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Behind the Business with Calibrate Energy Engineering

Bdaily goes behind the business with Susie McDonald, Director at Calibrate Energy Engineering, the Alnwick-based provider of ’hands off’ heatpump systems.

Can you give a brief synopsis of what your organisation does?

Calibrate Energy Engineering is a leading provider of intelligent ‘hands off’ heating systems, designed to provide maximum energy and cost savings for commercial businesses. Our expertise lies in harnessing the natural energy resources surrounding a building to provide clients with reliable, low cost heating for commercial applications.

We do this through an integrated heatpump system which is both affordable and worry free, with long term maintenance cover available for peace of mind. Our bespoke control system enables government tariffs to be maximised and the system can be easily integrated alongside other renewables.

What key challenges has your company recently faced?

Dispelling the theory that our offering is too good to be true. Our average conversion time is 9 months from meeting a client to them signing our proposal. This time is spent reassuring clients through case studies, site meetings and contact with our existing clients that a heatpump truly is a way to turn a cost into an income.

2015’s Heatpump installations have earned and saved Calibrate Energy Engineering’s clients a total of £5,077,306*. The average installation will earn and save our client £564,145* over the next 20 years.

Our response to this challenge is to begin creating a video case study showing each job to enable our future clients to watch an installation take place and hear first-hand about the client’s experience.

We have also created an introduction cash back scheme to increase our word-of-mouth referrals, by giving people 1% of the total accepted proposal we aim to fast track the sales process by receiving referrals who already trust our brand.

What is your biggest achievement over the past 12 months?

We have completed the largest ground-source heatpump system in the North East at Hall GarthHotel in Darlington. A 400kw heatpump system that has a 400% return on investment was installed to heat:

• The hot water
• Radiators in all of the rooms and public areas
• Swimming Pool and Jacuzzi
• Pub
• Gym

What is your most important focus for the coming year, and what do you hope to achieve?

For Calibrate Energy Engineering to become the go to company for Heating within the hotel and leisure industry in the UK. This will be achieved when installations have taken place with 2 of the largest hotel chains and 3 private hotels.

This year is the window of opportunity for businesses with the Government Tariff at an all-time high the return on investment will never be better. Calibrate will achieve this through the earlier mentioned referral program and a sales team.

What excites you most about your industry and business?

The possibility of a greener and cleaner future, when people grasp the technology and financial benefits that are available there will be a shift in the way that heating is viewed, it will become an opportunity rather than a drain.

What do you wish you’d known when starting out?

I wish that we had a bigger business premises from the start it is only now that we are starting to take advantage of the manufacturing opportunities and create our own plant rooms to house the heatpumps. If I could dial back time we would also have secured the UK distribution rights for some of the products that we supply.

What will be the “next big thing“ in your industry, and how do you plan to handle it?

The next big thing for us is being able to certify our Heatpump systems to use the waste cooling for processes and still be eligible for the Government Tariff. An example of this is for a manufacturing business that requires heating and cooling in their process or a hotel that will heat the swimming pool while air-conditioning the surrounding air.

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