Last year just before autumn I had a call from John who was 79 years old. He had kept my add from the local paper for some months before deciding to call me, his family had all been onto him about getting a heatpump installed but he was on a fixed income and very little spare cash to spend on new stuff and wanted to be sure that if he got a heatpump that it wouldn’t be expensive to run.
I called around to his place, measured up and gave him a price for what I thought would be suitable then left him to think it over. A few days later he called to say he would go ahead so a week later I installed the heatpump that I had recommended, gave him a copy of my recommended operating suggestions and went through the controls and settings.
A couple of months later John called and asked me to come round and regulate his heatpump! What’s gone wrong I wondered so called round as soon as I could to check it out? “The place is too hot” said John, I checked it all out, set at 18 degrees just as I recommended, heatpump maintaining the temperature OK. “There’s nothing I can find wrong” I told him, “It’s too hot and it’s going to cost me a fortune on my power bill” he said. “I’m sure it’s not John” I told him but saw that he wasn’t convinced so said to just give it a try.
The winter passed and I didn’t hear from John again but I did see him again in January and nervously asked how his power bill had been in the winter, “oh I worked it all out and found that I was $20 a month better off” was his reply as he was basking in the coolness from his “heatpump” on the hottest day of the year.
Yes! I had been right, the right equipment, the right advice, success felt good.
Aaron and Mellissa were expecting their first child, they lived in a weatherboard cottage and had bought a heatpump they had seen on special. Not a “recognized” brand but it was a good price and big capacity, “how much to install it” they asked. My price was OK so after the baby was born got the go ahead and made an effort to get the job done quickly. I had not been consulted about sizing so just did the installing only, a week later they called to say it wasn’t working properly so with regard to a new baby in the house I called round as soon as I could. Mellissa was sitting in the lounge over a fan heater with the heat pump set at 30 degrees, telling me she was cold!
This model heatpump displayed the return air temperature, the display read 30 degrees as I watched the display fell to 27 and the heatpump went to full operation, Display quickly climbed to 30 and operation stopped. This happened several times, what was happening here was that the heat pump capacity was too big for the room, even with internal doors open, and was “short cycling”. The thermostat was being satisfied too quickly and the heat pump would close down without actually heating the room, the fan heater wasn’t helping either. I did what little I could but was not able to do much really. As far as I know they are still unhappy.
Get good advice before you buy!
A while ago I was contacted by Pat & Dennis to have a look at a heat pump they had in a rental property, I duly turned up and it was a “company branded” unit. The company who sold and installed it had bought a container load of heat pumps from China and had their brand put on it. “They are made in the same factory as Panasonic” they were told and were obviously a good deal. I had been called to a few jobs involving these heatpumps and this company, Quality of both tradesmanship and heat pumps was doubtful to say the least but I carried out repairs where I could and replaced the unit when repairs were not possible. A few months after I had made a repair to Pat & Dennis job they rang me again to come and have a look at their heatpump. It turned out they had bought three of these and were concerned about the rust appearing on them. These units were only two years old! The company had gone out of business! They were in a seaside location yet the Fujitsu unit next to it was still in good condition and it had been installed earlier. I have tried to extend the life of these units with rust converter and paint but it is just delaying the inevitable, they will have to replace within 12 months.
Please buy good branded equipment and save money.