Adding some new skills

[ballandco]

Thinking of adding some new skills to my plumbing and heating business, want to offer my customers extra services was thinking adding electrical or renewables - solar thermal , heat pumps, rain water harvesting etc , simple question which would you think is more worth while investing in ? I know renewables are the future but not keen on mcs I hate paperwork and putting more money in the governments pocket, I have heard that the manufactures have ways around mcs if your fitting there products , they register them for the grants for some sort of fee ??. On the other hand being heating engineers I think getting our heads around renewables will be easier than learning electrics (brand new trade) . What do you reckon will be more useful and profitable ?
Does anyone fit any renewables at the moment ? How you getting on with it?
Thanks for replys

 

[Riley]

Intrigued with this thread mind if I tag along

 

[ballandco]

Of course not matey I'm interested in what people say - what do u reckon?

 

[stani]

Who does your electrics for you at the moment?

 

[ballandco]

I've got an electrician that I get to do my work at minute and he does pass a bit of work back , but no where near what I give him

 

[stani]

Then 1st thing is do the electrics, means you save paying that out every time something needs doing, you can then take that with you into other areas, I.e. Renewables, oil, solid fuel they all need electric and someone to wire them up.

 

[ballandco]

That's a good point , there have been a few larger projects I would of liked to had both plumbing and electrics

 

[SimonG]

If i was branching out as such then it would be electrics.

 

[ballandco]

So there's 2 for electrics

 

[Riley]

Not trying to play devil's advocate, but how much in the way of qualifications would a plumbing and heating engineer need. In order to say put in a new consumer unit as an example. I would feel confident doing that now (based on experience with the electrician I use) however, I cannot sign it off.

 

[Leo21]

I reckon the real money's going to be in renewables. Solar panels, ground heat source etc etc. iff your kept busy doing plumbing and heating, you won't earn any more money because the rate is no higher. But renewables, who knows?

 

[ballandco]

Yes your right , I have done a fair bit of electrics before but like you said can't sign it off, seems easier running cables rather than pipes but I'm sure it has its shed factors to it as well

 

[stani]

Have a look how much an electric course will cost, offset that against how much your sparks cost you, then add in the cost of self certification over a couple of years you will make more money.

 

[ballandco]

1 for renewables

 

[ballandco]

Yea that's a fair point it's basically costing Money not having the electrics lol

 

[stani]

I also agree renewables is the way to go, but I would do electric 1st then go on to renewables.

 

[gasmanrob]

Another for renewables. Do it now get good at it get well known for it before everyone else does. Having said that I still have a potential 40 years left in the industry long enough to see renewables really come into their own. If I had say 10/15 years left I probably wouldn't be so eager to do it

 

[ballandco]

Yea I've got a long while yet as well I'm 28 , I think electrics first then renewables for the future

 

[Millsy 82]

I want to do electrics but not sure which way to go.
Main reason is that you can't get a reliable one down here. The one I have used takes 2 weeks to get back to you with a price!!!!

 

[TFGplumbing]

Electrics is a good idea; oil or biomass is a nice addition if you have of the grid customers.

Personally I dont intend jumping on the renewables bandwagon myself, I just think its a big con, the UK makes less than 2% of the world cO2 emissions, yet has the highest ''green'' taxes. Okay renewables are a good money spinner but iam just not a beliver haha

 

[Ray Stafford]

If you do mostly domestic work, I would add electrics.

If you do mostly site/contract work, definitely renewables.

But before either, and assuming you are self employed, I would do a business course and read some books on marketing. Unless you are one of the very rare plumbers, I reckon that improving your business skills would put more pounds in your pocket than any technical skill.

 

[chris watkins]

Every one keeps lumping renewables all together in one pot (and there is no one course), goes along with Rays post if you are tempted by this sector find out a bit more about what works & what don't, in your area / sector.

Likewise electric's is a large area even in the domestic market. Can you wire a heating system ?
Controls is the place to start if not, not only will it save on electrician's bills but it will allow heating fault finding & you could offer a wider range maybe, such as weather comp or computer / phone control.

Anyone do extract systems (whole house) or heat reclaim systems, domestic or com ?? Now these a possible market for them posh Surrey large houses.
Just a thought !

 

[plumben]

Id go for electrics, after seeing what the lads in college do on the renewables course its not worth it, you might aswell do a 4 day course instead,

 

[cr0ft]

Getting qualified as a sparky (although I still count myself as a plumber rather than a dirty smelly sparky) made me feel absolutely disgusting. It did however double my turnover the year I qualified. It took me from being busy enough to keep myself working full time to taking on my first apprentice and keeping us both busy full time.

This is the first week I've really stepped away from my business and left the 2 lads doing the day to day work while I'm on my gas course.

If you want to stay a one man band (and there is nothing wrong with that at all) then there's probably no need to learn extra trades. To be honest, there is only so much work you can fit into a week and each trade comes with it's own additional fixed costs.

If you want to expand your business and eventually train lads to work for you then adding extra skills in is the way to go imo. We get a lot of jobs where the customer has both smallish electrical and plumbing work and wants it all done by one company. When I look at all the big plumbing companies around here they do everything in house - electrics, gas, renewables, oil etc.

Rewires earn more profit than re-plumbing a house because it's controlled building work, just like gas work is going to be more profitable than plumbing (or should be). If you want to do renewables eventually you will need to be able to do your own electrics ideally so stop paying for that sparky and retrain!

I think you need an NVQ 3 on the electrical side now before you can register with the schemes as a full scope sparky. Do check this though as it's only what I've heard, I slipped through before they changed it!

 

[ballandco]

Cool thanks for all your repleys , will have a look into electrical course and it's not a bad shout about business training Ray , cheers

 

[Millsy 82]

I think you need an NVQ 3 on the electrical side now before you can register with the schemes as a full scope sparky. Do check this though as it's only what I've heard, I slipped through before they changed it!

That's the problem, no one seems to know anymore! I've asked about 10 different places and got 10 different answers! It's worse than coming on here and asking what boilers the best! Lol.

 

[chris watkins]

It is clear what is going on, the two main electrical biased competence
scheme providers got together & decided to put the squeeze on everyone else using the defined scope by arguing that the changes in Part P meant that you had to hold an electrical NVQ & be up to 17th edition to belong, which you don't.

Problem is no one seems to be asses to challenge them or anything else around part P, it has becoming total discredited.

Anyone can do almost anything domestically, they can then employ a "competent person" who can sign it all off for you (even if they can't see it all).

Be warned lad's & lasses the same thing will be coming to a boiler / gas install near you soon!!!!!!!