Robin Leonard, on site.
Robin Leonard
Founder & Lead Engineer
Robin founded Hearth Energy. Trained in architecture before the trade, mentored by Andrew Millward on system design — see the full story below.
- MCS Certified
- Heat Geek BPEC
- BPEC Heat Pump
About
Hearth Energy
(01) Who
I'm Robin. I run Hearth Energy in Edinburgh and the Lothians — heat pumps, insulation, hot water and plumbing, mostly in the kind of buildings that make installers nervous.
Robin on site.
(02) Where this comes from
The trade came before the theory. While I was studying architecture I worked for my uncle, a gas engineer, which is where I learned that a heating system is something you have to physically get into a building, not just draw. Trade training school filled in what he didn't have time to.
My heating mentor is Andrew Millward. A great deal of what I know about system design has come from him and from the contributors to the Heating System Design group — people who argue about flow temperatures and cylinder coils in public so that everybody's installs get better. Nobody in this trade learns it alone.
I was mentored in graphic design and typography by Kylie Short. That sounds unrelated. It's the reason my work looks the way it does.
(03) Typography and pipework
Typography is the craft of arranging things in a space so they can be read without effort: alignment, spacing, hierarchy. Nothing decorative — everything in service of being understood. A plant room is exactly the same problem. Parallel runs, consistent spacing, a clear hierarchy between flow and return, nothing crossing that doesn't need to. Done properly, the system needs no labels and no folder of diagrams. You can read it at a glance.
That isn't tidiness for its own sake. It's what makes a system maintainable by the next person who opens the cupboard — whether that's me in ten years, another engineer, or you.
A plant room — pipework laid out to be read at a glance.
(04) What the rest of it is for
Architecture taught me to read a building before specifying anything into it. Cognitive science taught me that comfort is a bodily state rather than a set point, which is why gentle heat across large warm surfaces feels so different from a system that surges and drops. Years of software engineering taught me that a system needing extensive documentation is usually a system that wasn't structured well in the first place.
Different fields, same idea: make the complicated thing legible to whoever meets it next.
(05) How I work
Measure, improve, install, tune, return. I've been called a perfectionist. What I'd actually claim is that I learn something on every job and refuse to unlearn it.
(06) Qualifications
- MCS numberIAA-10170
- F-Gas / REFCOMRegistered
- Other[Anything else, as a list.]
- CompanyFunction & Fabric Ltd, trading as Hearth Energy
Who does the work
Lewis Norman, on site.
Lewis Norman
Plumber's Mate
Lewis supports our installation team with his strong plumbing knowledge and expertise. He specialises in cylinder installations and system pipework, ensuring every component is fitted to the highest standard.
- City & Guilds Level 2 Plumbing
- Level 3 Unvented Cylinders
Mike Taylor, on site.
Mike Taylor
Senior Heat Pump Engineer
Mike specialises in complex installations and system design. His attention to detail ensures every heat pump is perfectly sized and configured for optimal performance.
- MCS Certified
- BPEC Heat Pump
- Vaillant Accredited
- Mitsubishi Trained
Start with a Home Heat Plan — [£X]
Room-by-room heat loss, a fabric and moisture survey, and a sequenced plan for your house. Yours to keep, whoever you use afterwards.