Serving Heliotherm HP

rodge123

Ground based horizontal heat source with Heliotherm heat pump and 500L separate hot water cylinder.

Had it installed about 6 years ago and no real issues so far apart from the Galway based installer getting harder and harder to get out to service it each year! Their communication/lackof and reliability at this stage has me pulling my hair out.

Really regret using them now purely because of their customer service / communication which would make Eir look good.

Is it advisable to service each year?

Anyone got recommendations for professional installers that will service and are good at what they do?

Based on Meath/Kildare border not too far from Dublin.

Sorry to hear about your issues, can't help I'm afraid but if it's the same crowd I couldn't even get them to come out and give me a quote, probably not interested in retrofitting to older homes but I was interested in the COP of the well sourced HP, I presume this is what you got ?

Is it expensive on the bills, did you retrofit or new build ?

Probably wasn't worth it for our house and due to age and I heard some horror stories with bad installations, lack of communication we decided to get a Klover Pellet stove and love it so far around 1.5 months. Definitely a lot more work but I don't mind that. I was raised on solid fuel and one of my chores was firing duty as a young lad. Cleaning is much less than solid fuel but still have to manage the bags of pellets.

rodge123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119929089#Comment_119929089

Horizontal ground based heat source for our new build in 2016.

COP is about 5.8 if I remember right.

Use about 10,000kWh per year. That’s constant hot water available, underfloor doing its things and all electrical appliances (including our well pump/system). No other heat source used. House is 2900sqft and always consistently warm. We have an mhrv too.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119929140#Comment_119929140

I presume it's all day rate price or did you get a day/night meter ?

I work that out around 3400 Euro's a year if my maths is correct @34 cent per Kwh. Not bad for a big house and that's at current rip off prices too.

We recently got pellet stove and it will cost around 12 euro a day to heat during the heating season, but we do like a warm house, kitchen dining area is around 23 degrees and sitting room, rest of house would be 20-22 degrees. It's not on 24x 7 either. I reckon it would take 2 bags to leave on from 6 am to 10 pm costing around 16 Euro's.

House much older and around 180 SQ mtr if I remember correctly, so a good bit smaller too, A HP makes sense in a new well insulated build.

We would have went though around 2 - 2.5 tanks of Oil a year. We still have the oil of course, nice to have the choice and convenience of oil from time to time if we need it, pellets are a lot more work.

rodge123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119929273#Comment_119929273

Yeah just day rate price…think I’m on about 31c a unit with board gais 33% off deal.

We put two wall insert wood burning stoves into house for backup incase power ever went for few days…haven’t put them on more than a dozen times in last 6 years! Look nice around Xmas time but no need for them when underfloor is on.

It's funny, when people come In to the house now they're sitting around the stove amazed by the fire, there's something specal about looking into a fire lol.

It's nice to sit in the room with just the glow from the stove, might as well get some pleasure from all the extra work.

I might get an insert pellet stove for the sitting room for when we don't want the whole house warm, can only imagine how little it would need compared to a boiler.

I would like a warm floor alright must be nice.

By the way, what temp do you have the rooms? We like the kitchen dining area 22 or 23 and the sitting room around tme. Like a warm bathroom too.

rodge123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119929377#Comment_119929377

Ah yeah a fire is lovely to look at.

We just set the temperature to 21 throughout the house, didn’t bother with room specific stats.

At least the hp hasn't given you any bother in 6 years, hope I can say the same about the pellet stove though klover have an excellent reputation.

Hope you can get onto the lads to service it, I wonder what their problem is ?

MollyMoo79

I'm also having huge problems getting my Heliotherm heatpump maintained, I'm in Mayo. Ground Source HP installed over 15 years, very reliable over that period, costing me maybe 500-700 euro a year to run, underfloor/dhw for 3500sq ft house. Probably a little higher now, with the higher electric costs.

PCB board went a few years ago, but was fixed pretty quick with a new part, was about €600 to fix.

However, now it's completely stopped working, due to pressure drop in the refrigerant, it more than likely just needs a top up. A half days work for a service agent. But cannot get anyone out to fix it. 2 months calling the company in Galway, they seem to have no interest. Companies in Dublin and Kerry won't travel to Mayo to fix it. So stuck with no heating and hot water from it for 3 months now. Found another agent in Ballyhaunis area, but impossible to get hold of him also.

Emailing the manufacturer now to try and get their support to get someone to fix it. If no help from them, I'm going to have to just get a new one installed from a manufacturer that can actually service in the market. It's a shame really as I said it's work brilliantly all these years, and paid itself back as extremely efficient.

I'll provide an update if I manage to find someone to fix it!

rodge123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120040463#Comment_120040463

Is it climate control in Galway that installed and you can’t get out?

MollyMoo79

Yes it was them that installed it originally. In fairness to them, when my PCB went a few years ago they fixed it pretty quick. And when I called them about the Heatpump this time not working, I called them at 9.30 in the morning and they had an engineer out to me by 12.30 that day. The engineer couldn't fix it there and then and that's when the frustration started, 2 months of being told, we'll be there next week to fix it, then no show. I was eventually told after 2 months of calling, to get someone else to fix it, they didn't have time.

I emailed Heliotherm, they gave me their 3 agents in Ireland, and told me I'd have to help myself with getting one of them. One agent in Kerry, one in Wexford and one on my door step in Mayo. And so the saga continued....

The Mayo company, doesn't answer his phone or respond to texts, after 2 or 3 weeks of calling him, finally got hold of him, said he'd call to take a look the next week, no show then. Spent another few weeks calling him, no answers, finally got through one day, said he'd call to the house that evening, no show that evening, no text, no answering phone. A quick look at his Facebook page, seems I'm not the only person that can't get hold of him

The Kerry and Wexford companies, were both a delight to deal with, both called me back straight away, tried to help with troubleshooting, but neither service my area, which I understand it's the opposite side of the country for them. Damien in Heatdoc, was fantastic, very supportive, sent me on some names of local contacts he had that might be able to help me. Shame he's not in my area.

I got hold of a local refrigerant engineer, who came and tested the system and their is a leak out at the collector manifold in the garden (I have a ground source system), he couldn't fix the leak, not his area of expertise, he's air to water systems. Solution could be a simple braise of the manifold to seal it, then top of with gas and system will work again. Or it could be the collectors are contaminated with water from the leak and then it's more complicated fix. But with no-one to investigate it, I'll never know!

So with 4 months (in winter) of no heatpump working and no service from Heliotherm or their local agent. I'm installing a new system, an expensive option, but not much choice left. I'll not be installing a Heliotherm brand again, not with their inability to provide maintenance and servicing in the Irish market. I'll be choosing a manufacturer with a good supply of service agents so I have choice if something goes wrong again. I'll also go Air to Water, instead of ground source, as there is a lot more companies that can service those systems.

My advice to anyone considering Heliotherm, yes a great product, it served me well over 18years, but when something goes wrong you are literally and figuratively left in the cold! Avoid them in the Irish market.

MollyMoo79

Try Heatdoc in Wexford, they might service your area. Very helpful, and if he is not able to get to you, might know someone more local that can help you.

DC999

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128728#Comment_120128728

The little I’ve read of it is that air to ground source (which you had) will have lower running costs than air to water as has a higher COP. Air to water COP drops more when the outside weather is colder. Might be worth researching if another air to ground or air to water bests suits you. Running costs are really important as energy prices are going up for many years, IMO.

Plus that better COP means the system isn’t working as hard and HP is cycling on and off more – that air to water constant cycling seems to add a lot more electricity usage according to punters on Boards recently. Less cycling should lead to less wear and tear on the system?? So less chasing maintenance companies to help – which you clearly got stung with recently.

You got 18 years from it, so it's paid it's way. What I’ve read is that air to water won’t get that lifespan generally – but maybe that’s down to bad installs more than bad kit.

There’s a good general HP thread here and might be worth asking those on air to ground and air to air what their opinion is for newer models: Heat Pumps - post here. - Page 76 — boards.ie - Now Ye're Talkin'

Is there a way to reuse the collectors you have in the ground for a new one? Ok, you may have to get some repaired as you say (could be a water leak or simple gas leak).

I don’t have a HP but that’s down to the old leaky house we have now. I will get one in the future. So some of what I’ve written here may be absolute garbage

hexosan

Can anyone tell me if climate control are still operating they done my install 7yrs ago. I’ve been trying to contact him for the last few months to service a GSHP. He initially answered the phone but won’t answer the mobile or office number for months now. Anyone know a company that does ground source serving in Leinster ?

MollyMoo79

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121282450#Comment_121282450

Try Heatdoc in Wexford (heatdoc.ie) or they'll be able to suggest someone in your area, they seem to have good knowledge of who operates in Ireland for GSHP. Also if you contact your heatpump manufacturer directly, they should be able to supply you with their service agents in Ireland.

rodge123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121282450#Comment_121282450

Don’t waste your time…he blanked my emails also for over a year trying to get it serviced…if he wasn’t able to or didn’t want to service it anymore a simple reply with explanation would be the polite and professional thing to do.

I eventually managed to get these lads from Mayo to service mine when they were around my neck of the woods.

http://www.heatpumptroubleshooters.ie/

hexosan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121283992#Comment_121283992

Can’t understand it, they were so on the ball and approachable when I got the system installed originally. He was answering phone calls up to about about 4 months ago and now it’s radio silence. He even agreed to service it but once it got close I haven’t heard from him since.

even if he’d direct me to a company that could do the work.