Issues with heat pumps due to people 'fiddling with them'

THE vast majority of issues with heat pumps in new social housing units in Carlow are because people are “fiddling with the controls,” Tadhg Madden, housing officer, Carlow Co Council, told councillors at this month’s Bagenalstown municipal district meeting.

"They’re meant to be left alone. People are turning them off and once they’re turned off, it takes a number of days to get the system back up,” he explained.

Cllr Andy Gladney brought up the issue after a presentation of the council’s annual service plan for housing by Mr Madden. He asked for an explanation on what happens when an air-to-water boiler breaks down and the council maintenance crew can’t fix it.

“We’ll fix them if we can,” replied Mr Madden. “But if it requires actual work on them, there’s warrantees on those units and if they’re touched by anyone other than the supplier, the warranty will be deemed void. So, it has to go back to the installer there.

“I’m not being awkward about this, but that's the same as buying a car. If you bought a car like a Toyota, that’s based in Japan, when you’re living in Ireland, and you can’t hire anyone to fix it, you have to wait for someone from Japan to come to fix it,” argued cllr Gladney.

“Not entirely. If you buy off a garage, you have to go back to the garage you bought it from and that ensures your warranty is okay,” said Mr Madden in reply.

After finding out the warranty on the heat pumps is seven years, cllr Willie Quinn asked: “What do we do then, Tadhg, after the seven years?” “I’ll talk to you in seven years about that Willie.” “You’ll be gone somewhere else and you won’t care,” cllr Quinn posited.

“Hopefully, I’ll be here. You could be stuck with me a bit longer. Look, I appreciate what you’re saying. It’s not a great situation, but we are where we are and this is an EU directive and we have to follow that,” concluded Mr Madden.