Today and Tomorrow

The good news is that despite the challenges of the past two years, Aire Rite has been able to keep the lights on. The lessons learned from all of this include the following positives:

• We kept our team
• We trained our team.
• They stuck it out with us.
• We learned to be more flexible for those who needed to work remotely
• We became a stronger work family.

One of our most significant opportunities was born from the shutdowns in the new norm — the opportunity to expand Aire Rite’s reach to another state.

Because California is so strict on so many levels, it is unfriendly to businesses and families. Many people are leaving the state, and unfortunately, several of our top technicians decided to go as well. Two of them relocated to Phoenix, AZ, where several of our large clients had operations.

Though they left, they still wanted to work for Aire Rite, and I thought the time was ripe for spreading my wings a bit. I obtained my Arizona contractor license and began operating there using these two technicians.

Right now, this isn’t a branch of Aire Rite. It’s what we call a Virtual Outpost. It focuses on system performance at the HVAC building controls level. Later we’ll move into total system performance, and from there, offer maintenance. Service will come after that.

Lessons Learned

By attacking issues incrementally, we’ve grown the company and managed to outperform the pandemic. When we circle back to restaurants in general, what have they learned? In a word., “Predictive Maintenance.”

We’ve been working with more customers on how to become more predictive on maintenance by putting in controls and sensors both for their refrigeration and for airflow. Plus, we talk about installing building pressure sensors so they can measure static pressure to make sure the buildings are positively pressurized. The pandemic has helped us make significant inroads with our restaurant customers. They are beginning to understand the importance of fixing economizers like never before.

We must provide custom solutions for everybody. For contractors, every customer is different, and helping them get through crisis times must include an educational process based on the facility or property manager’s level of understanding and comfort with you. And, of course, their budgets.

Don Langston is president and CEO of Aire Rite Air Conditioning & Refrigeration. His company has worked on economizers for more than 40 years. He also works on emerging technology projects with funding from DOE, California, and state utilities.