Heat Engineer alternatives for air-conditioning installers
Heat Engineer is a heating design platform for heat pumps, boilers and hybrid systems, with room-by-room heat loss to BS EN 12831, CAD drawings, emitter and pipe sizing and digitally signed proposals. If your work is air conditioning or air-to-air heat pumps, the design is a refrigerant system rather than a wet one — and you'll want the job management and F-Gas records after the sale on the same record. Here are the best alternatives — starting with the one built specifically for air conditioning.
1. Vento
Vento is built for air conditioning and air-to-air heat pumps. It runs a room-by-room heat load as you survey, matches units to each room, produces scaled split and multi-split drawings with the pipe runs, builds a proposal the customer e-signs with the deposit, and keeps the F-Gas register, scheduling, invoicing and service plans on the same record — from £39 a month billed annually (£49 month to month), flat rather than per user. It sizes air-to-water systems as a scoping estimate, not a full MCS heat loss.
- Room-by-room heat load built in
- Split & multi-split system design
- Branded proposals, e-sign & deposits
- F-Gas register & leak-check scheduling
- Flat pricing, not per user
- Full workflow on a phone, on site
Why installers look for a Heat Engineer alternative
Heat Engineer is one of the most complete heating design toolsets in the UK. The reasons installers look elsewhere are usually about the kind of work rather than the quality of the design.
If you install air conditioning or air-to-air heat pumps, you need 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 Vento's multi-split design.
And if you want the job run in the same place it was designed — dispatch, stock, invoicing, service plans and a customer portal — that's job management, which isn't what Heat Engineer advertises. See the full Vento vs Heat Engineer comparison.
When to keep Heat Engineer
For wet heating design that has to stand up in an MCS design pack, an MCS performance estimate, or boiler and hybrid design, Heat Engineer is the more specialised tool and Vento doesn't replace it.
Vento and Heat Engineer, feature by feature
"Not advertised" means we couldn't find it in what Heat Engineer publishes — features change and vary by plan, so confirm anything that matters to you with them directly.
| Feature | 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 |
What to look for in a Heat Engineer alternative
Sizing built in
Does it calculate each room's load, or do you size on a spreadsheet and type the result in?
Design to quote
Does the quote come out of the design, or is it re-keyed in a separate step?
F-Gas against the unit
Is the refrigerant record attached to each installed system, with leak checks scheduled from the charge?
Proposals customers sign
Can the customer sign and pay the deposit on their phone from the proposal?
Contract length
What is the minimum term, and what happens to your data if you leave? Get it in writing.
Published pricing
Is the price published, and is it per user or flat?
Other alternatives
2. Heatpunk
Heat pump design and quoting to MCS standards, with a free tier.
3. Spruce
Heat pump design plus MCS paperwork: a quality management system, DNO applications and handover packs.
4. Payaca
Quoting, payments and workflow for renewables installers.
Heat pump design tools and air-conditioning software solve different problems — many firms that do both use one of each. Features change and vary by plan, so confirm current details on each provider's site.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Heat Engineer alternative for air conditioning?
Vento, because it's built around the air-conditioning job: room-by-room sizing, split and multi-split design with refrigerant pipe routing, e-signed proposals with deposits, F-Gas records and job management in one place.
Does Vento replace Heat Engineer for MCS heat pump design?
No. Vento's air-to-water sizing is a simplified estimate for scoping and quoting. For a heat loss and design that stands up in an MCS design pack, a dedicated heating design tool is the right choice.
How much does Vento cost?
Vento's pricing is published and flat per tier: from £39 a month billed annually (£49 month to month). Every plan has a 14-day free trial.
See also: all Vento comparisons, best air-con software 2026, and air conditioning software.
More alternatives pages: Joblogic alternatives, Commusoft alternatives, Simpro alternatives, BigChange alternatives, ServiceM8 alternatives, Tradify alternatives, Jobber alternatives, Powered Now alternatives, Fergus alternatives, Checker alternatives, KORD alternatives, Heatpunk alternatives, Spruce alternatives.
A Heat Engineer alternative built for air-con
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