How to get more boiler installations

Most boiler installations start as something else:

• Breakdown calls where the repair costs more than the boiler is worth.
• Annual service customers whose boiler is getting old.
• Landlords who need gas safety checks and want fewer call-outs.
• Homeowners comparing quotes after searching on Google.
• Lead sites and manufacturer find-an-installer tools.
• Builders, kitchen fitters and plumbers who don't do gas work.

The first three are customers you already have. They're cheaper to win than any lead, so start there.

Every repair and service visit is a chance to plan the next install, as long as the advice is honest.

1. 1Keep a record of every boiler you service: make, model, age, condition and parts history.
2. 2When a boiler is old or keeps failing, say so in writing and give a no-pressure quote for a replacement.
3. 3Send service reminders every year. A customer who stays with you is the one who rings you when the boiler dies.
4. 4Offer landlords a simple package. The Health and Safety Executive says landlords must make sure a gas safety check is done every year on each gas appliance and flue they provide. A landlord with several properties is a regular source of replacement work.

Gas work needs registration. The Health and Safety Executive says anyone employed to work on gas appliances in domestic premises must be Gas Safe registered, and Gas Safe Register charges £3.34 plus VAT to notify each job online for 2026 to 2027.

They can, mostly by letting you offer a longer guarantee than the installer down the road. A customer comparing two quotes often picks the one with more years of cover.

Two examples from the manufacturers' own pages:

• Worcester Bosch: for a Greenstar 8000+ boiler registered with a Greenstar system filter, the guarantee goes from 8 years as standard to 10 years, and to 12 years for £40, which is free for Worcester Bosch Accredited Installer (WAI) and Accredited Partner (WAP) members. Terms apply.
• Vaillant: its old Vaillant Advance scheme is now myREWARDS, shared with Glow-worm. Vaillant says members can offer up to a 10-year guarantee on eligible boilers and controls when installed and registered with one of its filters.

Check each scheme's current terms before you quote a guarantee, and make sure the boiler is registered after every install. Then put the guarantee length on your quote in plain words.

Finance helps customers who need a boiler now but can't pay in one go. It's regulated, though. GOV.UK says firms must be authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to carry out consumer credit activities, which include arranging credit for others, and you can be fined or imprisoned for doing it without authorisation.

If you do offer finance, the FCA's credit broking rules apply. They include putting your legal name in all advertising, making clear that you're a broker and not a lender, and keeping all customer communications clear, fair and not misleading.

Get advice before you add finance to your quotes. Done properly, it can turn "we'll think about it" into a booked install.

If you want installs that aren't gas boilers, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme brings customers to you. In England and Wales, it gives property owners £7,500 towards an air source or ground source heat pump, £5,000 towards a biomass boiler and £2,500 towards an air-to-air heat pump. Until March 2027 there's an extra £1,500 towards an air or ground source heat pump for properties heated by oil or LPG with no mains gas connection. Hybrid systems don't qualify.

The installer does the paperwork. GOV.UK says customers get quotes from MCS certified installers, and the installer applies for the grant on the Ofgem website, with the grant taken off the price. The installer must commission and install the heat pump within 120 days of applying.

So the scheme is only open to you if you're MCS certified for heat pumps. If you're not, partnering with an installer who is can keep the customer with you for servicing and gas work. Heat pumps also need electrical work, so a good electrician is worth knowing. Our guide on how to get more electrical work shows the other side of that relationship.

Gas engineer leads from lead sites can fill the diary, but installs are high-value, so you'll often be one of several quotes. Here's what the main sites publish about their own fees:

Sources: Checkatrade's join page, the Rated People help page for tradespeople, MyBuilder's pages on its fees and how lead fees are calculated, and MyBuilder's terms.

Google Local Services Ads also cover heating. Google warns that if you regularly fail to answer calls or respond to messages, your ad ranking may be affected. Whichever you use, count the cost of each install you win, not each lead.

Your free Google Business Profile still matters most. Keep it complete, with photos of real installs and replies to every review.

Very fast, especially in winter. Someone with no heating or hot water rings engineers until one answers, and the engineer who fixes it, or replaces it, is the one who picked up. In a 2026 survey, 75% of UK adults said they'd give a business three call attempts before giving up on it.

The cost of a missed enquiry is the job's value times the chance it would have booked. For example, if an install is worth £2,500 to you and one in five breakdown calls turns into an install, every missed breakdown call costs you about £500 of install work before you count the repair. Put your own numbers into our missed call calculator, and read what missed calls cost a plumber for the full sum.

Then follow up:

1. 1Ring back missed callers within the hour where you can. No heat is urgent to them.
2. 2Send install quotes the same day as the survey, with the guarantee and any finance shown clearly.
3. 3Chase quotes after two or three days. Replacements are a big decision, so a second follow-up is normal.

For winter evenings and weekends, see our guide to out-of-hours plumbing and heating calls. If you also take general plumbing work, our guide on how to get more plumbing jobs covers Google, lead sites and letting agents in more detail.