Heat pump installation problem

Aristophem

Hello,
I am looking for some advice. I live in a 1930s house which has undergone parts of extension over the years. We decided to have a heat pump installed. A surveyor came out, pre-installation, to check the property. After this, a senior installation technician also came a week before installing to check visible pipes around the property. Installation began and then on the fifth and final day, the company installing the heat pump informed me that they have discovered that heat pump will not work properly with my existing pipe work, due to it being on a one pipe system.

They have advised me that there will be additional costs for the works needed and then quoted me an extra £4800, to redo the heating system throughout the house to be able to sustain the heat pump.

I am no expert, but surely, during the surveying phases before installation, they should have noticed this and informed me? There was a mentioning of not being able to see exactly what is going on with the pipework and "hoping" it "should be up to standard". Is there any legislation which will help me in dealing with this matter? Their small print terms and conditions are pretty air tight as they are not a small company.

stripling

Hi @Aristophem that sounds awful but imo they're taking the Michael. They had 5 days working on your house before they discovered this? That's not right.

But where's your quote? Are you claiming the BUS grant? Are they MSC registered? Did you get 3 quotes or what? Sorry to fire a bunch of Qs but more details are needed.

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6667040/heat-pump-installation-problem

When was your house built? … or if the central heating was installed after it was built do you know when that was?

How many radiators do you have?

There are a lot of clues that they could have spotted but the age of the property/installation date of the system would have been the most immediate prompt to look for the other clues.

Did they do a power-flush of the radiator system at the start of the job?

QrizB

Is there any legislation which will help me in dealing with this matter? Their small print terms and conditions are pretty air tight as they are not a small company.

If you've got household legal cover as part of your home insurance, you might like to see if it includes advice for disputes with home improvement contractors.

It's possible that their contract isn't fair, for example.

doodling

Hi,

Is there anywhere in the property where the fact that it is a single pipe system can be seen? The obvious evidence would be a pipe running below a radiator with each end of the radiator connected to it.

In theory a single pipe system could be used with a heat pump although the efficiency might be terrible.

Reed_Richards

I found a good YouTube video on single pipe systems here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s44rCmdErHk&t=5s

If you watch this you can see if your system had any of the clues suggested, such as a radiator with no valve on one end or an added radiator with a pipe running underneath it. But if the feed pipes are all under the floor and not visible then maybe it's possible that a surveyor could not tell? I'm surprised that you, as the householder, did not know this about your heating system but maybe that's down to me and my interest in technical matters.

Martyn1981

Am I making a silly assumption here, but wouldn't the type of boiler (model/make numbers), and/or the visible pipework connected to the boiler, have made it clear during the initial surveys?

Plus, as others have said, it took 5 days to notice this, but again, wouldn't this have become clear early on when the boiler was removed and pipework prepared?

doodling

Hi,

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82023084#Comment_82023084

Any boiler will drive a single pipe system.

The only clue you might see at the boiler is if the flow and return pipes head off in clearly different directions.

It is quite possible that all evidence of the system being single pipe is hidden under the floor. Similarly, it is quite possible that there was visible evidence of the system being single pipe and the surveyor(s) missed it. I think understanding which of those two is the case would help inform a discussion as to how costs of finishing the install should be allocated.