the fact that they also mentioned the energy saving trust as a first call for anyone considering going down the heat pump route, its just a shame that they didnt mention that the government have cut the Energy Saving Trusts budget.