The summer lull nobody likes to talk about
Here is the thing about running a heating business in July. The phone that would not stop ringing in January has gone quiet. The breakdowns have dried up. The service reminders have mostly been and gone. And you are sat there, van loaded, wondering where the next few weeks of work are coming from.
Sound familiar? You are not alone. For most plumbing and heating businesses, summer is the season the diary goes thin. Demand follows the cold, and when the cold disappears, so does a slice of your turnover. That is not a sign you are doing anything wrong. It is simply the shape of the trade.
But a quiet diary is not the same as a quiet business. In my eyes, summer separates the owners who react from the owners who plan. So let me explain how the smartest heating businesses use these months, and whether the two pivots everyone is talking about, air conditioning and outdoor cooking, are worth your time.
Why the summer gap hits harder than it should
Picture this. Your fixed costs do not take a holiday. The van finance, the insurance, the rent, the wages for your team members, all rolling on at the same rate in August as in December. Your income drops, your outgoings do not, and the gap gets filled from your cash reserves. The trade calls it seasonality. Your bank account just calls it a problem. So the real question is not how you survive the summer. It is how you turn the quiet months into productive ones, and that starts with how you think about what you actually sell.
Your skills are a toolbox, not a single tool
Consider this. A heating engineer is not just someone who fits boilers. You understand water, gas, pressure, pipework, heat, and how a home works as a system. That is a broad skill set, and the mistake many owners make is renting out only one tool from a very full toolbox. Widen the view and summer stops looking like a desert. It starts looking like a different set of jobs that peak just as heating work dips. Let us dive into the two that come up most.
Air conditioning: real demand, real rules
Every warm spell sends the enquiries for cooling up. Homeowners who once thought air conditioning was a holiday-abroad luxury now want it in the bedroom so they can sleep. For a heating engineer it looks like a natural fit, and if you already install heat pumps you are working with refrigerant circuits, so the leap is smaller than you think.
Here is where you have to be straight with yourself. Air conditioning work is regulated, and the rules are not optional. To work on any equipment containing fluorinated gas, the refrigerant used in air conditioning and heat pumps, you must hold your own F-gas qualification. Doing that work without it is against the law and can bring a civil penalty. That applies to you even if you work for someone else.
The qualifications sit in categories. A category 1 certificate covers all activities, while category 2 lets you install, service and recover refrigerant from smaller systems. You get these through accredited bodies such as City and Guilds, BESA or LCL Awards.
There is a second layer for the business itself. If your company services air conditioning that belongs to other people, the company, including a sole trader, must hold its own F-gas company certification from a body such as Refcom, the F-Gas Register or Bureau Veritas, renewed every three years. None of this should put you off. It just means air conditioning is a proper trained-up route, not a weekend add-on. Get the tickets, do it right, and you have a summer earner that grows with the climate.
Outdoor kitchens and LPG cooking: know where the line sits
The other summer trend is outdoor living. Built-in barbecues, outdoor kitchens, pizza ovens and fixed patio heaters, all plumbed to a gas supply. Homeowners are spending serious money on their gardens, and someone has to connect the gas safely.
Now, let me draw a clear line, because this one catches people out. A portable barbecue that you screw a bottle onto and roll away is not gas installation work and needs no Gas Safe certificate. But the moment a gas appliance is fixed and connected to a supply, whether mains natural gas or an LPG tank, it becomes gas work under the Gas Safety regulations. It must be done by a Gas Safe registered engineer who holds the right competency for that appliance.
LPG is its own competency on the register, separate from natural gas, and commercial catering gas is separate again. So check exactly what your registration covers before you quote. A fixed LPG appliance also needs an annual safety check by a Gas Safe registered engineer, which is a tidy recurring job once you have installed one.
The appeal is obvious. This is premium, cash-rich work that lands just as your heating diary empties, for customers in a spending mood. Just make sure the qualification matches the job. A fixed outdoor kitchen is not the same ticket as servicing a combi.
The quieter pivots that need no new ticket
Not every summer strategy needs a new qualification. Some of the best ones use the skills you already have:
- Boiler service plans. Push servicing hard in summer, when you have the capacity and customers are not shivering waiting for a repair. Turn it into a monthly plan so income arrives whether the phone rings or not.
- Bathroom and wet room installs. Bigger jobs people plan for the warmer months, and a natural stretch for a plumbing and heating business.
- Unvented cylinder work, power flushing and system upgrades. The jobs customers put off in winter because they cannot lose their heating for a day.
- Landlord safety checks. Landlords need annual gas safety certificates, and summer is a sensible time to catch up before the winter rush.
You do not have to reinvent the business to fill the diary. Sometimes you just sell the quieter work harder when the headline work goes quiet.
A quiet diary is an opportunity, not a headache
Let me imagine two heating businesses in the same town this August. The first waits, hopes the phone rings and dips into savings. The second used the quiet weeks to send an engineer on an F-gas course, ran a servicing campaign, and quoted three outdoor kitchens. Same trade, same weather, very different September. The difference is not luck. It is planning, and a new revenue stream is only worth having if it actually makes you money.
This is where the lessons from my books come in. In The Quote Handbook, the whole argument is that you price to protect your margin, not to win the job. That matters double with new work. You will be tempted to price low because you are the new one on the block. Do not. Cost it properly, load in the training, and charge what the work is worth.
The Systems Handbook makes the other half of the case. A new service that only works when you personally do it is not a business, it is another job you have given yourself. Build the system first: how you quote it, who delivers it, how you check the quality. If you want to steer the ship, you cannot spend every summer back in the engine room.
How Together We Count can help
Pivoting into new work is exciting, but it changes your numbers, and that is where we come in. Whether it is the true cost of a new qualification, pricing a new service to protect your margin, or smoothing the cash flow, we help plumbing and heating business owners make these calls with real figures rather than gut feel. See how we work on our services page.
Frequently asked questions
Do I legally need a qualification to install air conditioning?
Yes. To work on any equipment containing F-gas refrigerant, including air conditioning and heat pumps, you must hold your own F-gas qualification. Doing that work without it is against the law and can result in a civil penalty.
Does my company need its own certificate as well as my personal qualification?
If your company services air conditioning that belongs to other people, then yes, the business itself, including sole traders, must hold F-gas company certification from an approved body, renewed every three years. Servicing only your own equipment is treated differently, but the individual still needs their personal qualification.
Can I fit a customer’s outdoor barbecue or kitchen without being Gas Safe registered?
Not if it is a fixed appliance connected to a gas supply. That is gas work and must be done by a Gas Safe registered engineer with the right competency, and LPG is a separate competency from natural gas. A portable barbecue with a screw-on bottle is a different matter, and is not treated as an installation.
What is the simplest way to steady summer cash flow?
Recurring income. Boiler service plans, maintenance contracts and annual safety checks bring money in every month regardless of the weather. It is the least glamorous fix and often the most effective.
A quick note
This article is general guidance, not formal legal, tax or regulatory advice. Qualification and certification rules change, so always check your exact position with the relevant awarding body, Gas Safe Register or a suitably qualified professional before taking on new work.
Aaron McLeish, Managing Director, Together We Count.