Spruce vs Heat Engineer for Heat Pump Design
Spruce and Heat Engineer can both be used to carry out detailed heat pump surveys, room-by-room heat loss calculations and system design.
But they are not simply two versions of the same software.
Heat Engineer has developed around the technical heating-design process, with tools for heat loss, emitters, CAD, pipe and pump sizing, bivalent systems and MCS performance calculations.
Spruce takes many of those technical stages and places them inside a broader heat pump installation workflow, extending from enquiry and estimate through survey, heat loss and system design to customer proposals, installation paperwork, handover and an integrated QMS. (Heat Engineer Software)
Heat Loss Hub works with both. We currently use Spruce as our default platform for many collaborative installer projects, but that does not make Spruce universally better than Heat Engineer.
The more useful question is: Which platform fits the way you want to survey, design and manage heat pump projects?
AT A GLANCE
Spruce vs Heat Engineer at a Glance
| Area | Spruce | Heat Engineer |
|---|---|---|
| Room-by-room heat loss | Yes | Yes |
| On-site digital surveying | Yes | Yes |
| LiDAR surveying | Yes | Yes |
| Plan/CAD-based surveying | Yes | Yes |
| Offline surveying | Yes | Mobile survey workflow available; verify current offline requirements for your intended setup |
| Radiator/emitter sizing | Yes | Yes |
| Heat pump system design | Yes | Yes |
| Pipe sizing | Yes | Yes |
| Pump sizing / hydraulic calculations | Pipework and drawing tools | Dedicated pipe and pump sizing tools |
| CAD-style drawings | Yes | Yes |
| MCS performance calculations | Integrated wider workflow | Dedicated MCS performance tools |
| Branded reports | Yes | Yes |
| Customer proposal workflow | Strong integrated feature | More technically/report focused in current public positioning |
| External designer collaboration | Explicit job-sharing/collaboration workflow | Multi-user packages and API/integration options |
| Integrated QMS | Yes | Spruce has the clearer dedicated integrated-QMS proposition |
| Installation/handover paperwork | Broad integrated workflow | Primarily design-focused in current public positioning |
| Public subscription pricing | Contact Spruce | Published monthly pricing |
| Overall emphasis | Whole heat-pump business/project workflow | Detailed heating survey and technical design |
The distinction becomes clearer when we follow the same job through both systems.
PRODUCT SCOPE
Starting a Heat Pump Project
Both platforms can take a property from survey information into technical heating design.
Spruce’s wider product structure begins before the technical survey. Its current platform covers:
Enquiry → Estimate → Survey → Heat Loss → Design → Proposal → Install → Handover
Customer and property information can therefore sit within a much broader project workflow. (Spruce)
Heat Engineer’s public positioning is more strongly centred around:
Survey → Heat Loss → Heating Design → Technical Reports
with additional tools covering MCS performance, CAD, emitters, pipework and other engineering functions. (Heat Engineer Software)
That difference matters if you are deciding whether you primarily need a design tool or a platform around a larger proportion of the heat-pump job.
SPRUCE SURVEYING
Surveying With Spruce
Spruce supports several routes into the survey. That includes:
- LiDAR scanning
- manual or laser measurement
- tracing suitable floorplans
- plan-based design for new builds
- on-site data collection
Spruce also supports offline survey entry, with information syncing once connectivity returns. (Spruce)
The underlying advantage is continuity. Information collected during the survey feeds directly into heat loss and system design rather than requiring the property to be recreated later.
For a fuller walkthrough, see Spruce Survey & Design Tool: How the Installer Workflow Works.
HEAT ENGINEER SURVEYING
Surveying With Heat Engineer
Heat Engineer also offers several survey routes.
Its current platform includes mobile and tablet surveying, CAD measuring from plans, native LiDAR scanning and integration with Magicplan. Heat Engineer states that survey information collected in its mobile workflow synchronises with the online platform for calculation and reporting. (Heat Engineer Software)
For plan-based projects, its CAD measuring tool supports PDF, DXF and DWG files, allowing walls, floors, windows and other building elements to be traced and measured directly from plans. (Heat Engineer Software)
So this is not a simple distinction of Spruce = modern surveying and Heat Engineer = manual surveying. Both now provide sophisticated routes for gathering property information.
COMPARISON
Which Is Better for Surveying?
It depends on the workflow.
If your priority is moving from survey into a wider shared project that will later continue through proposals, installation paperwork and handover, Spruce’s broader workflow can be attractive.
If your main requirement is a detailed heating survey feeding into a technical design environment, Heat Engineer remains a capable platform.
The quality of either result still depends on the quality of the survey information. Software cannot compensate for a missing room, incorrect construction assumption or badly measured opening.
HEAT LOSS
Room-by-Room Heat Loss
Both platforms are designed to produce detailed room-by-room heat loss calculations rather than relying on simple floor-area estimates. The calculation stage considers information such as:
- room geometry
- external surfaces
- construction and U-values
- glazing
- design temperatures
- ventilation or infiltration
- room-by-room loads
Spruce carries the survey information directly into its heat-loss engine and then onwards into emitter and system design. Its current workflow also includes LiDAR measurement, plan tracing, U-value libraries and ventilation-related inputs. (Spruce)
Heat Engineer similarly centres its platform on detailed heat-loss calculations and currently promotes room-by-room surveys alongside updated ventilation inputs, pulse air-test results and instant heat-loss results within its survey application. (Heat Engineer Software)
Neither system removes the need for technical judgement. The calculation is only as reliable as the building information used to create it.
EMITTERS
Radiators and Other Emitters
Room heat loss is only useful if it leads into an appropriate emitter design. Both platforms support the assessment and sizing of emitters for low-temperature systems.
Heat Engineer currently offers dedicated radiator and emitter functionality, including manual radiator selection and AI-assisted suggestions. It calculates performance at alternative operating conditions from the radiator’s published output data. (Heat Engineer Software)
Spruce also carries room loads into its system-design process, allowing emitter requirements to be considered alongside the intended operating temperature and wider system design. (Spruce)
For a heat pump, this stage is fundamental. The question is not simply Will this radiator heat the room? It is Will it meet the calculated room load at the operating conditions the heat pump is being designed around?
SYSTEM DESIGN
Heat Pump and Cylinder Design
Both systems go beyond the heat-loss calculation.
Spruce’s system-design workflow includes proposed heat pump, cylinder, emitters and associated hot-water calculations, with the information then available to its reports and proposal workflow. (Spruce)
Heat Engineer also provides heating-design functionality and publicly lists tools including heat-pump system performance and bivalent design alongside its heat-loss and emitter features. (Heat Engineer Software)
Again, software should support the decision rather than replace it. The designer still needs to consider the actual property, design conditions, operating temperature, heat-pump performance and proposed system arrangement.
HYDRAULICS
Pipework and Pump Sizing
This used to be one of the areas where the differences between platforms were more obvious. That gap has narrowed.
Heat Engineer has a dedicated Pipe and Pump Sizing Tool. It calculates required flow, assists with pipe diameter selection, shows friction loss, identifies the index circuit and calculates required pump head. Its current workflow also incorporates Grundfos pump-selection support. (Heat Engineer Software)
Spruce has also expanded its hydraulic design capability and now promotes full pipework design and CAD-style drawings, including pipe runs, emitters, heat pump and plant-room information. (Spruce)
For installers comparing the two platforms today, it would therefore be outdated to treat Spruce as merely a heat-loss and radiator-sizing tool. Both platforms now extend well into detailed system design.
DRAWINGS
Drawings and Plan-Based Work
Heat Engineer has strong CAD functionality. Its current CAD measuring tool can work from PDF, DXF and DWG files, making it particularly useful where architectural drawings or existing CAD information are available. (Heat Engineer Software)
Spruce also supports plan tracing and now produces CAD-style installation drawings from the project, including proposed pipework runs and equipment information. (Spruce)
The distinction is therefore increasingly about how the drawings fit into the overall workflow, rather than whether either system can work from plans at all.
CUSTOMER PRESENTATION
Reports and Customer Presentation
Both systems produce professional technical outputs.
Heat Engineer’s current subscription plans include unlimited reports, CAD drawings and white-labelled reports. (Heat Engineer Software)
Spruce generates branded heat-loss and system-design reports but also pushes the information further into a dedicated customer proposal workflow. Its proposal system can bring together:
- system design
- heat loss
- heat pump
- cylinder
- emitters
- performance information
- installer pricing
- installer terms
- company branding
The proposal can then be viewed and digitally accepted by the homeowner. (Spruce)
That is one of the clearest differences between the platforms. Heat Engineer’s current public offering is particularly strong around technical calculation and design reports. Spruce is deliberately trying to connect that technical work to the commercial customer journey as well.
MCS PERFORMANCE
MCS Performance Calculations
Heat Engineer has a dedicated MCS Heat Pump System Performance workflow. Its current tool uses property information and EPC data to produce the MCS performance estimate, including predicted electricity use, renewable contribution and carbon information. (Heat Engineer Software)
Spruce incorporates MCS-related design outputs into its wider project workflow and then carries project information onwards into paperwork, installation and handover. (Spruce)
So again, both address MCS requirements, but they approach the wider installer workflow differently.
QMS
MCS Paperwork and QMS
This is an area where Spruce’s wider business-platform positioning becomes especially noticeable.
Spruce currently offers an integrated QMS alongside its project workflow, covering areas including core documentation, staff competency, equipment calibration, complaints and non-conformities. It also promotes automatic generation of post-sale documentation, including DNO and handover paperwork. (Spruce)
Heat Engineer’s current public feature set focuses much more heavily on technical survey, calculation, design and MCS performance outputs. (Heat Engineer Software)
That does not make Heat Engineer unsuitable for an MCS installer. It means businesses wanting design software plus a wider integrated QMS and job-documentation environment should include that difference in their comparison.
COLLABORATION
Collaboration and External Designers
This is particularly relevant to Heat Loss Hub.
Spruce explicitly allows businesses to invite surveyors or designers into jobs and control which parts of the project they can access. (Spruce)
That makes a workflow such as this relatively natural:
INSTALLER (Customer → Survey) → SHARED SPRUCE PROJECT → HEAT LOSS HUB (Heat Loss → Emitters → System Design) → INSTALLER (Proposal → Installation → Handover)
Heat Engineer also supports multi-user working. Its current Teams and Bespoke subscriptions are designed for organisations with several users or designers, and it also has a corporate API capable of creating and updating surveys, adding rooms and files, retrieving generated PDFs and receiving project-completion events. (Heat Engineer Software)
So collaboration exists around both platforms. Spruce simply makes external surveyor/designer collaboration a particularly visible part of its current product proposition.
INTEGRATIONS
Integrations and Automation
Both platforms can sit alongside other business systems.
Heat Engineer has a documented corporate API and integrations including Magicplan, while its public materials describe further third-party integration work. (Heat Engineer)
Spruce also positions itself as capable of connecting with wider CRM and business processes while keeping the heat-pump project data within the same workflow. (Spruce)
For a larger business, this may matter almost as much as the calculation engine. The question becomes: How much information will we still have to manually move between systems?
OFFLINE WORKING
What About Working Offline?
Spruce specifically promotes offline surveying. Survey information can be entered without a mobile connection and synchronised later, which is useful in properties with poor signal or where installers want to avoid falling back to handwritten notes. (Spruce)
Heat Engineer has mobile and tablet survey tools and synchronisation with its online platform. Its exact offline behaviour and requirements should be checked against the current version if offline working is an important deciding factor for your business. (Heat Engineer Software)
Software changes quickly, so this is one area where checking the latest app behaviour before committing is sensible.
PRICING
Spruce vs Heat Engineer Pricing
Pricing checked September 2026.
Heat Engineer currently publishes straightforward subscription pricing:
- Single User: £40 + VAT per month
- Teams: £80 + VAT per month
- Bespoke: contact Heat Engineer
- Annual billing currently offers a 10% discount
Spruce currently advertises month-to-month pricing with no lock-in, but does not display a simple headline monthly subscription amount on the public pages we checked. Businesses are directed to Spruce to discuss the platform and pricing. (Spruce)
That means a simple headline-price comparison would be misleading. The products also cover different amounts of the wider installer workflow.
If you only need technical heat-loss and heating-design software, the commercial comparison is different from a business looking to combine enquiry + survey + design + proposal + paperwork + QMS inside one environment.
Always check current pricing directly before making a purchasing decision because software packages and included features can change.
USABILITY
Which Is Easier to Use?
There is no useful universal answer.
A heating engineer who wants to concentrate primarily on technical calculations may prefer one workflow. A business owner trying to manage the complete heat-pump journey may value another. Ease of use also changes with familiarity.
The more useful question is: Which system reduces the number of times your business has to leave the workflow and rebuild the same information somewhere else?
For one company that may be Heat Engineer. For another it may be Spruce.
HEAT ENGINEER
Heat Engineer May Particularly Suit Businesses That…
Heat Engineer is worth serious consideration where the priority is a detailed heating-design environment with strong tools around:
- room-by-room heat loss
- radiator and emitter sizing
- CAD measurement
- LiDAR
- pipe and pump sizing
- bivalent design
- MCS performance calculations
- technical reporting
Its published subscription pricing also makes the initial software cost particularly easy to understand. (Heat Engineer Software)
SPRUCE
Spruce May Particularly Suit Businesses That…
Spruce is particularly interesting where the aim is to connect technical design to a wider operational workflow:
- enquiry
- estimate
- survey
- heat loss
- system design
- proposal
- installation documents
- handover
- QMS
It can also suit businesses where surveyors, designers and installers need to collaborate around the same projects. (Spruce)
That wider workflow is one of the main reasons Heat Loss Hub currently uses Spruce as our default platform for many installer partnerships.
OUR APPROACH
Why Heat Loss Hub Works With Both
Heat Loss Hub has experience working with both Spruce and Heat Engineer. We do not require every installer to abandon the design software they already use simply because they want external design support.
If your business already has an established Heat Engineer workflow, we can work around that.
If you use Spruce, the shared-project and wider workflow features make it particularly suitable for the collaborative model we are developing with installers.
Our current preference for Spruce is therefore about workflow fit, not a claim that one calculation platform is universally superior to the other.
The software is also only one part of the result. A capable platform still needs:
- reliable survey information
- appropriate construction assumptions
- sensible design temperatures
- correct emitter assessment
- suitable equipment selection
- sound hydraulic design
- technical review
Good software makes good design easier. It does not remove the need for a good designer.
HEAT ENGINEER USERS
Already Using Heat Engineer?
There is no reason to assume you need to change software simply because another platform has features you like.
If Heat Engineer already fits your technical workflow, the better option may be to improve the surrounding process rather than migrating every project.
Heat Loss Hub can work with existing installer workflows rather than forcing every business into the same system.
See Heat Engineer for Heat Pump Design for our dedicated look at the platform.
SPRUCE USERS
Already Using Spruce?
If you already use Spruce but the heat-loss calculations and system designs are still creating a bottleneck, changing software probably will not solve the underlying problem.
The issue may be capacity rather than technology.
Heat Loss Hub can work within a Spruce-based installer workflow so the installer retains the customer, survey and installation while agreed technical design stages are handled externally.
THE VERDICT
Spruce or Heat Engineer?
Both are capable professional heat-pump design platforms. The difference is increasingly about what you want the software to surround the design with.
Heat Engineer has a strong technical heating-design toolkit, including detailed heat loss, emitters, CAD, pipe and pump sizing, bivalent design and MCS performance calculations. (Heat Engineer Software)
Spruce combines detailed heat-pump survey and design tools with a broader workflow encompassing enquiries, estimates, proposals, installation paperwork, handover and QMS. (Spruce)
For some installers the technical design environment will be the deciding factor. For others, reducing the number of separate systems used to manage each heat-pump project will matter more.
The right choice depends on how your business actually works.
FOR INSTALLERS
Need Design Support in Spruce or Heat Engineer?
Heat Loss Hub provides heat-pump design support to installers working with both platforms. We can look at how you currently survey, which software you already use, which design stages you complete internally, where projects are slowing down, what you want to retain, and where additional technical capacity would help.
The aim is not to replace a workflow that already works. It is to help remove the technical bottlenecks that stop you taking on more of the right projects.
Tell us whether you currently use Spruce, Heat Engineer or another design system and where you would like additional support.