< Previous10 FEBRUARY 2019HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYHIGH-PERFORMANCE NEWSschool and pursuing a second career in the HVACR and water heating industry.“Developing quality work-ers is a critical initiative that everyone in our industry is working together to accom-plish,” says ACCA Interim Pres-ident and CEO Barton James. “We are proud to partner with the Rees Scholarship Foundation and AHRI to give these hard-working students and veterans scholarships to help them continue their education, which will develop into a strong workforce for our indus-try’s future.”For more information, visit the Reese Foundation website at ncilink.com/Rees.HVACR and Water Heating Program – This supports students enrolled in an HVACR training program at an institu-tionally accredited school and pursuing a career in the HVACR and water heating industry.Veterans Program – To support vet-erans enrolled in an HVACR training pro-gram at an institutionally accredited an program recipients, studying to become technicians in the HVACR and water heating industry.AHRI President and CEO Steve Yurick says the foundation is geared to providing aid to people interested in careers in the HVAC Industry. “Each year, the Foundation pro-vides aid to an increasing number of recipients, helping to promote ca-reers in the industry and fill good-paying jobs that cannot be outsourced,” he says.Since the Rees Scholarship Founda-tion was founded in 2003, it has awarded more than $800,000 in scholarships to more than 400 deserving students and instructors.The scholarship foundation has sever-al programs that include:FEBRUARY 2019 11HVACTODAY.COMHIGH-PERFORMANCE PRODUCTSTHE ECOBEE4The ecobee4 is a next-generation smart thermostat with Amazon Alexa voice recognition built in. It also has far-field voice recognition to help customers manage their comfort and energy use.It can be controlled via touch-screen, a smart device, or voice. The ecobee4 can read temperature and detect occupancy, thus help to manage hot/cold spots. It is Energy Star™ certified.Features include:l Wireless room sensorsl Smart Recoveryl Fan Dissipationl Staging Optionsl Free Coolingl Optimal Humidity Control.Visit ncilink.com/ecobee4.EMERSON SENSI MULTIPLE THERMOSTAT MANAGERThe Sensi™ Multiple Thermostat Man-ager is a software application to manage and control multiple heating and cool-ing systems via one online portal. Works with HVAC systems in most commercial facilities using Sensi WiFi thermostats.Some features and benefits include:l Quick Control Batch Operationsl Remote Control and Flexible Batch Schedulingl Easy-To-Use Portal that allows total thermostat control and features drag-and-drop functionalityl Smart Alert notifications for when extreme temperature or humidity changes are detected.Learn more at ncilink.com/SensiMgr.HONEYWELL LYRIC T6 PROThe Honeywell T Series is a portfolio of non-connected and Wi-Fi-connected thermostats. Model TH6320WF2003 has the following features:l Wi-Fi touchscreen programmablel C-wire onlyl Optional dual fuel and ventilationl Optional wired indoor/outdoor sensorsl Control from anywhere with the Lyric appl Geofencing, 7-day, 5-2, 5-1-1, or non-programmable.All T Series thermostats use the same UWP mounting system, helping install-ers get in and out quickly and efficient-ly. The Lyric T6 Pro Wi-Fi has an option-al ventilation control for residential new construction projects that need to meet the ASHRAE 62.2 standard.For more information, go to ncilink.com/LyricT6.JACKSON SYSTEMS PROGRAMMABLE T32-PThe T-32-P universal is compatible with most commercial HVAC systems and is ideally suited for use with Jackson Comfort Systems zoning panels. Fea-tures include:l 7-day programmablel Auto or manual changeoverl Smart fan logic for commercial controll Adaptive recoveryl Optional indoor or outdoor sensorl Outdoor temperature display with optional outdoor sensorl Available with integrated Modbus communications (Version 2.20).Get all the details at ncilink.com/JacksonT32P.High-Performance Thermostatsto the Houston area to escape troubles at home and make new lives for them-selves and their families. They worked in the oilfield industry. They were to-tally new to the U.S. and quickly dis-covered that in Houston, it could be-come unbearably uncomfortable inside their homes. Their air conditioning nev-er seemed to work properly and, though they called on several HVAC contracting firms to come out and fix the problems, they were unsuccessful.The two engineers witnessed con-tractors trying to solve the problems by changing out parts or guessing. In Ron-ald Amaya’s opinion, there seemed to be a basic lack of knowledge in the funda-mentals of troubleshooting. He and Di-ego decided – as many engineers do – to research and try to find solutions on their own.“We started researching online, and fortunately discovered the National Comfort Institute,” Amaya says. “We decided to take some classes to see if we could find out why our air condition-ing didn’t work well. Before too long, a light bulb went off and we thought we could start a business using the principles we were learning about in these classes. “Having an engineering background, I really thought Diego and I could do better than the oth-er HVAC companies in our area.”BORN INTO PERFORMANCEAnd so Punbar LLC was born in 2015. The two engineers say they felt they’d found the answers to their own personal air conditioning prob-lems and wanted to convert that into a profitable HVAC business. “When we started,” Amaya says, “we thought Everyone says that everything is bigger in Texas (except for those folks living and working in Alaska), and in many cases they are right. Especially when it comes to the energy business. In fact, the city of Houston is known for its giant energy economy, particular-ly when it comes to oil. Statistically the Houston metropolitan area has the largest concentration of petrochemical manufacturing in the world. It is also the world’s leading center for oilfield equipment construction, home to many of the top oil/gas exploration and production firms, as well as petroleum pipeline operators.Back in 2004, two Venezuelan engineers – Ronald Amaya and Diego Guerrero – emigrated Born to the High-Performance WayBy Mike WeilCONTRACTOR SPOTLIGHT“WE DISCOVERED THAT IT WAS NOT JUST HAVING THE IDEA OF PROPER AIR-FLOW, IT WAS ALSO HOW YOU DELIVER THAT AIRFLOW”— RONALD AMAYALeo Roa conducts a typical Punbar installation. This includes duct sealing as well as doing full combustion and CO safety testing.12 FEBRUARY 2019HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYis what we have been doing for the last few years.”But it wasn’t enough because the two engineers weren’t making enough profit to keep the fledgling compa-ny going. They decided to commit full time to the business, to get li-censed, and to begin designing, sell-ing, AND installing and servicing HVAC systems. Therefore, the actu-al birth of Punbar as a full-on Perfor-mance-Based Contracting™ firm was three years ago and there has been no looking back.PUNBAR TODAYIn 2016 Punbar was barely turning a profit. Today the residential retrofit and service company is at $650,000 in gross sales, and according to Ron-ald Amaya, growth is happening expo-nentially. Between 2017 and 2018 the company grew from having only two employees to five and currently fields three vehicles.“We learned the importance of training your people correctly, Ama-ya adds. “We really don’t want to add people from other companies where they learned bad habits. It takes way too long to change those habits. We spend a lot of time recruiting the right person with the right attitude and who is willing to learn. Then we train them.”Another interesting fact: Amaya says that four of the five people work-ing for Punbar today are engineers. The one who isn’t, is an electrician.MEASUREMENT AND TRAINING ARE EVERYTHINGHe says that in his opinion, an en-gineer who isn’t focused on accuracy and facts based on data, is an engineer who doesn’t get it. The team at Punbar started their lives in the HVAC busi-ness with this attitude, so they are very picky about the tools and instruments they use. They want accuracy. They rely on their tools to get them data they can depend on.Amaya explains they provide their field technicians with manometers, flow hoods, and thermal cameras.“Training is the fuel that runs our company,” he continues. “One reason is because I grew up in the oil business and training was a key factor there. It’s how I’ve always done it. If you train your people well, you won’t have as many issues.”Punbar has a method for conduct-ing training. They start out by doing it themselves to give their people the fundamentals. Then they send them through NCI courses as well as through manufac-turer training. According to Amaya, they typically focus on formal training during slow seasons. In fact, it is during those slow sea-sons that they try to hire new team members. the common problem was more of a system design issue, not house design issue. But the NCI classes showed us that, for the most part, the system de-signs were usually right. The prob-lems often were in how those systems were installed. We discovered that it was not just having the idea of prop-er airflow, it was also how you deliver that airflow.”In the beginning, Punbar only did design work. Because they didn’t hold HVAC contractor licenses, they couldn’t do installations, so they con-tinued their careers in the oil industry. But they did approach other HVAC companies offering to design for them.“And they laughed at us,” Amaya says. “So, we took our designs to our co-workers in the oil industry and they began asking contractors to do things our way. In essence, we were bring-ing customers to other HVAC contrac-tors. Those customers suggested we do maintenance work and take care of their HVAC systems for them. So that From left to right: Victor Amaya, Diego Guerrero, Ronald Amaya, Hector Martinez and Leo RoaPunbar techs balance airflow on all the HVAC systems they come into contact with.FEBRUARY 2019 13HVACTODAY.COMCONTRACTOR SPOTLIGHTtheir in-field accuracy, and create better comfort and energy efficien-cy for their customers. That is why Amaya says they require their tech-nicians to visually check the systems, run them, observe how they operate, and then take static pressure mea-surements.He says, “We use the NCI Comfort-Maxx™ software to capture this infor-mation and do the calculations. We create the before- and after-reports on each job, then share them with the customer so they can see how much improvement we provided.”TARGETING YOUR MARKETAmaya says the ComfortMaxx re-ports are perfect for MANAGING THE BUSINESSBoth Ronald Amaya and Diego Guerrero manage the business side of this High-Performance Contracting firm. Because the company is small, they want to keep overhead as low as possible, so instead of having an on-staff accountant, they manage the fi-nancials using Quickbooks.“Of course we have a third-party ac-countant, but he is a sub-contractor,” Amaya says. “We pay him to check our books two times a year. “We take care of all the calls and dispatching ourselves.”Managing the business to support their High-Performance approach to HVAC contracting is very import-ant to Amaya and Guerrero. But it is equally important to manage all the data they collect, use it to improve Testing for gas leaks is part of the installation, service, and maintenance work provided by Punbar field technicians.the types of customers Punbar targets. Because the company began by work-ing for friends, family, and oil-indus-try co-workers, their initial client base consisted of highly specialized, engi-neering-oriented people. He says those customers appreciate seeing the data. ComfortMaxx makes it easy to show them that data. He adds that they understand the chang-es in the data showing how their sys-tem was operating before and after the work. He adds that with ComfortMaxx, his crews can show custom-ers their hot rooms and cold rooms, then explain to them why they have those issues. “ComfortMaxx has helped us tremendously. We call it our cheat sheet.”He also points out that Punbar is a bilingual company – every one of their employ-ees speaks both Spanish and English – which is a bonus in their demo-graphic area.CLOSING THE SALEObviously, all this good work and best practices means nothing if Ama-ya and his team don’t close the sale. He points out that using ComfortMaxx also helps with that. “We are one of the only HVAC com-panies that look at the entire picture of a customer’s home. Not just one com-ponent. When you do that and explain airflow in the same context as human blood flow, and then give them choic-es, customers are sold before you even bring up the price.“We show customers that by doing this amount of work on the duct sys-All Punbar technicians are equipped with IPads with which they run ComfortMaxx™ software to cap- ture measure-ments and do calculations.14 FEBRUARY 2019HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYdo things, then you cannot grow or be as successful as you want to be.“We started our life as a contract-ing company training, training, and training. Because of that, I believe we grew our company by 30 to 50% in our first year. It requires commit-ment and work. If you aren’t commit-ted to Performance-Based Contract-ing, then you will be out of the game in a few years. “But if you make the effort to learn, and apply what you learn, you WILL succeed. We are living proof of that,” Amaya concludes.For these and many more reasons, Punbar LLC is this month’s Contrac-tor Spotlight. Congratulations to Ronald Amaya, Diego Guerrero, and the entire Punbar team. “Sometimes,” Amaya continues, “customers try other companies first and find their airflow issues were not resolved. They call us, we come out and test and measure, maybe change out or repair some ductwork, and their home becomes comfortable. Problem solved. And we have a cus-tomer for life.”IN THE END, IT’S ALL ABOUT TRAINING Amaya cannot stress this enough. As an HVAC contractor working in the industry today, if you aren’t constantly learning and looking for better ways to tem, we can ensure overall efficiency will increase by this much. And we can prove it through our measurements,” Amaya continues. “And that is the key. If you aren’t measuring, you are just guessing.Victor Amaya heading up into an attic to begin taking measurements.FEBRUARY 2019 15HVACTODAY.COM16 FEBRUARY 2019HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYhave, the phones need to be monitored and you should provide retraining as necessary. Part of that training should include the latest information on your programs, services, and special offers. Optimally, every call should be completely managed by the person who picked it up without having to forward it to someone else.If that is not possible, make sure that person gathers all of the necessary information before transferring the call so the customer doesn’t need to repeat the scenario a second time. If the call cannot be transferred to someone else, it is just as important to pass along the pertinent information. Several years ago a number of customers called in and asking for a former service technican who had been promoted to another position. He would return their call when he was available, but some-times it would take him more than a day to do it. Often, the customers wanted to schedule service, which could have been done on the initial call.I would also recommend that you have a mech-anism to track where your calls come from. We use CUC Software that has this capability built in. This enables us to track where leads originate. This has saved us thousands of dollars by NOT advertising where our target customer is not engaged. This also allows us to better un-derstand the demographic we are looking to serve. It also allows us to track our cost-per-thousand (CPM) stats. A simple, “May I ask you how you heard of us?” is all that’s necessary. A follow-up may be helpful, “You said that you found us on the internet, may I ask where?” RE-EXAMINE PROCESSESOnce you ascertain how your customers’ initial calls are being handled, it is time to look at your customer service processes. Think about how, us-First impressions are important! This is especially true when customers, either existing or potential, call your office to book an appointment. Do you know how these calls are being handled by your CSR (cus-tomer service representative) or anyone else in your company who answers the phone? Their role/job is to HEAR any concerns and to book an appointment; whether it’s for mainte-nance, demand service, or a sales department lead.If you don’t regularly listen to how calls are be-ing handled, I recommend that you start. Your existing phone system may already have the ca-pacity to record calls, or you may have to contact an outside company that offers that service. SINGLE-SOURCE RESPONSIBILITYMy experience is that you will be appalled at what you hear. Despite any training your CSRs First Impression Impact on Lead GenerationBy Nancy McKeraghanMARKETINGFEBRUARY 2019 17HVACTODAY.COMternal set and the internal set. Without your internal customer (co-worker) be-ing in the loop, competent, and confi-dent; your external customer will not necessarily have a great experience. If your processes are neither clear nor followed, you have a problem. Involving your staff to help in the composition of customer policies can be very beneficial. Often staff is more aware of things that could improve customers’ overall experience and satisfaction.Some of the things we do are just not relevant any longer. Use your employees’ knowledge and experi-ence in the field and create positive changes to outdated processes. This nearly always leads to happier client experiences. FIRST IMPRESSIONS MATTERWhen your customer’s first im-pression is a professional interac-tion with someone who is efficient and who cares about their needs, it results in a positive experience. It lays the groundwork for ‘knock-your-socks-off’ service – no matter if it is from the service or the sales department. If your company’s image is on dis-play – and it is – before the phone rings, what does it portray: profes-sionalism or laissez-faire? Here are several questions to consider:n When the customers meet your field service crews, are their trucks clean and organized? Is there garbage on the dash? n On your literature and printed/digital information pieces, is your company’s information legible and readable? n Are your employees properly uni-formed? Are their uniforms clean?n Are your trucks parked outside of a beer store/bar or in an appro-priate parking location? Some of these things might seem petty. They all reflect your compa-ny’s image and that valuable first im-pression. It also impacts second and third impressions.TODAY’S CUSTOMERS AND YOUR BUSINESSToday’s customer tends to be more demanding and more knowl-edgeable than ever before. Loyalty and trust are not as popular as they once were. We need to earn them every day, not only from potential customers; but from existing ones. We know that it costs less to keep a customer than to attract a new one. AND it can all come back to that all-important first impression. How does yours stack up? ing today’s tech improvements, you can upgrade those processes. Some questions to ask yourself:n Does the “office paper-flow” need to be altered? n Do your technicians have more re-sponsibility in the field (data entry, credit card payment)? n What additional training is neces-sary? n Does everyone in the company un-derstand their role and how it im-pacts other departments? Has all the required information been gathered from the customer to en-sure that the requested service will be exemplary? Has that informa-tion been communicated to the cor-rect department/employee? INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL CUSTOMERSRemember, as an owner/manager you have two sets of customers; the ex-Meet Nancy McKeraghan at NCI Summit 2019High-Performance HVAC Summit 2019 is happening April 15-18 in Orlando, FL. Nancy McKeraghan is one of five Perfor-mance-Based Contractors™ presenting how they bring High-Performance into their companies and their mar-ketplace. She is one of the owners of Canco Climate-Care in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada and will discuss how her company turns High-Performance Leads into sales and service appointments.Come meet Nancy and network with your peers in Orlando. Learn more about the Summit 2019 program at GoToSummit.com.After Summit ends, stick around for our Post Show Training classes. Click here for details.Register today. Questions? No problem. Call 800-633-7058 and talk to your customer care representative.18 FEBRUARY 2019HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYtion is used to diagnose low airflow causes and pre-scribe eight specific solutions. Of course, further testing and diagnostics can be added at any time. Let’s review the six steps necessary to complete the process.STEP ONE: GATHER EQUIPMENT DATATo accurately assess the performance of a sys-tem, first obtain minimal equipment information from the nameplate to determine the system size, required airflow, and static pressure requirements. STEP TWO: STATIC PRESSURE PROFILENext, you take four static pressure measure-ments at the equipment. For a gas furnace with an external coil, take your readings before and after the filter and before and after the coil. This test typically takes less than five minutes and provides important diagnostic information.STEP THREE: CALCULATE PRESSURE READINGS AND COMPARE TO BUDGETSUsing the four system pressures, you can de-termine the resistance to airflow through the sys-tem. These include total external static pressure, air filter pressure drop, coil pressure drop, supply duct pressure, and return duct pressure.Then, based on a rated static pressure of .50 in., you diagnose the impact of each pressure with NCI’s static pressure budgets shown in the table (Figure 2).The pressure of the return duct system in this example should not exceed .10 in. But the mea-sured pressure is .32 in., showing the return duct is restricted three times what it should be. The re-turn duct system needs some improvements.The filter’s resistance is twice what it should be, further restricting airflow and deteriorating system performance. Replacing the restrictive Air Upgrade Procedure Saves Time for Techs and CustomersBy Rob “Doc” FalkeTECHNICALFigure 1: Example of static pressure measurements at the equipment.The primary goal of NCI’s Air Upgrade Approach is to reduce the time it takes to test, diagnose, and sell HVAC system upgrades. This one-page report includes testing, diagnostics, a pre-determined scope of work, and flat rate pricing. Let’s take a look at this testing and sales approach that many have adopt-ed and benefitted from.THE BARE ESSENTIALSMany contractors want a way to find and sell system renovations that makes it easier to incor-porate air diagnostics into their daily routines. NCI interviewed many contractors and studied mountains of data and created the Air Upgrade. The Air Upgrade is a simple and affordable initial system modification designed to solve cus-tomer comfort concerns by improving fan airflow. Air Upgrades can be performed by any contract-ing firm of any size by involving maintenance and service technicians, as well as salespeople. This quick and simple approach to air diag-nostics can be incorporated into most service or change-out sales scenarios. The outcome is a ba-sic system renovation that will increase fan airflow and improve HVAC system performance. Testing includes a static pressure profile and plotting fan airflow. This test informa-FEBRUARY 2019 19HVACTODAY.COMSTEP FOUR: PLOT FAN AIRFLOWSince the fan generates 100% of the system airflow, knowing fan airflow is valuable in diagnosing and determin-ing needed repairs. Fan airflow is typ-ically found from the data you’ve col-lected and plotting it on a fan table. In step one, you find the equipment tonnage and rated static pressure. In step two you measure total external static pressure. Now, all you have left is to identify the fan speed setting be-fore you can plot fan airflow. The easiest way to find fan airflow is using NCI’s AirMaxx™ Lite App. You can download it for free at the Goo-gle (ncilink.com/AML1D) and Ap-ple App (ncilink.com/AML1A) stores. NCI’s Generic Fan Tables are built into the app so you can easily deter-mine the approximate fan airflow. Or, you can secure the equipment manufacturer’s fan curves and plot the measured total external static pressure and the fan speed to find the fan airflow. Then compare required system air-flow to plotted fan airflow. It’s not un-common to find fan airflow below 300 CFM per ton. As you can see, this minimum test-ing and diagnostics quickly gets to the meat of system problems. STEP FIVE: PRESCRIBE SOLUTIONSBased on this abbreviated air diag-filter with a less restrictive filter is a great solution.Because of these system defects, the measured total external static pres-sure is .90 in. This is nearly double the fan rated static pressure. Under these conditions, the typical constant speed fan moves less than 270 cfm per ton.As you can see from this test and calculation procedure, after less than 10 minutes of testing and basic diag-nostics, this system is in trouble and would greatly benefit from air up-grades to improve fan airflow and system performance.Figure 2: Pressure Budgets.PRESSURE BUDGETS: Residential air moving equipment with an external coilSystem ComponentMeasured Pressure.50 Fan Rated PressureAReturn Duct.32.10B-AFilter ΔP.20.10C-DCoil ΔP.24.20DSupply Duct.14.10B + CTotal External Static.90.50Next >