Plumbing and Heating in London Supply and Demand

With the winter upon us, demand for London plumbers and heating engineers is naturally on the increase. It is inevitable in many ways because of a combination of factors which include rapidly dropping temperature (especially at night), re-starting of boilers and central heating systems that were virtually dormant for the summer and (mild) autumn. Add to the mix the difficult economic climate which forced people to delay any boiler repairs and installations to the very last possible minute, and you have a spike in demand for heating engineers.

This peak demand creates a few interesting effects in the plumbing and heating landscape. The first is a balancing inflow of heating engineers from other parts of the country. Certified engineers are heading into greater London during weekdays to attend customers and help cope with the demand. Higher rates and shortage of good engineers make it attractive for engineers to drive from as far as the Midlands and Merseyside and work as subcontractors during the week, travelling back to their families on the weekends.

The second effect the peak demand creates is price increases. When the weather is cold and ones boiler is not firing, their price elasticity becomes more rigid. In other words a customer with a broken down boiler on a cold day would be willing to pay much more than if the breakdown occurred during the summer. As such, prices tend to go up which in itself helps balance supply and demand by using natural market forces.

Finally, as a general word of advice, it is always a good idea to ensure one's boiler is serviced annually and tested before the peak of the winter to be ready and warm when it really counts.

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This page has been written with contributions from qualified plumbers from Kent and experienced heating engineers from Wimbledon. Several of the company's Gas Safe engineers from Hertfordshire have worked on similar issues as well as some of our heating engineers from Tunbridge Wells and our Ealing plumbers.

Posted : Saturday 28th November 2009