Brighton & Hove
Commercial heating engineers based in Brighton
Plant rooms, commercial boilers, gas, AC and planned maintenance for businesses and managed buildings across Brighton, Hove and the surrounding districts. Local, established and close by.
Spitfire Commercial is based at 1 Dukes Passage in central Brighton, and most of our maintenance clients are within twenty minutes of the office: care homes, managed apartment blocks, schools, pubs and retail sites across Brighton, Hove and the districts around them. We install, service, repair and certificate commercial gas and heating plant, look after complete plant rooms, and cover commercial air conditioning under the same agreement.
Being local matters most when plant fails. A contract client in Brighton or Hove gets an engineer who knows the building and does not have to drive from another county. We work Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 17:30, and we do not offer out-of-hours call-outs, so we say that plainly rather than promise cover we cannot deliver.
Places we cover
- Brighton
- Hove
- Portslade
- Kemptown
- Preston Park
- Patcham
- Withdean
- Rottingdean
- Saltdean
- Woodingdean
- Shoreham-by-Sea
- Southwick
Work we have done here
- An eight-building portfolio client in Hove who has used us for years for planned jobs and urgent maintenance
- A complete new plant room for a Brighton synagogue: two Ideal Evomax boilers in cascade, a plate heat exchanger and a fully labelled pump wall
- Care home heating and hot water revamps in Brighton, including a plant room stripped out and rebuilt before winter with heat kept on throughout
- A Brighton boiler fault diagnosed and repaired the same working day, in the client's own review
- Commercial gas pipework and meters for a new-build block of flats in central Brighton
- Boiler servicing at a town hall
Commercial heating systems in Brighton
Commercial heating covers everything from a single boiler in a pub cellar to a plant room feeding a whole care home or block of flats. Here we do all of it: design, installation, commissioning, annual servicing, breakdown repair and certification, with commercial plumbing handled as part of the heating work rather than as a separate trade.
The work splits into six services, and most of our clients here use more than one of them. A care home that had its plant room rebuilt will usually move onto a maintenance contract; a managing agent who called us for a gas safety certificate often asks us to take on the block's communal boilers next. Air conditioning sits under the same agreement: we are REFCOM F-Gas certificated, so one contractor covers both sides of the building's climate.
Where the building suits it, we also design and install heat pumps. We hold our own MCS accreditation and are RECC members, and we install what we design, groundworks included. Where a heat pump is not the right answer, we say so and design a high-efficiency boiler or a hybrid instead.
- Commercial gas: pipework, meters, boosters, purging, testing and gas safety certificates, Natural Gas and LPG
- Commercial boiler installation and replacement, including cascades and modular plant
- Commercial boiler servicing, strip-down services and breakdown repair
- Plant rooms: design, strip-out, rebuild, pumps, pressurisation, controls and water treatment
- Commercial air conditioning: split, multi-split and VRF installation, F-Gas leak checks and maintenance
- Heating system design and heat pumps: heat-loss calculation, schematics, air source and ground source
Commercial gas engineers in Brighton and Hove
All of our gas work is completed to Gas Safe Register requirements, and we are qualified for Natural Gas and LPG on commercial pipework, purging and testing. For a business here that means one contractor can take a gas installation from the meter to the appliance, bring it into service and issue the paperwork.
For landlords, managing agents and business premises we issue commercial gas safety certificates (CP17) and carry out whole-site gas testing and safety checks, including a full school in a day with every appliance and gas point recorded. Those records are what your compliance file, your insurer and your inspector will ask for.
On new installations and alterations we run commercial pipework, install gas boosters, solenoid valves and gas cages, and complete purging and testing to current standards. In central Brighton we installed the commercial gas pipework and meters for a new-build block of flats. Elsewhere we have run a 100mm stainless steel gas main feeding four boilers and a gas cylinder, and purged and tested commercial gas systems at an airport and across central London.
The same engineers handle the commercial plumbing that sits alongside the gas: hot and cold water services, cylinders and calorifiers, booster and pump sets, and the plumbing repairs that come up on the sites we maintain locally under contract.
Commercial boiler installation and replacement in Brighton
Most of the commercial boilers we fit locally are replacements: plant that has reached the end of its life, or a single large boiler being swapped for a modular cascade so the building keeps running if one unit needs attention. Every installation is sized against the building's real heat loss and hot water demand, not a like-for-like swap of the nameplate, because occupancy shifts, insulation improves and the original plant was often oversized to begin with.
Two recent local installs show the range. For a Brighton synagogue we built a complete new plant room: two Ideal Evomax boilers in cascade on a painted plinth, insulated headers, a plate heat exchanger to separate the boiler circuit from the building, and a pump and distribution wall with twin Grundfos pumps, a chemical dosing pot and a dirt separator. For a care home in the city we stripped out an old, tired plant room in November 2025 and rebuilt it with new Ideal boilers in cascade, a new flue system, headers and pumps, phased so residents kept heat and hot water throughout.
We are approved commercial partners and service agents for Ideal Commercial Boilers, Hamworthy Heating, Keston Heating and ACV, and we specify Rinnai and other hot water plant where it fits. We are not tied to one brand. We handle strip-out, flues, headers, pumps, pressurisation, controls, commissioning and the handover pack, and where the plant allows we phase the changeover so one boiler is always live.
In the words of one client after a full system replacement in the city: the system was up and running straight away and they have not had a problem since.
Commercial boiler servicing and repairs in Brighton
A commercial boiler that is serviced on schedule breaks down less, burns less gas and keeps its warranty. We run annual, bi-annual and quarterly servicing across the city, from a single boiler in a pub to full plant rooms, and we set the frequency from the plant, the hours it runs and what the building can tolerate. A care home drawing hot water around the clock is not on the same programme as an office that shuts at six.
On every visit each appliance is serviced to the manufacturer's schedule, combustion is checked and recorded, safety devices are tested, and pumps and pressurisation are checked. Anything that needs attention is reported with a price before it becomes an emergency, and the records are issued per appliance so your compliance file stays current. Strip-down services are part of the offer where the plant needs them: on one site we replaced every serviceable component across six Hamworthy Modumax MK2 boilers.
When plant fails we diagnose the fault and fix it rather than defaulting to replacement. That has meant a burner and gas valve replaced on a 545kW Ideal IMAX XTRA EL to keep a hospital warm, and main heat exchangers changed on Hamworthy ModuMax 250kW and Ideal Evomax 150kW boilers. Manufacturer parts, fitted by engineers trained on the kit.
Contract clients get priority breakdown response during working hours, Monday to Friday. One Brighton client put it simply: we arrived on time, diagnosed the boiler issue fast, and had them up and running the same day.
Plant rooms for Brighton's older buildings
A plant room is a system, not a boiler. Boilers, cylinders, pumps, pressurisation, headers, controls and water treatment all have to work together, and in older Brighton buildings the room they sit in was rarely designed for modern plant. Rooms have been added to over the years, flues are cramped, services are exposed and the floor has never been sealed. We design, install, refurbish, maintain and repair the whole thing so there is one contractor for everything behind the door.
The synagogue plant room is the clearest local example: a place of worship that needed heating quiet, dependable and out of sight, in a building never planned around a plant room, where the existing plant had reached the end of its life. The room was rebuilt from the floor up, with the dosing pot and dirt separator there to protect the new plant from the debris an older system carries, and every circuit and switch labelled so any engineer can read the room in a minute.
Where the boilers still have life left we refurbish rather than replace: new pumps, pressurisation units and expansion vessels, headers and controls, and a re-balanced system, without the cost of new plant. Correct operating pressure across the heating network is what keeps a plant room reliable, and it is the part most often neglected on an ageing system.
Every plant room we hand over is commissioned and documented, with schematics and specifications produced in-house so a consultant or managing agent can tender, build and sign off from the same drawings we install to. That matters for a block manager taking a scope into a Section 20 consultation.
Accreditations and what they mean for you
Accreditations are only useful if you know what each one covers. These are the ones we hold and what they mean for a building owner or manager deciding whether to let us into the plant room. Certificates and insurance documents are available on request for your supplier file.
- Gas Safe Register: all gas work is completed to Gas Safe requirements, and we are qualified for Natural Gas and LPG on commercial pipework, purging and testing. Without this, a commercial gas safety certificate is worthless.
- REFCOM F-Gas: certificated for refrigerant handling and air conditioning work. Only certificated engineers can work on a refrigerant circuit, and the leak-check records we keep are the ones the regulations require of you.
- MCS Certified: accredited heat pump installer, so heat pump installations are certificated and eligible for the schemes that require it.
- CHAS Accredited Contractor: health and safety assessed under SSIP, which is what an FM company, main contractor or council procurement team checks before adding a subcontractor to an approved list.
- RECC: Renewable Energy Consumer Code member, covering how renewable installations are sold and delivered.
- TSI Approved Code: Trading Standards approved.
- APHC: member of the Association of Plumbing & Heating Contractors.
- Checkatrade: verified member with a 10 out of 10 rating from 11 reviews, alongside a 5.0 Google rating from 7 reviews.
- Manufacturer approvals: approved commercial partners and service agents for Ideal Commercial Boilers, Hamworthy Heating, Keston Heating and ACV, which means manufacturer-trained engineers, genuine parts and warranties that hold.
Sectors we look after in Brighton and Hove
In the buildings we heat here, the heating going down is a safeguarding, trading or tenancy problem, not an inconvenience. Each sector has its own pressures and we plan the work around them.
Care homes are the largest part of our maintenance portfolio. We hold service contracts on more than 40 care homes for national care groups and look after independent homes in Brighton, designing plant for resilience first: modular boilers so one unit can be isolated without the building going cold, stored hot water with backup immersion, and a schedule that catches problems before a CQC inspection or a cold snap does.
For managed apartment blocks we look after communal plant rooms for managing agents and estate teams, provide written scopes that can go into a Section 20 consultation, and run portfolio agreements, including an eight-building portfolio client in Hove who has used us for years for planned jobs and urgent maintenance.
- Care homes and care groups: plant rooms, 24-hour hot water design, AC and planned maintenance under one agreement
- Apartment blocks and managed buildings: communal boiler cascades, pressurisation, gas safety certificates, Section 20 specifications
- Schools and colleges: plant room replacement in the holidays, whole-school gas testing days, DBS-checked engineers
- Retail, hotels, restaurants and pubs: plant sized for the peak and installed around trading hours
- Churches, synagogues and heritage buildings: quiet, dependable plant that respects the fabric, with the drawings consent processes need
- Facilities management companies and main contractors: a CHAS, Gas Safe, REFCOM and MCS subcontractor with the onboarding pack ready
- Public buildings and offices: boiler servicing at a town hall, and combined heating and AC agreements for office buildings
Why a Brighton-based contractor matters
Our office is at 1 Dukes Passage, BN1 1BS, in the centre of Brighton, and our engineers cover the city, Hove and the surrounding districts daily: Kemptown, Preston Park, Patcham and Withdean, out to Rottingdean, Saltdean and Woodingdean along the coast, and west through Portslade to Shoreham-by-Sea and Southwick. Most of our contract sites are within twenty minutes of the office.
That proximity shows up in two ways. On planned work, an engineer who already knows the building can survey in the morning and price the same week. On breakdowns, a contract client gets priority response during working hours from someone nearby, not a van dispatched from another county.
We are honest about the limits. We work Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 17:30, and we do not currently offer out-of-hours call-outs. What we do offer is over 18 years in commercial heating, plant maintained up to a 2,750kW boiler bank, and a maintenance schedule designed so the call at five to six on a Friday does not happen in the first place.
If you manage a building here or in Hove and want a survey, a quote for a plant room, or a maintenance schedule for plant someone else installed, call the office on 01273 044345 or email info@spitfirecommercial.co.uk. Our focus is commercial; we take on select domestic heating and heat pump work locally where capacity allows.
Case studies
Work in Brighton & Hove
Services
Services in Brighton & Hove
Before you call
Brighton & Hove: common questions
Where in Brighton are you based?
1 Dukes Passage, BN1 1BS, in the centre of the city. Our engineers cover the city, Hove and the surrounding districts daily, from Kemptown and Preston Park to Portslade, Shoreham-by-Sea and Southwick, and most of our maintenance clients are within twenty minutes of the office. The phone number is 01273 044345 and the office is open Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 17:30.
How quickly can you get to a boiler breakdown in Brighton or Hove?
Contract clients get priority breakdown response during working hours. We work Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 17:30, from an office in the city centre, so most local sites are close by. We do not currently offer out-of-hours call-outs, so we do not promise them. When we attend we diagnose and repair rather than defaulting to replacement: burners, gas valves, heat exchangers, pumps and controls, using manufacturer parts.
Do you issue commercial gas safety certificates in Brighton?
Yes. We issue commercial gas safety certificates (CP17) for landlords, managing agents and business premises locally, and carry out whole-site gas testing and safety checks, including a full school in a day with every appliance and gas point recorded. All gas work is completed to Gas Safe Register requirements, and we are qualified for Natural Gas and LPG on commercial pipework, purging and testing.
How often should a commercial boiler be serviced?
At least annually, to keep the manufacturer warranty and your gas safety certificate current. Plant that runs hard, such as care homes, hotels and pubs, usually benefits from bi-annual or quarterly visits. We recommend a schedule based on the plant, the hours it runs and what the building can tolerate, and every visit is recorded per appliance for your compliance file.
Can you replace a commercial boiler without shutting the building down?
Usually. Where the plant allows we phase the work so one boiler is always live, or bring in temporary heat or hot water for the changeover window. That is how a care home plant room in the city was stripped out and rebuilt in November with residents keeping heat and hot water throughout. On a live retail site we plan the install around trading hours, and school plant rooms are programmed for the holidays.
Will you take over maintenance of plant another contractor installed?
Yes. Most of the plant we maintain was installed by someone else. We survey it on the first visit, bring the records up to date and set the schedule from there. We are approved service agents for Ideal Commercial Boilers, Hamworthy Heating, Keston Heating and ACV, and we service most other commercial makes, from a single boiler to a 2,750kW Ideal Evomod bank.
Can you put several sites in Brighton and Hove under one maintenance contract?
Yes. Portfolio agreements are the normal way we work with care groups, managing agents and FM companies: one schedule, one point of contact, one invoice and one set of records. We already run this for an eight-building portfolio client in Hove and for a national care group's estate, and air conditioning servicing and F-Gas leak checks can be folded into the same agreement as the heating plant.
Do you install and maintain commercial air conditioning in Brighton?
Yes. We are REFCOM F-Gas certificated and install split, multi-split and VRF systems for offices, care homes, hotels and multi-unit blocks, and we take on servicing and maintenance of existing systems whoever installed them. That includes the F-Gas leak checks and records the regulations require on larger systems. Most clients fold the AC into the same agreement as the heating plant, so there is one visit schedule and one invoice.
A building in Brighton & Hove? Tell us about it
Request a survey and we will come back within one working day. If the project is not right for us, we will say so straight away.