22 September 2026 · 5 min read · Oscar Markham
The four questions a heat pump enquiry form has to ask
A heat pump assessment costs real time and travel, and a meaningful share of them end with the same conclusion: this house is not ready. That conclusion is almost always predictable from four pieces of information the homeowner could have given you before anybody got in a van.
Why this matters more here than in other trades
Most trades can quote from a photograph or a phone call. Heat pumps cannot, because suitability depends on the building rather than the job.
A house needing twenty thousand euro of fabric upgrades first is not a customer this year, however keen the homeowner is. Finding that out on site is the single largest avoidable cost in the sector.
The four
Each of these removes a distinct category of unsuitable enquiry, and none of them is off-putting to somebody genuinely in the market.
- What age is the property? — the strongest single predictor of whether the fabric is ready
- What is the current heating system? — tells you about the emitters and the flow temperatures you would be working against
- Do you know your BER rating? — not everyone will, but the ones who do are considerably further along
- Has insulation work been done, and when? — separates the retrofit-ready from the retrofit-first
What happens to your numbers
Raw enquiry volume falls, sometimes sharply, and cost per enquiry rises. Both look like the campaign got worse.
Cost per assessment and cost per install both improve, usually substantially. Which of those you optimise for decides whether the account looks good or makes money.
The enquiries you turn away are not wasted
A homeowner told plainly that their house needs insulation first, and why, frequently comes back a year later having done it — and comes back to you rather than to whoever sold them a system that underperformed.
It also makes insulation a natural partner campaign, because the audiences overlap almost entirely.
Written by Oscar Markham, founder of Dublin Growth Digital. We run lead generation for Irish estate agents and trades, reported every Friday in enquiries and booked work.