Tall Poppy Advisory

Teardown published · Home energy & heating

The boiler is sold in the minutes after the engineer says it's had it. Most firms let those minutes go.

Our first industry teardown looks at gas boiler replacement in Ireland: installers, service networks and the energy suppliers around them. The work is a point of view, built from public evidence. No company named on this page is a client.

Tall Poppy Advisory · Published · Updated

Owner-run installers and RGI firms with a servicing bookRegional heating and plumbing groupsEnergy suppliers and service networks that sell servicing but not replacementMerchants and manufacturers that depend on installer throughput

The shift

What has changed

Price is now public

Of 34 Dublin installers and national providers checked by one Dublin price-comparison page in October 2026, 19 published a supplied-and-fitted price for a new gas boiler online. Buyers can compare before they ever call.1

Speed beats loyalty

Public reviews repeatedly reward the firm that answered first and penalise the firm that went quiet, even after a successful service visit.2

Answers are moving to AI

Google says AI Overviews now reach more than 2.5 billion people a month. A homeowner asking 'is this a reasonable price for a new boiler?' increasingly gets an answer, not a list of links.3

The weakness

The replacement quote

In the reviews we read, the failure point is rarely the installation. It is the gap between 'you need a new boiler' and a written, fixed price. One homeowner on a highly rated installer's own Google listing describes asking for a replacement quote the day after a service visit, chasing twice and waiting more than 14 days. On boards.ie, another describes contacting more than 25 companies in two months.4

“I've contacted well over 25 companies in the last 2 months to try get my gas boiler swapped out with a combi”Homeowner, boards.ie

The fix

The fix we design

  1. A replacement line that starts at the service visit: the engineer leaves a QR code, the homeowner sends three photos on WhatsApp.
  2. A fixed price from the firm's own price card in minutes, with anything uncertain routed to a human before any price is sent.
  3. Two fitting slots, a deposit link and the RGI certificate returned in the same chat after the job.
  4. Software does the office work, so a small firm can sell like a utility without hiring an office.
We have a working prototype of this quoting and booking engine with an automated test suite. It is not yet live with a partner.

Every visit already on the calendar is a replacement opportunity. The commercial case is simple to test: measure how many service visits flag a replacement, and how many of those become a paid job inside 30 days, before and after.

Research notes

What this teardown is built on

  • 47 public reviews and forum posts read and grouped by theme, November 2026. Quotes are verbatim; firm and staff names removed.
  • A third-party Dublin price survey of 34 installers and providers (22 and 23 October 2026) reviewed for published prices.
  • Buyer journey walked from 'you need a new boiler' to a written price, using public channels only.
  • Public sources on regulation and grants cited below. No company named in the sources is a client.
  • The proposed fix has been built as a working prototype with an automated test suite. It is not yet live with a partner.

Read more

Insights from this teardown

Home energy & heating · 3 November 2026 · 7 min read

The 14-day quote: where home-heating firms lose their replacements

The firm that diagnoses the boiler has every advantage. Public reviews show how often it loses the sale anyway, in the days between “you need a new one” and a written price.

AI-answer visibility · 3 November 2026 · 5 min read

Answer first: how AI is reshaping how buyers choose a tradesperson

The first contact between a buyer and a tradesperson is becoming a paragraph written by an AI. The firms named in it get the call.

Work in home energy & heating?

If you run an installation business, a service network or an energy supplier, we would like to compare notes. We would be glad to show you the evidence behind it.

Contact us

Sources

  1. boilerservicedublin.ie, 'Boiler replacement and new boiler cost in Dublin' (survey of 34 installers, 22–23 Oct 2026; read 3 Nov 2026)
  2. Public Google and Trustpilot reviews of Irish heating firms, read 3 Nov 2026 (firms not named)
  3. Neowin, 'These 13 Google products now have more than 1 billion users each' (reporting Sundar Pichai), 2026
  4. boards.ie, 'What's going on with plumbers?'

This page is a Tall Poppy Advisory point of view built from public evidence. No company named in the sources is a client.