10-06-2025
Turning Up the Heat
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What if running a heat pump business felt less like drowning in spreadsheets and more like sailing through a well-oiled system? Imagine a world where quotes took minutes instead of days, surveys were pre-filled, designs generated instantly, and paperwork… well, just happened. Not in a dozen different programs or clunky PDFs, but in one seamless platform. In a country racing to decarbonise 26m homes, that vision is more than a luxury - it's a necessity.
Step forward Spruce, a rising UK climate tech startup co-founded by Joseph Saxby and Steph Willis in 2023. Spruce is reshaping the heat pump industry by creating something deceptively simple: software designed specifically to enable the people doing the work. At its core, Spruce isn't about disrupting the installer - it's about empowering them. And it's clearly working: within 18 months they're now working with over 500 installation businesses, suppliers, and manufacturers.
The installer's reality
Running a heat pump business in the UK today is not for the faint-hearted. Ask any independent installer, and you'll hear the same story: long days, low margins, and a worrying amount of time spent on tasks that have little to do with actually fitting heat pumps. Instead of growing their businesses or training new engineers, they're stuck juggling incoming enquiries - most of which never convert - collecting and processing data manually, or wrestling with reams of compliance paperwork. For many, the admin burden is a full-time job on top of a full-time job. The result? Skilled engineers get bogged down. Ambitious companies stall. And newcomers, watching from the sidelines, hesitate to enter an industry that seems laden in inefficiency. This, Spruce argues, is exactly where change must start.
Tools to untangle the tangle
Spruce's solution isn't a silver bullet- it's a toolkit. One designed not in a boardroom, but through countless conversations with engineers and installation firms navigating these challenges day-to-day. Their Estimate Tool is the first line of defence: it allows installers to filter and respond to incoming enquiries in minutes, not days - quickly separating the serious customers from the time-wasters. Next comes the Survey & Design Tool, which manages heat loss surveys, system design, and reporting. And finally the Paperwork Tool automates all the compliance and admin required, saving almost a whole day's work on every job. But real brilliance lies in collaboration. Where once there were manual data transfers and repeat inputs across different systems, Spruce offers a single workflow, where information flows naturally from one step to the next. And now installers can work with subcontractors and manufacturers in one place, without any need to email PDFs and Excels back-and-forth. The platform doesn't just save time - it transforms how that time is used. Installers can focus on doing what they're trained to do: deliver great work, support customers, and grow their businesses. As Jason Hobbins from Energy My Way puts it: "Spruce is a brilliant innovation which saves us time and increases our conversion rates."
Why the installer matters
No-one at Spruce is under no illusion about the scale of the climate transition. But while much of the net zero conversation hovers around carbon targets, grant funding, and future tech, they've placed their bet elsewhere - on the overlooked tradespeople tasked with delivering it all. The team believes the key to unlocking mass adoption of heat pumps isn't just more grants or cheaper units - it's putting installers front and centre. That means building systems around their real-world needs, smoothing the path from enquiry to installation, and ultimately making the job more attractive to the next generation of engineers.
In that way, Spruce is part of a new wave of climate start-ups that see usability as the linchpin of progress. Innovation only works if people can actually use it today. And in a sector where trust is earned slowly and disruption is often viewed with suspicion, Spruce's approach - build with, not for - has helped it rapidly gain early traction.
More than admin relief
There's a quiet power in Spruce's mission. It doesn't aim to dominate headlines or reinvent heating technology itself. Instead, it focuses on making life easier for those at the coalface of clean energy transition. Because for every bold carbon target, there are thousands of individual jobs that need doing - each one requiring someone to quote, survey, design, install, and follow up. Spruce's insight is simple: if you make that person's life easier, and their customers happier, everything else moves faster.
While much of the industry grapples with policy, pricing, and public awareness, Spruce is cutting through the logistical gridlock at the core of the system. If the UK truly wants to meet its heat pump targets, success won't come from ambition alone - it will require smarter, more effective tools. And that's exactly what Spruce is delivering.
