Dedicated support: our System Sales and Design service

Vaillant’s expert team assists installers every step of the way with bespoke heating system design for an array of projects, supporting the transition from gas to heat pump installations

At Vaillant, our expert System Sales and Design (SSAD) team provides installers with comprehensive heating system design support on their projects.

It’s a relatively new service – the SSAD team was only created around two years ago and has continued to grow since then.

The team operates remotely from locations throughout the country, but there’s just one single contact email address and phone number for installers.

Jobs coming in to the team are distributed among its experts, who aim to deal with all enquiries quickly and efficiently. This ensures a smooth and streamlined response to enquiries – from queries about commercial boilers and heat pumps to schematic requests and pre-install technical advice.

The know-how in designing and specifying heating systems and answering technical queries is already proving vital for installers at every level.

“We saw there was a need to provide bespoke heating system design support to installers and developers, giving them guidance on what products are best suited to their projects,” says Simon Melbourne, System Sales and Design Manager.

“It’s grown quite quickly – last year, we provided hundreds of installers and specifiers with the support they required.

“The SSAD team members have all worked within the heat pump industry. Some have worked for themselves as heat pump installers and others have worked for back-office installers doing paperwork calculations.

"We’ll always work with installers to make sure we’re delivering exactly the right solution for their project”

A typical SSAD job can be broadly split into three stages.

“An installer will send us a set of plans for a project, which could be a single house for a one-off project or a site of 30 houses,” says Simon. “We work out what the likely heating load of that property is, what the water requirements are and what controls are required.”

Then, the team will assemble a package that includes the system specification document and a quotation for the Vaillant products required for that project.

“This allows the installer to progress the job to the next stage, quoting their customer based on that estimation,” Simon continues.

Finally, he says, the team is also on hand to speak to the installer if they have any questions about the installation process: “Why do I need this? Why do I put the heat pump here? What controls are required? We’re there to answer those sorts of questions throughout the journey, help them map out what’s required and be as available as possible.”

The SSAD team provides estimated heat loss calculations free of charge*, saving both time and money – which really benefits our one-off installers.

“If there’s a project where the installer wants to do something unique, we can provide detailed hydraulic and electrical schematics,” says Simon.

And the trickier the job, the better, as far as Simon and his team are concerned. It’s an attitude that’s a real bonus to installers who might be scratching their heads wondering how best to deliver for their own customers.

“If, for example, you’re dealing with an older property, then working out the heat load can be more difficult,” he explains.

“You have unknown fabrics, you’ve got to think about when that property was built and how, calculate the way the property is going to react to the heating load, and work out what heat pumps are best suited for that application. The tricky jobs are the ones that the team really like to get stuck in and involved with.”

There are other challenges to the job too, particularly when the team has limited information to go on, but they take it all in their stride.

“We usually get chapter-and-verse information on a job, but sometimes we have to decipher what the installer wants,” says Simon.

“We’ll therefore pick the installer’s brains and find out what they want to achieve with the project because we don’t want to guess. It’s about piecing it all together, really. But it’s all part of the service, and we have a great relationship with installers, both experienced and new.”

Although the SSAD team handles many ground source heat pump and commercial boiler design projects, the bulk of the work relates to air source heat pump installations, with Vaillant’s aroTHERM plus the product of choice.

“It’s our flagship heat pump and the one everyone wants,” says Simon. “The aroTHERM plus has the lion’s share in terms of products we specify, but we’ll always work with installers and developers to make sure we’re delivering exactly the right solution for their project.”

Contact the System Sales and Design team by emailing systemdesignuk@vaillant.com, or call 0330 123 1767 between 9am and 4.30pm Monday to Thursday and until 4pm on Friday.

*As of September 2023.