Intelligent Immersion Reviews 15

WOW!! What a company! What service!
A few years ago I had a battery system installed to enhance my PV system. Part of the package was an immersion controller. All went well for a time, but then whenever the controller started diverting spare current to the immersion heater, if the battery wasn't fully charged the inverter would trip. Both the makers of the controller and the installation company had gone out of business (naturally!), so no joy there. Over the next few years I tried everything I could think of, including an electrician's forum, a company offering inverter repairs etc etc, but no one had any idea what was causing it or what to do about it. Finally, the old controller blew up so I took it out and started looking for a replacement.
I contacted a number of controller companies (all significantly more expensive than the i2), but they all said there would probably be a conflict between the controller and the inverter and had no solution to offer.
Eventually, I spotted Intelligent Immersion's website and sent my 'usual' email with a brief explanation of my problem and asking if their controller would work for me. This was immediately answered by Paul McAllister and after a good many emails in which he asked all kinds of technical questions and patiently explained how these things work, he offered to send me an i2 on 'sale or return', but he was pretty confident it could be made to work.
I installed the i2 in January 2020 and at first the sme problem repeated itself. However, there then followed 6 months of numerous emails exchanged, all from Paul McAllister himself, while he gradually worked out what must have been happening and how to deal with it. Eventually, he took the trouble to write a new programme for the i2. I needed to buy an electronic gizmo, download the programme to my laptop, then plug the gizmo in to both the laptop and the i2, and the i2 was then re-programmed to work on a different principle, and now it works perfectly. £17 for the gizmo was cheap for such a miraculous cure.
I cannot praise Paul (and in fact the i2, which is a great piece of kit) highly enough. He was endlessly patient with me and my lack of electronic knowledge, and just kept going on working out how to make his product work. Other companies would have given up months before and I would have been left with a seriously frustrating situation.
If you're thinking of getting an immersion controller, you should definitely get one of these, they are enormously versatile and there's bound to be something to meet your needs, and the after-sales service is clearly second to none - see some of the other reviews.

Installed I2 a year ago with friend electrician ran into problems with the offset called Paul who gave me enormous help by phone to fix the problem now works perfectly it really does do what is says on the tin
Very special thanks to Paul to be so patient with me .

Buzz
Kinsale
Ireland

Under normal circumstances, if a product failed to function after five years, I would not rate the supplier with five stars, however that is not the case with Intelligent Immersion.
On contacting Paul McAllister when our I2 stopped working he advised me that they had fitted a faulty batch of fuse carriers and that despite our unit being well beyond the warranty period, they would rectify the fault free of charge.
In less than a week our I2 was functioning again providing us with free hot water, as it does for approximately ten months of the year.
The excellent device and superb service means that I would recommend this company and their product to anyone with photovoltaic panels.

Having researched a little into these types of devices, I can honestly say I’ve been massively impressed by not only the product itself, but the after sales service. There is no doubt that Paul goes well above and beyond what I expected. He has been a massive help in setting up the hive plugs for the tumble dryer and heated floor. The whole package works perfectly and now generally very little is exported compared to previously.
Brilliant, well built product and superb customer service. Couldn’t ask for more!!

My I2 had been working fine since installed 3+ years ago, but recently stopped working (no lights). There was some blackening of the inside of the box. I spoke to Paul McAllister at Intelligent Immersion. Instead of being fobbed off with the usual "outside guarantee period" response, he was honest enough to suggest it was a manufacturing fault that had affected a number of machines produced some time ago.

10 days later (including two weekends) my I2 is back on the wall functioning perfectly, having had the faulty component replaced, been fully tested, and at no cost to myself. Outstanding.

Thank you Paul!

I've had the I2W in for a few months now, and it works beautifully. I don't really understand how to set it all up, but Paul goes beyond the call of duty to help, and is a mine of information on this product and other products that interact with it. Linked to a battery storage system I ran my entire house including all hot water, hot tub and two electric vehicles in July for around £6. The I2W seems to react very rapidly and saves every last bit of energy.

I have never come across a company with such good pre and after sales care. I emailed them on a Sunday and they replied within an hour. They have called me and helped me sort problems I had created. Incredible patience. Absolutely tremendous and an example to other companies. (I don't normally write reviews).

I purchased an I3 unit some three years ago; technical back up was excellent and since then I have turned the boiler off for heating water from mid March until end of October and have always had a "free" tank of hot water. A highly recommended product.

Between the fantastic level of services provided by Intelligent Immersion and my own background as an electrical/controllers engineer the set up below has been possible.
I cannot recommend this company highly enough.
Not only is there level of service second to none, they have a very strong technical department which is clearly reflected in there robust products they produce.

I have installed the following at my house and working with Intelligent Immersion have got some very good results thus far:

• Just over 8Kwp of solar PV running on Enphase micro inverters
• 14Kw Diakin ASHP providing space heating (when OAT is below 14 Degs C) and back up DHW set point @48Deg C (typically Oct to April)
• I3 controller running a 2KW tube heater within our hot tub (typically April to Oct)
• I2 controller running a 9" (side entry) 3Kw heater and de-strat pump in my unvented DWH cylinder, set point @60Deg C - (Provides primary DHW April to Oct, also on good days in the low generation season)

We are all electric and I also run a split ASHP (air to air) in the office which is supplied from the same electrical origin (incomer)

I'm very happy with the performance/energy reduction to date, and especially with the tighter level of control developed between Intelligent Immersion and myself.

Even with the above in play, we still export a considerable amount of energy, hence I am now developing a battery storage solution to complement the above.

I bought an I3 unit from Intelligent Immersion approximately 4 years ago. Our 4 bed detached home has oil and electricity, and a 4 KWh solar PV system. The I3 has paid for itself very quickly, as we can rely on it diverting excess energy to the immersion in our water tank to meet our hot water needs for 9 or 10 months of the year. In other words, our oil usage is just for central heating during the colder months, and for water heating for approximately 12 weeks a year. Even then the I3 will route any surplus to the immersion, reducing our dependency on oil.

The app works very well. The web portal is a nice addition, so we can check on generation even when away from home.

Really useful device which works great and has worked well for us over the last year. Basically rather than sell generated electricity back to the grid, it first uses it to heat the immersion when generating electricity.

Excellent customer service and technical backup which was way over my head. For example, Paul was able to modify the readout to display max power generated each week.

Excellent product and outstanding after-sales service. The Web interface to the I3 allows all sorts of possibilities which other similar products cannot.

I purchased the I3 to fit in with our project which was to achieve Superhome status (superhomes.org.uk)
I would rate this product as excellent, but the 5 star is not possible as the set up was somewhat complex. The back up from Paul to setting up was excellent and managed to talk me through with out too much trouble. Mainly my lack of computer knowledge !!
We do not have a hot water cylinder so we are using the I3 to switch a heating element in a heat recovery unit and once satisfied to switch over to three towel rails with electric elements.
When monitoring the I3 either with the app or the portal it can be seen to respond very quickly to the varying solar output, keeping our export of electricity to a minimum.
For this project not only have we achieved the necessary Superhome status but the combination of the mechanical heat recovery and the towel rails operating through the I3 has helped eliminate the damp and black mould from the bathroom and en-suits.
The support from Paul in the proposed design was excellent, its not only the product but the support that sold it to us.

Haydon Edwards

“I have been running the WiFi version of this since 2014, during the months of April/May to September it diverts sufficient surplus solar generated electricity to heat the hot water tank in our 4 bed semi so I can turn off the overnight heating element. It paid for itself in around 2 years, in the other months it tops up the tank with heat. It is very responsive to changes in solar generation or household load so will cut in or out when the sun comes out from behind a cloud or the kettle goes on. I bought the version with two add-ons - an extra relay which I use to divert the solar surplus to a panel heater in the kitchen via an Energenie smart socket once the immersion tank is up to temperature plus an additional energy monitor which tracks consumption of our night storage heaters. I can track generation and consumption activity via either via an online portal or through an app. Although there is a bit of configuration to do at the time of purchase, UK based technical support is readily available. In summary, the unit operates flawlessly to the extent that I have bought a second one which is installed in a rental property, the only fly in the ointment is the web based portal which is provided by a third party, it provides the information you need but is not as polished as it's competitors however to it’s credit it does allow other systems to be controlled which is how my Energenie smart socket is turned on and off.”