Retrofit 9: Customer support

Since the initial install in January 2022 there have been a few tweaks that have needed to be made, issues checked and problems solved. Nothing major, but just a few things to get the system running as advertised when we were getting quotes.

I have to say that the customer support that we have had from all of the companies involved has been great. Especially considering how busy they must all be with the huge swing that has happened in the past 12 months to more people seeing the cost and environmental benefits of having home energy systems installed.

Ecobubl - First up, Ecobubl. I cannot say enough good things about Martin, Emilie, Brad and all of the staff at Ecobubl. They have been great at interacting with us (me mainly) about queries I have with the system. An inverter firmware update and settings change was needed that Brad sorted out with Fronius, Martin has answered queries about the inverter, battery and heat pump and always comes up with a solution - even if that is just who else would be best placed to deal with the query. Martin has also talked me through changing the heat pump to a weather compensation mode which improves efficiency of the system and unit (the Daikin controller is a maze of menus to navigate!). I am really glad that we chose Ecobubl to work on and manage our installation and if you fall within their catchment then I recommend you get a quote from them if you want any of the tech that we've had installed.
Mixergy - We have had a couple of issues with the Mixergy cylinder that was installed: straight away it was obvious that one of the thermostats wasn't working as we were getting water temperatures of 80C no matter what we did, and later in 2022 the cylinder lost connectivity with the router (rendering the app, and part of the reason for getting the cylinder, unusable). Mixergy support staff were great and sent out a new thermostat straight away that Martin from Ecobubl then fitted. Regarding the internet connection, I worked with the Mixergy support team to troubleshoot the issue and ended up being sent a wireless connector with instructions on how to install it. All was clear and simple and easy to rectify.
Givenergy - There's hardly been any need to contact the support team at Givenergy as the battery system just works. There was one issue post installation that required a firmware update to the inverter and the email support from Givenergy was simple to follow, clear and concise. All went smoothly and the system has been working fine since then.
Daikin - We've had a couple of service engineers out to look at the heat pump: one for a routine service as part of the service agreement we signed and one to look into some issues that we thought we had this winter. There will be a separate post regarding the heat pump investigations this winter, as the findings might help others with a heat pump (particularly this model). The engineer for the routine service was OK but not that engaged, but the engineer who came out to look at the potential issues was brilliant - keen to understand the problem, show me evidence of what he was doing, make suggestion to improve efficient use (he even phoned us back at the end of the day and talked me through a change to the unit settings as he'd had an idea after he'd left us). Absolutely stunning support from him. And much appreciated.

So the message from this post is that if you are looking to install this sort of home tech, check out reviews online about the kit and about the after sales support. If you are a manufacturer or installer, a good install with great after sales support means that your customers will do a large chunk of your marketing for you. I really hope with the huge increase in demand that the quality of the installs and support can be maintained by the existing companies, but that it's also met by the new companies seeing an opportunity in a new market.