What to do next ?

[ballandco]

Getting to the stage now where everything starting to get a bit easy, don't get me wrong I still have them why am I a plumber days but in general I'm thinking of a new challenge to grow my business
I'm in 2 minds whether to starting learning about renewables ,solar thermal and heat pumps . Is there a lot of call for these?ive had 1 customer ask about it so far but to be fair I'm not advertising them . Is this just a thing for people off the grid . I work in and around south london
or do I go and get my electrics and have that as an add on to my business, to be fair I give away a lot of electrical work .
The only thing is I know it's a shed load to learn and then the cost of another scheme ,more tests etc etc. I've just been thinking about new builds and no gas ,electric boilers
im 27 now so I know things are going to change in my working life just wondered what your faults were?

 

[Ermintrude]

I would look at mcs. But being a spark also helps for PV and controls

 

[Killy Bing]

I would go for a spark next or you can go for refrigeration 🙂

could always get involved in commercial catering!!

 

[chris watkins]

How about the design side, can you work out pipe sizes, heatloss & size rads / underfloor, LLH?
or how about controls ? can you wire up your heating systems or fault finding ?

 

[mfgs]

Interesting question and something I have been thinking of also, so I will look forward to reading all the suggestions. I have been pondering either commercial gas or renewables.

 

[Ermintrude]

Venturing in to commercial on the tools doing control and energy savings in offices. Basically wall stat that set to 19 ( it's actually a frost stat set at 16) and can save 25% of heating bill!

 

[gasmanrob]

I also give a lot of electrical work away but I give it to one person and I get a lot of heating work back (he hates wiring faults in heating systems)

personally id look at your client base and the area you work in and see what the demand is, if you're in letting agents I'd go for electrical and get that sown up part and parcel, if you do a fair bit of referb shop fit then refrigeration would be where I'd look, if you are looking domestic private only then renewables would be the way forward.... There is no denying it renewables will take off properly in the very near future 2016-2018 I'm guessing,

the problem I have is I do work In all the above areas and to do all the above would cost me a fortune and it's not worth me spending on all of it as eventually I will be sat in an office most of the week providing the life plan pans out...

 

[ballandco]

Thanks for replys , I picked up a sparks book out of yes electrical today to have a look at some bits , seems a lot to learn like the gas really . Have to way up if it's worth doing ,I get a bit of work back from my sparky to but when I see what he does makes me think I could be doing this and saving myself the heart ache of passing all that cash over lol
most my work is domestic so renewables will make sense just not sure how long it will take to get going with it all . Seeing some of the customers faces when you give them prices for a new boiler etc not alone trying to get them to have something which isn't essential.
Got to think forward really what with everyone giving free boilers , extended manufactures warrantys, company's giving you pay monthly options , new builds no gas , customers watching to much cowboy builder programmes and getting at least 5 quotes for a boiler etc . Something will give some day lol

 

[Mike Jackson]

Getting to the stage now where everything starting to get a bit easy,

Don't worry give it a couple of years and your knees and back will start to go, you'll start to get arthritis in your hands and it will all start to get difficult again.

 

[stevetheplumber]

i dont think renewables will ever realy take of in the domestic refurb markets the outlay is to high if you do housing association , new builds or the luxury end of the market there might be more of a place for it

 

[Dotty]

i dont think renewables will ever realy take of in the domestic refurb markets the outlay is to high if you do housing association , new builds or the luxury end of the market there might be more of a place for it

Not in our lifetimes anyway, but fossil fuels are a finite resource and will run out before long.

50-100 years I'd reckon, unless a major field is found.

 

[northcarr]

Until renewables are forced onto all new builds it's not worth it the costs need to come down and that's the only way it will happen.. Currently there is no clear direction with renewables the government can't get a grip rhi still unclear. The mcs is just a money making scheme full of paperwork. I did the solar thermal course 6yrs ago because they were supposed to be forced to start fitting them on new build surprise surprise they backpedaled because the builder's moaned about the cost I only did one in all that time. I think that electrics is the way to go for most gsr guys at least you won't have to resit the qualifications every 5yrs for electrics lol.