MCS Certified Products Scraper

Scrape certified renewable energy product data from mcscertified.com/product-directory/ — the official UK registry of MCS (Microgeneration Certification Scheme) certified products. This actor extracts detailed product specifications, certification information, manufacturer details, and technology performance data for over 260,000 renewable energy products across 12 technology categories.

---

Use Cases

• Solar PV Panel Database — Build comprehensive product databases with peak power output, test conditions, and certification details for thousands of solar PV modules
• Heat Pump Market Intelligence — Extract SCOP (Seasonal Coefficient of Performance) data at multiple flow temperatures for air source, ground source, and exhaust air heat pumps
• Manufacturer Product Audits — Track all certified products from specific manufacturers across different technology categories
• Certification Expiry Monitoring — Identify products with expired or expiring certifications for compliance auditing
• Renewable Energy Directories — Generate structured product data for green energy comparison websites and installer tools
• Supply Chain Analysis — Analyze product distribution by manufacturer, technology type, certification body, and certification status
• Technology Trend Research — Study the evolution of certified products across solar, heat pump, biomass, and wind technology categories

Features

• 12 Technology Categories — Solar PV, Air Source Heat Pump, Ground/Water Source Heat Pump, Biomass, Solar Thermal, Wind Turbine, Micro CHP, Exhaust Air Heat Pump, Solar Assisted Heat Pump, and more
• Technology Sub-Type Filtering — Filter by Air-to-Air and Air-to-Water sub-types for heat pump products
• Manufacturer Search — Filter by manufacturer name with partial match support
• Certification Status Filtering — Toggle between Certified and Expired products
• Date Range Filtering — Filter products by certification period start and end dates
• Full Product Details — Product name, certification number, manufacturer, model number, certification body, technology type, peak power output, test conditions
• SCOP Performance Data — Extract Seasonal Coefficient of Performance at 35°C, 45°C, 55°C flow temperatures for heat pump products
• Manufacturer Website Links — Direct URLs to manufacturer product pages
• Configurable Pagination — Set results per page (30/60/90) and page limits for small test runs or full dataset extraction
• Clean Structured Output — JSON dataset with consistent field naming, SEO-friendly slugs, and ISO timestamps

Input Options

Field	Type	Default	Description
search	String	—	Search by product name or certification number
sortBy	Select	Default	Sort order: Date (New-Old), Date (Old-New), Title (A-Z), Title (Z-A)
manufacturer	String	—	Filter by manufacturer name (partial match)
certificationStatus	Multi-select	—	Filter by Certified or Expired status
technologyTypes	Multi-select	—	Filter by 12 renewable technology categories
technologySubTypes	Multi-select	—	Filter by Air-to-Air or Air-to-Water sub-types
certifiedFrom	String	—	Certification period start date (YYYY-MM-DD)
certifiedTo	String	—	Certification period end date (YYYY-MM-DD)
resultsPerPage	Integer	30	Results per page (30, 60, or 90)
maxPages	Integer	1	Maximum pages to scrape (0 = all 52,000+ pages)

Available Technology Filters

Value	Category
Air Source Heat Pump	Heat Pumps
Biomass	Biomass Boilers & Stoves
Exhaust Air Heat Pump	Heat Pumps
Gas Absorbtion Heat Pump	Heat Pumps
Ground/Water Source Heat Pump	Heat Pumps
Micro CHP	Micro Combined Heat & Power
Solar Assisted Heat Pump	Hybrid Solar & Heat Pump
Solar Heating	Solar Thermal Hot Water
Solar Heating Mounting	Solar Thermal Mounting Systems
Solar PV	Solar Photovoltaic Panels
Solar PV Mounting	Solar PV Mounting Systems
Wind Turbine	Small Wind Turbines

Output Fields

Each product record in the dataset includes:

Field	Description
productName	Product name/model
slug	URL-friendly product name slug
url	Deep link to product on mcscertified.com
certificationNumber	Unique MCS certification identifier
manufacturer	Product manufacturer name
modelNumber	Specific model number
certificationBody	Issuing certification body (e.g. BRE Global, HETAS, BABT/TUV)
technology	Renewable technology category
technologySubType	Technology sub-type (e.g. Air-to-Water)
peakPowerOutput	Peak power output rating (solar PV products)
testConditions	Standard test conditions for performance rating
certificationPeriodFrom	Certification period start date
certificationPeriodTo	Certification period end date
certificationStatus	Current certification status (Certified / Expired)
scheme	Certification scheme (typically MCS)
website	Manufacturer product website URL
scopPerformance	Array of SCOP values at different flow temperatures (heat pumps)
mcsProductId	Internal MCS product database ID
scrapedAt	ISO timestamp of when the record was scraped

How It Works

This actor communicates directly with the WordPress AJAX API that powers the mcscertified.com product directory search. It does NOT use a headless browser:

1. Nonce Extraction — Fetches the product directory page HTML to extract the WordPress AJAX nonce
2. API Queries — Sends structured GET requests to admin-ajax.php?action=filter_products with all filter parameters
3. HTML Parsing — Parses the API response HTML using regex to extract product tile data and associated detail modals
4. SCOP Extraction — For heat pump products, extracts SCOP performance data from the flow temperature performance table
5. Dataset Output — Each validated product record is pushed to the Apify dataset with all available fields

No browser, no heavy dependencies. The actor is fast (~1 second per page), lightweight (~60MB container), and highly reliable.

Quick Start

1. Open the actor in Apify Console: mcscertified-com-product-scraper
2. Click Start with default settings to scrape the first page of products
3. Or configure filters to narrow by technology type, manufacturer, or certification status
4. Increase maxPages to scrape more results (set to 0 for all 260,000+ products)
5. Export results as JSON, CSV, XML, or Excel

API Example

const { ApifyClient } = require('apify-client');

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });

// Scrape solar PV products from a specific manufacturer
const run = await client.actor('morkerr/mcscertified-com-product-scraper').call({
    technologyTypes: ['Solar PV'],
    manufacturer: 'Talesun',
    maxPages: 5,
    resultsPerPage: 30,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(`Extracted ${items.length} certified solar PV products`);

Performance

• Single page (30 products): ~1 second
• Full dataset (260,000+ products, 52,000+ pages): estimated 14+ hours
• Container size: ~60MB (Node.js 20, no browser dependencies)
• Memory usage: ~80MB per page batch

Limitations

• The MCS AJAX nonce has a limited lifetime; the actor extracts a fresh nonce at the start of each run
• The API returns a maximum of 90 results per page
• SCOP data is only available for heat pump products with a flow temperature performance table
• Peak power output and test conditions are typically only populated for solar PV products

Changelog

1.0.0

• Initial release
• AJAX API-based scraping (no browser)
• 11 filter options matching the product directory sidebar
• Full product data extraction with SCOP performance data
• 20 output fields with SEO-optimized slugs

Support

Report issues or request features via GitHub Issues.

Disclaimer

This actor scrapes publicly available data from mcscertified.com. Users are responsible for complying with the website's terms of service and applicable data protection regulations when using scraped data.