Nibe Fighter 360p ashp costing me loads to run

1plus1equal3

well weathers getting colder as we approach winter, and im dreading it. I have also been told that my doors have to be opened constantly, which if i had been imformed of that before i accepted the house i wouldnt of bothered. It has struck me this summer what a total waste of resources, having to literally sweat like pigs in our house as it is sealed, and we have no solar panels or anything , but really huge windows in every room , from ceiling to floor, so all doors windows , ect have been flung open, and still its like living in a green house, and then come the winter, it cold , and expensive. we have no way of having showers or anything without using the nibe, as we dont have a seperate water heater. and the constant humming noise from all the nibe systems in this row of houses drives me nuts.We cant claim the feed in tariff , as our systems were put in by a company that went bankrupt, so with rising costs of fuel, its going to be a nightmare.

John_Pierpoint

Do these big windows all face south?
Is it not possible to turn on the Nibe in the summer in passive mode and thus use it as an extractor fan?
Is it the compressor (fridge unit) that is the heart of the Nibe that makes the noise that annoys you and your neighbours?

Do I understand it that you have Photo Voltaic (PV) panels on your roof making electricity (mainly in the summer time)?

NeverShareAgain

Gauzy curtains/blinds or reflective window film cut summer heat considerably, and fans don't cost much to run. Pop a bowl of ice cubes in front of a fan for instant relief.

1plus1equal3

hi john, my unit is a nibe 2005 fighter , when i first moved in i was told never to touch the system as it runs itself, since then we have had so many engineers come out and tinker with it, many of them who didnt have a clue either, and gradually we have been shown the basics. I dont understand what you mean by putting it in passive mode, as im not very technical minded, but it just seems such a waste of a lot of heat in our houses in the summer, to be cold in the winter. we dont have solar panels or anything, and using fans in the house to try and get the stiffling heat down scares me, due to the cost. the sun is directly facing our patio/living room glass doors, and bedroom windows, and though we jam all the doors in the house open, including the front door into the street, we all bake and sweat. And then as soon as the winter kicks in i could of done with some of that wasted heat, as my living room is then 31 degrees , and boiling, and my hall , stairs , landing, and kitchen are 20 degrees and freezing, and all the engineers who have been round tell me i have to leave the living room door open , to let the heat travel through to the colder rooms, so i feel like i am using the living room like a massive expensive radiator for heating my other rooms. And i hate having doors open at night time, as im home alone, and it spooks me.

John_Pierpoint

The mantra is "Build tight & ventilate right" - It looks like they got the first half right.
Can you get a through flow of air into your top floor flat? Hve you a quiet sheltered balcony where you could sit outside?
What is the structure of the building and the inner walls? All light weight fluffy stuff with no "thermal mass" I'd bet ?
The theory is that the building is so well insulated that you can heat it all up, preferably using cheap night time electricity, putting the heat into the concrete floor slab and then it will stay "pleasant" all day - especially if the south facing windows get a bit of sun to add more heat in the day time.
But they have forgotten the human need to feel in control and turn on some supplementary heat if they feel cold.

ra200

I have solar pv now i works but it ain't going to make a dent in our large bill, Also unlike the other homes on this close who receive the F.I.T feed-in-tariff we do not get the feed in tariff at all it goes to melin

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

Do these big windows all face south?
Is it not possible to turn on the Nibe in the summer in passive mode and thus use it as an extractor fan?
Is it the compressor (fridge unit) that is the heart of the Nibe that makes the noise that annoys you and your neighbours?

Do I understand it that you have Photo Voltaic (PV) panels on your roof making electricity (mainly in the summer time)?

ra200

Yes it is a RCU 11 but the stupid thing keeps factory resetting the nibe 360p if their is a power cut to the nibe,

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

Is the RCU 11 (Remote Computer Unit type 11?) turned on and monitoring how you are (not) using the heat pump?
As it is you home are they going to allow you read only access to the gizmo?
Are you capable of recording the power the heat pump uses as well as reading your own electric meter?
Have you got at least one of those weather station thermometers that at least reads the room temperature where it is and the temperature outside?
Are you prepared to record these readings perhaps morning noon and night?
What have the boffins done to prove you are not having a laugh, by leaving the doors and windows open and running off the hot water?

I think they should offer you electricity at the night time rate (call it £0.05 a unit) and then accept the challenge to run your heat pump and obtain acceptable indoor temperatures.

John.

PS I've had a look at the manual for the gizmo - any ideas what language the heat pump speaks - is it Scandinavian or German.
(There are not a lot of English instructions, using words starting with a "K".;))

ra200

Well i give up with our H.A they are a nightmare to deal with they have refuse to rehouse if we want to move we have been told to do it our self so what they want us to do is look for a exchange and lie to some poor couple about the heating system and the cost and noise of it and lack off heat and they hide the fact that we have been miss sold the tenancy as we was told this is a eco energy saving heating system,

We have had no luck at all nibe called out over a week ago but our system is still noisy and and still eating electricity the last few night have still been cold in our house upstairs and melin can not be bothered or know how to fix it, It has been over a year and 8 months now and they still can not be bothered to even come fix the housing snags left this goes to show how usless they are,

In a few weeks time we will have not option to turn the thing off full time due to noise and high running cost,

I have to swich over to pre payment as i was being made out to be a lier and being made out to be racking up a high bill for the fun of it by melin/micaul solar,

I spoke to Shelter Cymru who melin kept on to me about and melin kept saying they work with Shelter Cymru and i should contact them in their letters to me so guess what i called Shelter Cymru and Shelter told me to turn the system off and manage with out it as it does not heat upstiars and is bad for our childrens health and it affects my hearing and they told me to tell melin this system is no good for social housing:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:and the person i was speaking to said Melin homes are a nighmare to deal with at the best of times:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

NeverShareAgain wrote: »

Hi Ra. I have been following this thread as I have a supposedly "eco-home" with one of these Nibe monstrosities in.

I am a working mum with a young daughter, and I have sensory issues which mean I *cannot* tolerate over-heated buildings. We live on the top (2nd) floor of a small apartment block, in a new build housing association flat.

Being as these HA "homes" are often inhabited by people on a tight budget it seems ridiculous that electric heating has been installed in the first place, when GCH is cheaper to run. I feel like my estate has been an experiment that has gone wrong; there have been numerous complaints about Nibe running costs from people, and we all live in different accommodation, from 1 and a half bedroom battery-pigeon flats, to 2/3/4 bedroom beige shoeboxes :A

So, in 18 months, we have had 3 X FOUR HUNDRED POUND + electricity bills. We live simply, have a computer but no
TVs, and do not run the heating. The place is insulated and catches heat from below, and to the sides, plus I prefer not to breathe stupifying, stagnant air.

The engineer came to check the settings and told me that the HA had set it to some generic mode, assuming that all their tenants want the same thing; baking heat and no flow of air, and so he reset it to reflect *my* needs of.. y'know actually opening my windows, and not running the heat except very rarely to take an edge off any chill. Apparently, you are meant to keep all internal doors open.. EFF that, the place is tiny, you do what you can to cut noise and gain some rudimentary privacy. Why bother even installing internal doors? :mad: I do not wish to live in an hermetically-sealed box, that feels like a goldfish bowl.. it would have been nice to have been told this all prior to accepting the tenancy!

Since December 10 I have had the stupid thing switched off at the wall. We use the shower and kettle if we need hot water, and our bills are now a much better £100 per quarter.

The HA are investigating all the complaints but it could take years and there are other things I'd rather do with the cash I work for, like enjoy life with my little girl Why the hell should my environment be dictated by a heater/HA? I want heat I can control instantly, and pay for without sacrificing quality of life.

I've never had this problem with GCH.. it was affordable and easily manageable in terms of temperature, and was designed to be used by people that opened windows and closed doors from time to time! :rotfl:

I really hope you get rehoused Ra, because neither you nor yours need the stress, or expense xx

lovesfarmbpha

Hi...we have same problems here at the BPHA homes in St Neots...we have now sent a formal letter of complaint from 34 tenants and shared owners in regards to the NIBE boiler...mainly the training given at the handover to the tenant did not happen leaving people to try to understand a complex ssytem and also that the installation comapny KRS Mechanical did not have an MCS accreditation at time of install and we have asked to see qualifications of commisioning engineer.
We have to go through the complaint process but then we can go to teh Housing Ombusman and teh office of fair trading to get a result....
It seems it comes down to installation and tarining...not to forget air permabilty...we found the timber frame sole plate not sealed to the masonary so allwing cavity condensation in at skirting board level...lovely new homes ??......also we have found loads of magnetite in the radiators which points to the fact that the system was not flushed prior.. will up date you when we win or lose....

NeverShareAgain

Many new builds focus on cheapness of build and a superficial aesthetic rather than quality and practicality, and they are still ridiculously over-priced with no savings passed on to the customer. My HA is "investigating" but it will take forever I'm sure and in that time everyone still has to pay dumb prices, and there's no guarantee that there will be *any* compensation, *adequate* compensation or even replacement systems.