CO Draft Testing is the Heart of Performance Safety
The High-Performance HVAC method is, in my opinion, the future of this industry. It is essential for customer satisfaction and safety. Achieving this isn’t easy. It requires focus and patience. And it can only succeed if it is driven from the top down throughout the entire company.
As the adage says, “the fish stinks from the head down.” By this, as the owner, you better be 100% bought into the High-Performance approach and believe in it if you expect your people to do it. Then, you must deliver that message to your people and teach them the ‘why’ behind it. That means helping them to understand why performance is so crucial for their safety and the safety of your customers.
We want everybody going back to their families at the end of the day, and we’ve got to be doing the right thing in identifying these problems.
Next, performance testing and measuring must be part of your culture. You’ve got to talk about this every single week. If you don’t, your team will drift away from it. And that will happen. When it does, you need to refocus on helping your team to get back on point.
As we slow down from our summer busy season, we’ll start training our field technicians on combustion again. This brings testing and measuring on the heating side back to the forefront leading into our heating season. All of our field people can then brush the rust off, blow the dust off, and make sure they do the right thing. Isn’t that the heart of high-performance contracting?
Tom Spall is president of T.E. Spall and Son, Inc. (ncilink.com/TESpall) of Carbondale, PA. Known as the Comfort Doctor, this 36-year-old HVAC service, add-on/replacement, and construction company enjoyed gross sales of just under $4 million in 2020 and is well on the way to breaking their $5 million budget in 2021. He is a strong proponent of High-Performance HVAC contracting, and training. You can reach him at ncilink.com/ContactMe.
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Amen to that , we will not put in a natural draft water heater, or boiler without install of a barometric draft and spill switch. I have not lost many jobs because of this once I explain to the customer why.
We have found it shows up some problems they already had and just don’t know yet.
Our biggest problem is getting a good quality combustion analyzer, since TSI quit making them I have not found as good a one.
It seems like they are getting cheaper, but more expensive to recalibrate, we do not have the ability to do in-house.
Check out Crowcon Sprint Pro https://www.crowcon.com/products/flue-gas-analysers/sprint-pro/#description
It is a better price than other major brands, can usually be calibrated by the parts house you bought it from, and has several add-on features like a dual-port manometer that can read up to 400-in. WC, gas leak detector add-on, refrigerant leak detector add-on, CO detector, and NOx depending on what model you get.