MCS Accreditation

[Dannypipe]

Might have a word with him.

He's away at the moment up north. He's paid a college that actually get you to install a solar thermal system, in a house. Rather than it just being classroom based.

 

[unguided1]

If I can help just PM me yer number and I will give yer a call tommorow

 

[EasyMCSLtd]

Hi

I just had a thought obviously you are a market expert because every trade magazine I look in I see your advert you are also sponsoring this forum, So are you actualy MCS accredited in any technology also do you have any one that does inspections on any of the MCS technologies
Having just done a quick search on the MCS website I can not see your company on there.

Regards
Mike

Hi Mike,

We are not an MCS Accredited Installation company as we do not install the MCS Technologies, we train installers such as yourselves and support you through MCS Accreditation. Otherwise you would be being trained by your competition.

 

[EasyMCSLtd]

hi everyone, just signed up here trying to get some info, heres where i am, im a time served plumber/gas heating engineer for the last 14 years, am 30 years old, looked into the renewables last year and as got asked to do a solar thermal job, then the mcs bit came up, so went on a heat pump 3 day course and a 3 day solar course, total cost £700, then joined up with napit for heat pump and solar cost around £900 not heard from them in 9 months and their attitude is terrible but im still with them till june i think yet im nowhere nearer, then i fitted 2 solar jobs and very happy with outcome, customers are chuffed, then found easymcs, who i have payed roughly £700 for the qms, which i admit i could never provide, time spent getting to where i think im ready fiiling out that qms roughly 50 hours. Might seem a lot but im trying to get it all in my head. Got asked by builder friend doing his own house about ashp, so got nu heat to supply, finished it 2 weeks back and im more confused now than ever, commissioning engineer comes out and says right nu heat will sign it off for customer, hold on i say i need this for my assessment as it had solar too, he says youll never pass, was happy with install but said paperwork wise dont go there, basically said unless i did an umbrella for heat pumps forget it (only thing is depending who you go with you have to fit their stuff), so here i am bolloxed as customer needs it signing so let him do it, he told me if i use this as assessment i cant use any of the drawings, sap calcs etc etc as they are nu heats and not mine. so called nu heat today re umbrella scheme as to be fair id probably use them just for the heat pumps and they are offering installers free heat pump mcs with a purchace, yet to hear back so cant comment. Thing is there is no way i have the software to provide what nu heat did and if this is what they want i might as well give up, id like to be able to fit what heat pump I like but if they are going to be that bad on assessment why bother. So im going to call easymcs and see what they say as im now in a position where i have no heat pump to show and napit said they want a ground and air source example. Thing is we are not getting the jobs unless your mcs so vicious circle me thinks, i honestly doubt id fit more than 2 a year if im lucky. Option now is unless easy mcs tell me otherwise, right off napits £900 last year and go heat pumps through nu heat and do my own solar. Oh plus you need to buy heat pump book tr30 at £30ish.

Ill have a chat with nu heat and easymcs tommorrow as im of the opinion im now screwed without having any heat pumps to install.
The paperwork involved with all this is not going to improve me much at all, its all about paying money out for systems that are so over the top its untrue, I have all my qualifications and all I want is to go and fit a decent job for a customer yet we seem entangled in this paoer trail mess. I wish i could put all the file onm here and show how much bull **** is in it because im really at the point where i dont give a toss for renewables any more.

Kev Fisk
K FISK PLUMBING AND HEATING LTD

Hi Kevin,

I have asked one of our mentors to get in touch with you discuss your MCS Accreditation.

Let me know if you have any more queries.

Many Thanks

 

[eaton]

Thanks for the call lads really put my mind at ease, I'm going to ignore Nu heat, seems like they just want you in their little bubble fitting all their gear, surprise surprise, going to call napit and tell them not to bother anymore either, I'd rather wipe off that cost and move somewhere else, hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll have a bit more input for everyone but for now, thanks easymcs team bunch of top blokes

 

[CES]

I'm booked on the BPEC heat pump course next month, I was fully intending to go down the MCS route but after reading your history Kev I don't know if Ill bother now. My mate is doing Solar PV and we were clubbing together to get MCS accredited. I was intending to join NAPIT too! but that looks like a non-starter.
Why has the renewables market place been throttled by all the different certification bodies with their hands out? The high costs dont seem to be justified within a relatively new industry sector, if the market is there then surely having lower costs for smaller companies would increase the take up of installers? It doesn't make sense to me.

 

[unguided1]

Hi Mike,

We are not an MCS Accredited Installation company as we do not install the MCS Technologies, we train installers such as yourselves and support you through MCS Accreditation. Otherwise you would be being trained by your competition.

Fair point so how about your company leading the the call to lobby the government to fight for the one man band to cut the red tape and make it easier and cheaper for one man bands doing limited installs,

I realise that this might cut your profit margins but then surely its better to have a lot of people who can afford to do it.

 

[markfxy]

I think the manufacturers should offer schemes such as nu-heats umbrella scheme maybe if you do a manufacturers course and get approved installer status they could sort out the MCS side of things which would surely lead to more sales of that brand

 

[CES]

I think the Government has to look very closely as to who is benefiting from this scheme, from where I am it doesn't look like the installer is getting anything, in fact we are being charged in order to help Britain meet its CO2 targets, the consumer is also having to meet a higher installation cost due to small businesses having to pass it on. The manufacturers are paying in order to get their products approved. The only real incentive to get involved with MCS is to open up as a training centre or certification body.
Before I looked at it I usually accepted certification as a cost of doing business, now I see they are the business, they provide nothing and all they appear to be doing is milking our industry.

 

[dontknowitall]

Why do we need schemes to check that we keep customers' names and addresses and mark every single appointment on their record and keep notes on the conversations or whatever these schemes entail? OFTEC doesn't require this detail, nor GasSafe (I suspect).

What the customer wants is to be able to phone their plumber/heating engineer and ask him (and her!) for the various options on renewables. They'll want a fairly good knowledge and opinions on solar thermal, ground source, wind (hot air?), photovoltaics etc. They'll want to know the pros and cons of these and what would probably be the best system(s) for their situation.

They'll want to know the total cost of installing (including VAT) and will appreciate being told about the on-going costs. They'll want information on things like feed-in-tariffs and other government grants.

Finally, they'll want a system that is installed correctly, to the current regulations and one that works and saves them money.

None of these previous three paragraphs applies to keeping details of appointments, who was seen, for how long and all that stuff. If the installer/plumber/heating engineer can't be bothered to keep his customers' telephone numbers and directions on where they live, then that installer is going to run out of customers.

What I want is knowledge on how to install these systems properly, advantages and disadvantages of the different systems, the costs of each type of system, knowledge on repairs and how to identify faults and how to repair and an ID card showing I have these relevant qualifications. I don't need to have someone teach me how to create and maintain a database or how to write letters or how to document loads of meaningless bumph.

I know I continue to gripe about this MCS stuff but please note that this time I'm not on about the money. If I want qualifications and someone to teach me then I have to pay for it. I don't expect this for free. What I don't want someone to teach me and don't want the barrier of keeping a telephone and address book and learning how to write an email. And I especially don't want to pay hard earned money on "learning" this stuff and having it done to the authorities' rules.