u/__g_e_o_r_g_e__

I've just heard my BUS redemption notification through post install, declaring that my system has been declared fully commissioned by the installer.

The installer informed me the radiators don't need balancing on heat pump installs - no surprise to me that none of the radiators at the far (cold) end of the house warmed up, and the towel rail first on the circuit got hot instantly. Surely this is part of commissioning?

Having now partly balanced the system myself (just enough to get a tiny bit of flow through the furthest radiators, I don't want to over-restrict the flow in the system) it's down to 18lpm flow, which is below the 25lpm recommended min for the Samsung 8kw heat pump. I don't think this is the biggest issue, except that they've installed a Homely to manage everything (and not configured anything on the Samsung at all - not even the date or time that was default to 2002 - needed for the legionella scheduling) and the homely keeps setting the flow temp to 30C in this mild weather, unsurprisingly this just results in compressor cycling, my guess is 35C would be a better minimum to call for?

Should I require the installer to sort all this out ASAP in accordance with the BUS declaration? It was clear the actual plumber didn't understand the heat pump config, just followed a list of instructions that someone else in the company had worked out. Am I just being fussy, would this be expected to be fixed once temps drop, in slower time?

Any homely installers here that can suggest things that might not have been done (like set the min flow temp on the Samsung itself).

As a junior I'm much more tuned into the latest technologies, and one thing I'm desperately trying to get our company to adopt is AI automation. We could hugely benefit from it - being able to automatically do basic repetitive tasks like setting up new starter accounts, and sending out emails to users before stuff expires. Now that AI technology is here, we can do this. But my older colleagues keep laughing at me for some reason, they won't take this amazing technology seriously. They say AI is silly but everything I read says Automation is a no brainer - what an i missing? I've even spoken with Microsoft and they've agreed the best design with me - using multiple Copilot backed AI agents that get called by other agents and it all runs continuously - super clever stuff. We don't even need to upgrade our licence - it's just pay-as-you-go.

So my quote has changed from a Midea 8kw ( which I understood in the end to be a solid budget friendly pump) to a Samsung 8kw. Both R290.

Did I imagine that Samsung's have a poor repetition? They make great phones but awful white goods. I'm worried I'm going to end up with a nice looking pile of junk.

Or are we getting to the stage where heat pumps are commodity items and there's not a lot between brands?

The cost of annual services for my 2021 MG5 seem to increase every year, regardless if a minor or major service. Penton want £450 this year (68k miles). Feel like it's probably had so many coolant and brake fluid changes that they'll wear out the filler caps (that's if they actually to it, last time it was in and out on the blink of an eye).

Am I being taken for a ride? I guess there's very few garages to choose from that keeps the warranty (useful for fixing the dodgy charge flap!)

I don't care what you say, preventing users from reusing passwords is priority number one. A 20 password history is not enough. You need a minimum password age. And if your max age is 180 days, that means you must set it to 9 days to stop people getting around it by cycling through them all. The risk someone might perform this "password reuse" is far too high. I don't care about all the complaints from users not being able to change their password due to exposing it somehow, quit moaning! It's worse than the people on the new test network and their "TOTP" and think it's important they can delete their own old authentications when they lose their phone.

Moving from estimate to full survey stage. Initial estimate was for a Midea. I've asked if Vaillant is an option and it is but haven't confirmed costs yet. What are the best heat pump options for home automation / home assistant? I'm pretty clued up with traditional central heating control (basically CH and HW demand, couldn't be simpler), what do I need to additionally consider for heat pumps? My main aim will to be to dynamically mange scheduling, primarily to fit around smart tarrifs and battery/solar. But I understand inverter control (pump power), defrost, flow temp monitoring will also need to be monitored and potentially managed. I would prefer something that doesn't reliant on cloud - ethernet/modbus being the gold standard for me. Does anyone have some success stories they can share? I don't want to end up with a heat pump that either gives no control, or I have rely on some silly cloud subscription. Or can I just rely on old fashioned call for heat and everything will behave?

I'm not missing something obvious am I? There's no EMS mode or clean solution that prioritises PV export to grid first, and only charges the battery when the grid export limit is hit ? Such that I can manually force the battery to remain at a low SOC ready to soak up excess PV generation above the export limit? Something like "command export first". Seems like an oversight.

My home assistant workaround of dynamically tweaking the grid export limit during command discharge PV, is not ideal!

Having a play round with Heat Punk ahead of recieving my first quote. Do small variations in the flow temp make a stark difference in practice? Heat Punk seems to indicate the COP difference between 45 and 50 degrees for most pumps is only about 10%. Is the impact on performance a lot worse in reality? I predict acheiving 45 vs 50 degrees will involve much more cost and visual impact from additional radiators (not just in place upgrades).

Also, I want to stick to IOG or similar tariff (cheap night rates for EV) and use battery (will be upgrading to 18KWH) where possible to minimise consumption on the day rate. (I currently do this for 100% of household usage). Is anyone successfully managing this? Heat Punk is estimating 6.9KW heat loss for the house.