Mark finds and fixes faults on heat pumps, gas boilers and underfloor heating across Doncaster and South Yorkshire, with fault-finding visits from £95. For a boiler repair, heat pump fault or cold floor, the visit starts by working out why it has stopped. Heat Pump Energy is Gas Safe registered (979299) and a REFCOM F-Gas certified company.
Is it the heat pump, the boiler or the floor?
The three fail in different ways, and some of what looks like a fault on a heat pump is the system working as designed. The checks below take a few minutes, cost nothing, and sometimes save a visit. If they do not help, the next step is booking a fault-finding visit.
Heat pump not heating the house?
Start with the obvious. Mitsubishi Electric's own advice to Ecodan owners is to check the unit has power, the controller is lit, the thermostat is actually asking for heat, and holiday mode has not been left switched on.
Then look outside. Leaves, snow or anything leaning against the outdoor unit cut the air it works with, so clear around it. Daikin adds checking the unit for damage or leaks, and making sure its drain is clear.
If the controller is showing a fault code, write it down before you ring. Makers use those codes to point at the problem, so it is worth having when you book.
Radiators only warm, not hot? That on its own is not a fault. Vaillant puts a heat pump's usual flow temperature at around 35 to 55°C, against 60 to 80°C from a gas boiler, and Mitsubishi says the radiators may feel cooler to the touch while the house still reaches the temperature you set. It is the room temperature that tells you whether something is wrong, not the feel of the radiator.
Two systems Mark works on
A heat pump opened up. On an F-gas unit, work on the refrigerant circuit needs a certified company.
An underfloor heating manifold, with its wiring centre above.
Gas boiler stopped? Checks before a boiler repair
First, see whether the boiler has any lights or a display. If it is dark, the switch beside it or the fuse board is the place to look. Next, turn the room thermostat up and make sure the programmer is set to heat. Last, read the pressure gauge. Vaillant's advice is that a cold boiler, with the heating off, generally reads from 1 to 1.5 bar, and it links a low reading to heating trouble and running short of hot water. The boiler's manual explains how to bring the pressure back up. A gauge that drops again afterwards is pointing at a fault that needs finding.
Smell gas? Do not wait for a repair visit
Phone 0800 111 999, the gas emergency line, which is staffed day and night. Get doors and windows open, and turn off the supply at the gas meter if the valve is somewhere you can reach. Leave the boiler off until a Gas Safe registered engineer has made it safe.
Underfloor heating that will not come on, or heats unevenly
Underfloor heating is its own kind of fault-finding: a system that will not come on at all, rooms that heat unevenly, or controls nobody in the house can work out. Mark repairs underfloor systems and replaces their controls. Two of his customers wrote about exactly that:
"he replaced the control system which is so much easier to work."
Sarah Bray, Google review
"Mark came to check our underfloor heating system. He was very pleasant and efficient and would certainly recommend"
Peter Hepworth, Google review
Why do heat pumps go wrong?
Daikin, one of the big heat pump makers, is blunt about it: "Almost all failures are due to poor installation and lack of service." The causes it lists include a heat pump sized wrongly for the house, too little water flowing round the system because of debris or undersized pipes, a system that was never cleaned out, poor commissioning, and controls the household was never shown how to use. That is why fault-finding on a heat pump often ends up looking at the whole system, not only the unit outside, and why a yearly heat pump service is worth keeping up.
What happens on a fault-finding visit?
The first job is finding out why the system has stopped, rather than swapping parts until something works. Fault-finding visits start from £95. Finding the cause properly matters most on gas, where a fault can be a safety problem and not only a comfort one. On a 20 year old condensing boiler, Michael Lappin wrote:
"Due to Marks fault finding it was clear we had many dangerous issues with our 20 year old condenser boiler"
Michael Lappin, Google review
Heat Pump Energy holds 5.0 from 15 Google reviews, and customers often mention that Mark explains clearly what he has found. You can book a visit online, or if you have no heating or hot water, call Mark on 07725 541383, Monday to Friday until 5pm. Yearly maintenance is a separate visit, covered on the servicing page.
Repair questions
Who is allowed to repair the refrigerant side of a heat pump?
A certified company. Under GOV.UK's F-gas guidance, any business installing, repairing or maintaining F-gas equipment on someone else's behalf needs certification from an approved body, and the engineers need their own qualifications too. Heat Pump Energy's REFCOM company certificate number is REF1020030.
My heat pump is showing an error code. Can I clear it myself?
Some codes point at simple causes and makers publish self-help for them. Mitsubishi Electric, for example, lists L9 and U1 on its Ecodan units as low water flow, and suggests help videos for a couple of communication codes. If the code comes back after the maker's own steps, book a visit and have the code ready.
Is a repair visit the same as a service?
No. A service is the yearly maintenance visit: from £150 for a heat pump and from £90 for a gas boiler. A fault-finding visit is for when something has already stopped working, and starts from £95.
Can Mark come out in the evening or at the weekend?
Mark's hours are Monday to Friday, until 5pm. You can book a visit online at any time. If you smell gas, whatever the hour, the number to ring is the gas emergency line on 0800 111 999.
Heat Pump Energy
