HIGH-PERFORMANCEHVAC TODAY TMIf You Don’t Measure, You’re Just Guessing!™hvactoday.comJUNE 2019ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:Goodman's Satoru Akama: Contractors Are Key to Our SuccessABCs of High-Performance Contracting: Part 11Are You A Fast Food or Gourmet HVAC Contractor?Control Point Mechanical, Inc. Shrewsbury, MAGV's Heating & Cooling, Inc. Glenview, ILPunbar, LLC Houston, TXJUNE 2019 3HVACTODAY.COMJUNE 2019 VOLUME 3 NUMBER 6HIGH-PERFORMANCEHVAC TODAY TMLEADERSHIP:Goodman’s Satoru Akama: Contractors are Key to Our SuccessRead our exclusive interview with the Goodman/Amana president who shares his views on the U.S. HVAC Industry.LEADERSHIP:Contractors of the Year: Changing the World One Job at a TimeWant to know the benefits of being successful at High- Performance contracting? These three winners explain.MANAGEMENT:Are You a Fast Food or Gourmet HVAC Contractor?Jim Davis discusses how training is the difference between being price driven and quality driven.SALES:ABCs of High-Performance HVAC Contracting, Part 11In this concluding article, Dominick Guarino discusses the im-plementation process and how it brings everything together. 1612118 DEPARTMENTSToday’s Word .........................................................................................5High-Performance Products .............................................................6Member Update ...............................................................................18Photo of the Month .........................................................................19HVAC Smart Mart ...............................................................................20Ad Index ................................................................................................21One More Thing ................................................................................22JUNE 2019 5HVACTODAY.COMTODAY’S WORDBy Mike WeilTECHNICIAN BURNOUT IS CAUSED BY ONLY TWO PEOPLE: THE MANAGER AND THE TECH HIMSELF OR HERSELF.As I write this, HVAC contractors across the country are either gearing up for the traditional summer busy sea-son, or are already into it. Depending on where your business is located, things have already heated up.According to Weather Channel predictions, summer temperatures are expected to be hot-ter than average in the East, milder in the Plains and Midwest, and a mixed bag in the South. These same predictions say that June will burn hot from the Southeast into the Mid-Atlantic. Even parts of the Pacific Northwest will be much warmer than normal.So why am I going on about the weather? First, for most contractors, this is the time of the year where they make the bulk of their annual reve-nues. It is also when chances are very high that their field service and installation crews can suf-fer “technician burnout” from working too many hours going out on too many jobs.So who is to blame? Burnout is really caused by just two people: a company manager and the technician himself or herself.From the management standpoint, it is really a matter of short-term and long-term pri-orities. Short term, it’s all about quantity — get-ting the most jobs in as quickly as possible and grabbing the biggest chunk of the pie as possible. But long-term, what if the techs burn out? How will they continue to perform at their best and what does that do to your company’s reputation, its bottom line? This is particularly problematic if your techs are expected to take system measure-ments, test, and make diagnoses based on the data they uncover.Furthermore, burnout has ramifications for the techs’ health, their families, and their careers. Ul-timately, they may decide to leave the HVAC in-dustry and that really hurts longterm because it already is so hard to find good technicians.From the technician standpoint, here are some thoughts on how they hurt themselves as well. How many techs set out to prove how good they are by volunteering for too many hours? Or want the overtime pay? Some want to impress the boss by getting as many jobs in per day as they can, as fast as they can. Others are just competi-tive and want to out-do their fellow techs.The passion is great, but it can be misplaced and cause the tech to become disillusioned, tired, and lead to burnout. So what’s the answer? In a word: Balance. There is a great value to making a healthy work-life balance a priority in your company, especially during the busy summer season. According to an article on the Service Excel-lence Training website (ncilink.com/Burn-out), techs with a healthy work/life balance are happier, have less stress, less sick time, less med-ical bills, and are more astute at doing their jobs better and more accurately. And that makes hap-py customers, which creates longterm relation-ships, referrals, and higher profits. Have you considered implementing things like limits for on-call rotations, or mandatory time off? Maybe offer breaks from always being avail-able for emergencies. So what is YOUR priority this summer? What things do you do to keep your techs healthy? Please drop me a note and let me know how you handle technician burnout in your company. What Are Your Summertime Priorities?Mike Weil is editor-in- chief and director of communications and publications at National Comfort Institute, Inc. He can be reached at MikeW@ncihvac.com6 JUNE 2019HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYwhere the fan is located above the heat exchanger. This provides several advan-tages: lower overall unit height, reduced potential for recirculation, and less risk of fan vibration caused by high winds.For more information on the Ad-vanced Technology ACC, please visit www.evapco-blct.com.Fujitsu Medium Static Pressure Duct UnitsFujitsu General America recently intro-duced new medium static pressure duct indoor units for their single-zone Halcy-on mini-split product line. This new RGLX line features suffi-cient static pressure to heat or cool a whole house. Units are available in seven sizes ranging from 12,000 to 48,000 BTUH, with efficiency ratings up to 21.3 SEER. Compact size and broad capacity range make the medium static mini-splits applicable to a wide range of applica-tions. The evaporators are slim enough to fit most ceiling spaces, making them ideal for hidden installations, while the condensing units can be installed below a window or in a narrow space. Through the wired or wireless con-troller, automatic airflow adjustment function can be selected, in which the unit detects required airflow and auto-matically adjusts it. Installers can se-EVAPCO Air-Cooled CondenserDesigned specifically for use in large commercial applications (primarily for the power generation industry) EVAP-CO’s Advanced Technology™ ACC (Air Cooled Condenser) combines a new modular construction scheme with the enhanced thermal performance of EVAP-CO’s patented nuCore™ Heat Exchanger.It uses an induced-draft design – HIGH-PERFORMANCE PRODUCTSJUNE 2019 7HVACTODAY.COMThe Connecto kits are available in eight variations that include the proper splice or power connection assembly, as well as a threaded cap, sleeve, clamping sleeve and clamping sheet.The PX Pipe Freeze Protection Cables can be used to prevent water and sani-tary pipes from freezing and becoming ice-damaged. They can also ensure hot water or fluid pipes maintain required temperatures and consistent flow.For more information, visit: http://bit.ly/DanfossConnectoWatts QuadRail™ Fastener SystemWatts recently announced the launch of its new QuadRail™ Fastener system. The QuadRail™ Fastener is designed to hold a wide variety of Watts tubing and pipe in a substrate such as concrete, thin slab, and sand. Ideal for radiant heating/cooling or snow melt applications, these rails can be secured to foam board insulation, wood sub-flooring, or turf using staples, screws, or nails. QuadRail™ Fastener specifications: zInjection molded of durable nylon z Flexible to easily follow the contour of the surface it’s being attached to zEach rail: 4-feet long z Unlimited length of installed railing (due to interlocking ends) zTube spacing in 4-inch increments zAvailable in bundles of 10.For more information, go to the website at Watts.com.lect from two- or three-wire control via a dipswitch on the indoor unit.The V-shaped heat exchanger, air stabilizer and DC fan motor assure quiet, efficient operation. The 12, 18, and 24,000 BTUH RGLX models are also Energy Star™ qualified. For more information, contact a local Fujitsu representative, or visit www.FujitsuGeneral.com.Danfoss Self-Regulating Heating CablesDanfoss recently introduced Connec-to NA — its new and improved line of connection kits for Danfoss self-regulat-ing heating cables.Compared to traditional connections, these Connecto kits can be installed 75% faster—in as little as three minutes.8 JUNE 2019HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYthe need to provide real system performance in an area where humidity is overwhelming.Ronald Amaya and business partner Diego Guerrero are both engineers who originally came to the U.S. from Venezuela. They found they couldn’t make their own homes comfortable and couldn’t find an HVAC contracting firm to help them. So, they decided to start their own compa-ny that could.They did their homework and discovered NCI, which taught contractors how to measure, test, and measure again.Amaya says, “NCI classes showed us that sys-tem designs were usually right. The problems often involved how they were installed. We dis-SMALL CONTRACTOR OF THE YEARThis year’s winner is Punbar LLC, a fairly new company that began life as a fully functioning High-Performance HVAC company. Based in Houston, Texas, Punbar was born in 2015 out of NCI Contractors of the Year:Changing the World One Job at a TimeBy Mike WeilLEADERSHIPContractor of the Year — what does that even mean? For the National Comfort Institute (NCI), it means recognizing the very best contracting firms dedicated to the Performance-Based Contracting™ method.These companies are part of an elite group: dynam-ic and professional with owners who seek new ways to improve their business by delivering real, provable comfort to customers.They represent a growing breed dedicated to learning and acquiring the skills needed to run their businesses and truly deliver on the prom-ises they make to employees and customers. These are the leaders of our industry.There are three winners because there are three categories: Small Contractor of the Year (achieve under $2 million in annual sales), the Medium Contractor of the Year (achieve between $2 and $6 million annually), and the Large Contractor of the Year (more than $6 million in annual sales).THE CRITERIAAll NCI Contractors of the Year must meet the following criteria:n Implementation of Performance- Based Testing into their daily routinen Have or are in the process of implementing a Performance- Based Business Culturen Maintain a Strong Service Department that is Service Agreement-Based n Conduct System Renovation Sales as a regular part of their selling processn Training is an important part of the company culture.The Punbar team pictured here, from left to right: Victor Amaya, Diego Guerrero, Ronald Amaya, Hector Martinez, and Leo Roa.calls,” he says.Once they “got the hang of it,” both Greg and Dawn began holding regular training sessions for the technicians on how to do static pressure testing, how to interpret the results, and how to offer customers options when it comes to addressing issues they find. Today GVs Heating and Air Condi-tioning is 100% focused on High-Per-formance contracting and, according to Vickers, everyone is on board. “As we began diagnosing problems and solving them, we started getting calls from people having issues other contracting companies couldn’t fix,” he says. “They’d ask us to help and we would. When that started hap-pening, our techs saw how we real-ly provide a different service, and THAT got them fired up.”Winning the NCI Contractor of the Year Award is, in Vickers’ opin-ion, a tremendous honor and proof that what they are trying to do is the right thing to do. “Our employees can really see the importance and value of what we’ve been pushing and there is virtually no resistance to it anymore. Now that they’ve seen that effort recognized by NCI, it means the world to them.”LARGE CONTRACTOR OF THE YEARWhen it comes to diving deep into Performance-Based Contracting™, Control Point Mechanical, Shrews-bury, MA, is truly at the controls. After all, company founder and owner Nick Lupo’s career began in the U.S. Navy working on nuclear reactors on board submarines and, he once would tell you, if he can fix those, he can certain-ly do the same with HVAC systems.Control Point is located in Shrews-bury, MA – a suburb of Worcester, lo-cated about 45 minutes from Boston. Lupo founded the company in 2007 to focus mostly on the commercial and industrial marketplace. He added resi-dential to the mix in 2017 and this year achieved combined gross revenues in excess of $6 million.He says that from the very start of his HVAC career, he measured and tested every system on every job. “It’s just always been how I operat-covered it’s not only about proper air-flow, but it is also about how you de-liver that airflow.”They also learned in their training that managing the business to support the High-Performance approach to HVAC is equally important. They de-veloped processes and use tools that make it easier for the field technicians to do their jobs. That same data is used during the selling process as well. “We are one of the only HVAC com-panies that look at the entire picture of a customer’s home,” Amaya says. “When you do that and explain airflow in the same context as human blood flow, and then give them choices, cus-tomers are sold before you even bring up the price.”MEDIUM CONTRACTOR OF THE YEARGV’s Heating and Cooling LLC, of Glenview, IL, founded in 1990, is lo-cated on Chicago’s North Shore and serves residential and light commer-cial customers throughout the area. Owner Greg Vickers says his journey to high performance began in 2009 when he learned about NCI. He took his first class (taught by Rob Falke) in 2010.In the beginning, only Vickers at-tended classes because he wanted to understand Performance-Based Con-tracting™ before introducing such a big change to the company.Eventually his daughter, Dawn Vickers-Mroczek, also started taking classes and together they began their implementation process on the sales side of the business. “Dawn and I were the only two sales-people at the time, so we began doing static pressure testing on most of our GVs Heating and Cooling team (left to right) includes James Hamelberg, John Mroczek, Dawn Vickers-Mroczek, Nathaniel Brand, Pam Vickers, Scott Vickers, and Greg Vickers.Next >