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    BlueprintHeat-pump & solar installers

    Field App for Heat-Pump & Solar Installers

    Offline-first site surveys, quotes, commissioning checklists and grant paperwork for heat-pump and solar crews, plus a portal for homeowners.

    An example of how we'd build this for a company in this niche: the plan, the architecture and the targets we'd start from. Not a specific client's story.

    Target
    ≤ 2 days
    from completed survey to quote sent, within three months of launch
    Target
    –40%
    grant claims returned for missing evidence, within the first year
    Target
    –25%
    return visits caused by incomplete surveys, within six months of launch
    The situation

    Who this is for

    Take a typical installer with 20–60 field technicians fitting heat pumps and rooftop solar across a region, running surveys on paper forms and phone photos that end up in group chats. Quotes are built in spreadsheets back at the office, and grant claims come back over a missing photo or serial number. The goal is one field app and office platform that carries a job from first survey to commissioning and subsidy claim without anyone re-typing it.

    The hard part

    What makes it hard

    • Heat-loss surveys need room-by-room dimensions, wall and window U-values and existing radiator sizes, and one missed room means an undersized system or a second visit.
    • Plant rooms, basements and lofts often have no signal, so surveys, checklists and photos must be captured offline and sync later without losing anything.
    • Every subsidy scheme wants its own evidence (serial numbers, before-and-after photos, commissioning values, signed declarations) in its own format and by its own deadline.
    • One job passes through a surveyor, designer, plumber, electrician and commissioning engineer, and details get lost at every handover.
    • Performance complaints arrive months after handover, and without the unit's data nobody can tell a faulty unit from a flow temperature set too high.
    The product

    What we'd build

    Site survey & heat-load inputs

    Guided room-by-room forms for dimensions, U-values, existing emitters and photos, flagging missing fields before the surveyor leaves. The inputs feed the heat-load calculation or design tool you already use rather than replacing it.

    Quote builder

    Turns the survey into a priced quote from your product and labour catalogue, with options such as unit size or a battery add-on that the homeowner can accept and e-sign online.

    Scheduling & crew skills

    Planners book install days, crews and materials, with certifications taken into account, such as who may handle refrigerant on split systems.

    Install & commissioning checklists

    Step-by-step checklists with required photos, serial-number scans and measured values like flow temperatures, pressure tests and inverter settings, all working offline.

    Grant paperwork packs

    Collects the evidence each scheme asks for as the job progresses and assembles a submission-ready pack, with gaps flagged well before the deadline.

    Homeowner portal & monitoring hooks

    Homeowners see their quote, install date, documents and warranty in one place. Where a manufacturer offers a cloud API, unit status and fault codes can open service tickets automatically.

    Under the hood

    Architecture

    From the people who use it down to the hardware and third-party systems it talks to.

    1. Apps
      • Technician app (offline-first)
      • Office planning web app
      • Homeowner portal
    2. Platform
      • Jobs, surveys & quotes
      • Form & checklist engine
      • Photo & document store
      • Grant pack generator
    3. Integrations
      • Accounting or ERP
      • E-signature provider
      • Heat-load / design tool export
      • Manufacturer cloud APIs
    4. On site
      • Heat pumps & hot-water cylinders
      • Solar inverters & batteries
      • Bluetooth laser measures (optional)
      • Technicians' phones & tablets
    The plan

    Delivery plan

    The same four phases as every project we run - see how we work.

    1. Weeks 1–2

      Discovery

      Join a survey and an install, collect every form and grant checklist in use, and map where job data gets re-typed today.

    2. Weeks 3–4

      Design & architecture

      Offline data model and sync rules, survey and checklist flows tested with technicians on their own phones, and the plan for accounting and manufacturer integrations.

    3. Weeks 5–14

      Build

      Surveys and quotes first, then install checklists and grant packs, with a pilot crew using each release on live jobs.

    4. Weeks 15–16

      Launch & handover

      Crew-by-crew roll-out, form templates handed to the office so they can change them without a developer, and handover of code and infrastructure.

    The team

    • Product-minded tech lead
    • Mobile engineers (React Native)
    • Backend engineer
    • UX/UI designer
    • QA engineer
    • Integration engineer (part-time)

    Compliance & security

    • Homeowner details, floor plans and photos taken inside homes are personal data under GDPR, each with a clear purpose, restricted access and a retention period.
    • Heat-pump monitoring data can reveal when a household is home, so access should be consent-based and limited to service needs.
    • Heat pumps with fluorinated refrigerants fall under the EU F-gas Regulation; the app can record certified-engineer details, refrigerant type and charge, but certification stays with your team.
    • Subsidy schemes change their evidence and record-keeping rules often, so templates are editable by the office and old claims keep the rules they were filed under.

    Tech stack

    • React Native
    • TypeScript
    • SQLite
    • Node.js
    • PostgreSQL
    • Next.js
    • S3-compatible object storage
    • Docker
    • Azure or AWS

    Questions we usually get

    Will the app work in a basement or loft with no signal?

    Yes, that's the default we'd design for. Surveys, checklists and photos are saved on the phone and sync when a connection returns, with a clear indicator of anything not yet uploaded, so no one has to guess whether a job reached the office.

    Does it replace our heat-load calculation software?

    No, and we wouldn't recommend it. The app captures survey inputs in a structured way and passes them to the calculation or design tool you already trust, then brings the results back into the quote where that tool supports import and export.

    Can you connect to the heat pumps and inverters we install?

    Where the manufacturer offers a cloud API or installer access, yes, but availability and terms differ by brand and model. We'd check each manufacturer you install during discovery and build the monitoring features around what they actually expose.

    More blueprints

    Building something like this?

    30 minutes with the engineers who'd build it. We'll test this plan against your situation: scope, integrations and budget.