This year marks a significant milestone for Heat Doc Ltd, the Wexford-based heating and renewable energy specialist, as the company celebrates 15 years in business. Founded in 2011 by husband-and-wife Damien and Phyllis Mullins, the firm has developed from a small family-run operation into a well-established name in Ireland’s low-carbon heating and retrofit sector.
Nowadays, Heat Doc employs 27 staff and operates 12 vans on the road, delivering heating system design, installation and maintenance services across Wexford, the southeast and further afield.
Over time, the company has evolved in step with Ireland’s growing focus on energy efficiency and decarbonisation, moving from traditional plumbing and heating work into specialist renewable energy systems, particularly heat pumps and retrofit engineering.
The company’s core work now centres on air source and ground source heat pumps, low-temperature heating systems, ventilation solutions, and solar PV and solar thermal systems. These technologies are increasingly being used in both new builds and retrofit projects as homeowners, developers and public bodies work towards reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
Co-director Phyllis Mullins told Building Ireland that the past year has been steady and productive for the business.
“Last year was busy enough for us. We kind of went away from sites and concentrated on the one-off bigger houses. We started going back into retrofitting a little bit more as well after having gone away from it a little bit. Yeah, it was a good year overall for the company,” she said.
This shift reflects a broader trend in the Irish market, where demand is increasingly moving towards energy upgrades and deep retrofits of existing homes rather than solely large-scale new housing developments.
Alongside residential work, Heat Doc continues to secure significant public and commercial contracts. One of the company’s most notable recent projects was the full retrofit of Wicklow County Council’s offices, which involved upgrading the entire heating system and represents a substantial investment in improving energy efficiency in public buildings.
“We did a complete retrofit of the Wicklow County Council’s offices, which was a big enough undertaking, so you’re talking about a two-to-three-month project there,” Mullins explained.
“At the moment, we’re up in Kildare doing a big project at Leixlip Library where we’re decommissioning the gas and retrofitting heat pumps. That’s another big project we’re taking on at the moment.”
These types of projects reflect Heat Doc’s growing role in helping public sector buildings transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewable heating systems.
Government retrofit grants have also played a key role in shaping demand for the company’s services. However, Mullins notes that uptake initially moved more slowly than expected.
“Other than that, obviously the retrofit grants have been announced and we’ve been surprised to see that there’s been a little bit of a slow uptake on it. I think the biggest problem there is that people have to fund the money themselves and then get the grant back afterwards,” she said.
“It is starting to pick up now though. There are retrofits coming and we’re doing two or three a week now, and I can see them picking up more over the next six months.”
Heat Doc’s reputation in the industry is something the company places strong emphasis on.
According to Mullins, quality of workmanship and reliability are central to its success.
“I think we have a very good reputation. I think we have a reputation for doing a good job. When we go in to do the job, we do it right, and I think when the job is done it works. There’s no issues,” she said.
She also pointed to issues within the wider sector, where poorly executed installations can create long-term problems for customers.
“There’s a lot of people out there that half do jobs and it causes a lot of problem,” said the co-director. “So again, once we go in and do a job, we do the job and we finish it and we have a backup service as well.”
As demand continues to grow, Heat Doc is also looking at expanding its workforce.
The company is considering increasing its office-based staff to cope with the rising administrative workload associated with grant-funded retrofit projects.
“We are considering taking on more people in the office, to be honest with you. Because with retrofitting there’s a lot more paperwork and a lot more admin,” Mullins said.
At the same time, the business continues to invest in apprenticeships, bringing in new trainees on a regular basis.
“We are always taking on a good stream of apprentices through the company and some of them are very good,” she said.
This focus on training reflects the company’s long-term approach to workforce development and skills building within the renewable energy sector.
Looking ahead, Heat Doc expects retrofit work to become an even more significant part of its operations over the coming years.
Mullins says government support schemes have been important in driving demand and hopes this momentum continues.
“We hope that things keep going the way that they’ve been going. The grants introduced by the government have been a big help, so we do hope to concentrate more on retrofitting and that side of the business rather than the one-off housing estates. The hope is to continue to keep on going, I suppose,” she said.
As the company marks 15 years in business, its focus is clearly shifting further towards renewable energy and building retrofit solutions.
From its base in Longgraigue, Foulksmills, Heat Doc Ltd continues to grow steadily, balancing residential work, major public contracts and an expanding retrofit sector, while positioning itself as a long-term player in Ireland’s transition to low-carbon heating.
Heat Doc Ltd
Longgraigue,
Foulksmills,
Co. Wexford,
Y35 E084.
Telephone: 053 9168966 / 083 4205665
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.heatdoc.ie
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, September 2026, Vol 12 No 9
