Vento vs Heat Engineer
Heat Engineer is a UK heating design platform covering survey, heat loss, system design and proposals for heat pumps, boilers and hybrid systems. Heat Engineer has one of the deepest heating design toolsets in the UK: room-by-room heat loss to CIBSE and BS EN 12831, CAD drawings, emitter, pipe and pump sizing, and an MCS performance estimate. Vento is built around air conditioning and air-to-air heat pumps rather than wet heating, and carries on past the proposal into running and servicing the job.
Heat Engineer and Vento overlap in places and not in others, so the table below says which. A "Yes" for Heat Engineer is something its own website advertises; "Not advertised" means we couldn't find it there, not that it can't be done. Confirm current details on Heat Engineer's website.
| Capability | Vento | Heat Engineer |
|---|---|---|
| Air-conditioning design & engineering | ||
| Built specifically for air conditioning | The entire workflow | Not advertised |
| Room-by-room heat-load (Manual J) | Built in, instant | Yes |
| Split & multi-split system design | Scaled, construction-issue drawings | Not advertised |
| Unit capacity matching | From a SEER/SCOP catalogue | Not advertised |
| Condenser placement & pipe routing | On the drawing | Not advertised |
| F-Gas register, CO₂e & leak-check scheduling | Built in | Not advertised |
| Running-cost estimates on proposals (SEER/SCOP) | Automatic | Not advertised |
| Running your business | ||
| Jobs, scheduling & CRM | Yes | Not advertised |
| Quotes & invoicing | Yes | Not advertised |
| Branded proposals with e-signature | Good/Better/Best options | Yes |
| Online payments & deposits | Card, Klarna, DD, transfer | Not advertised |
| Service & maintenance plans | Recurring, with certificates | Not advertised |
| Mobile app for on-site work | Full workflow on a phone | Yes |
| Running the operation | ||
| Dispatch board | Drag-and-drop, per engineer | Not advertised |
| Route planning | From Professional | Not advertised |
| Van & store stock | Ledger-backed levels | Not advertised |
| Purchase orders & invoice matching | Yes | Not advertised |
| Subcontractor job access | Per-job link, no account | Not advertised |
| Lone-worker check-ins | Office alerted if missed | Not advertised |
| Customer portal | Emailed link, no password | Not advertised |
| Schedule of Rates pricing | Import NHF, PSA or your own | Not advertised |
| Batch billing for maintenance contracts | Draft, review, commit | Not advertised |
| Specific to this comparison | ||
| Air-to-water emitter & pipe sizing | Yes — emitters at flow temperature, pipe sizes on a schematic | Yes |
| Heat loss to BS EN 12831 for the MCS design pack | No — Vento's is a scoping estimate | Yes |
| MCS heat pump performance estimate | No | Yes |
| Boiler, biomass & hybrid design | No — air conditioning and heat pumps | Yes |
| Air-to-air & multi-split design | Yes — scaled drawings | Not advertised |
Checked against Heat Engineer's own website in October 2026. "Varies" means it exists in some form or depends on plan or integration. We don't speak for Heat Engineer's product — verify current capabilities directly.
A heating design platform and an air-con platform
Heat Engineer is a heating design platform. Its tools cover the survey, a room-by-room heat loss to CIBSE and BS EN 12831, CAD drawings, emitter, pipe and pump sizing, an MCS heat pump performance estimate, and a proposal the customer signs digitally. It covers boilers, biomass and hybrid systems as well as heat pumps.
Vento covers the air-conditioning and air-to-air heat pump job: the survey, room-by-room heat load, unit selection, split and multi-split design on a scaled drawing, the proposal, the deposit, and then scheduling, invoicing, servicing and F-Gas.
Where each one is stronger
For wet heating design — sizing a heat pump and its emitters for an MCS design pack, or designing a boiler or hybrid system — Heat Engineer is the more specialised tool, and we'd say so. Vento's air-to-water sizing is a simplified estimate for scoping and quoting, not a replacement for a full MCS heat loss.
For air conditioning, the design problem is different: capacity matched to each room's cooling and heating load, indoor units a condenser can actually serve, and refrigerant pipe runs within the manufacturer's limits. That's what Vento's design tools do, with the F-Gas register following the installed system.
After the proposal
Job management — dispatch, stock, invoicing, service plans and a customer portal — isn't what Heat Engineer advertises, so firms often pair a design tool with a separate job system. Vento keeps the design and the running of the job on one record. Pricing is published: from £49 a month, or the Professional plan at £149 for 3 seats. See the full pricing.
Frequently asked questions
Is Vento an alternative to Heat Engineer for heat pump design?
For air-to-air heat pumps and air conditioning, yes. For air-to-water design that needs to stand up in an MCS design pack, Heat Engineer is the more specialised tool — Vento's air-to-water sizing is a simplified estimate for scoping and quoting.
Does Heat Engineer do job management and invoicing?
Scheduling, invoicing and service plans aren't what Heat Engineer's website advertises; it focuses on design and proposals. Confirm the current position with them.
Does Vento produce an MCS performance estimate?
No. Vento shows estimated running costs on proposals from the unit's SEER and SCOP, but it doesn't produce the MCS heat pump system performance estimate.
Where Vento differs from Heat Engineer
- Built for the air-con job — Split and multi-split design, unit capacity matching against each room and refrigerant pipe routing — where a heating design platform is built around wet systems.
- F-Gas built in — Refrigerant, charge and CO₂e against every installed system, leak checks scheduled, and a refrigerant register.
- Beyond the proposal — Deposits, dispatch, invoicing, service plans and a customer portal, so the design and the running of the job share one record.
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