< Previous10 SEPTEMBER 2019HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY“I decided THAT had to change,” he says. “At the time we were big into con-demning heat exchangers and I felt that everyone in the company needed to un-derstand CO. In that effort, we brought Jim Davis in to educate us. “Actually, we brought him in sev-eral times. I myself went through the classes and became CO Certified just to learn more about it. I’ve kept it up to date ever since.”In other words, testing, diagnosing, and resolving CO issues became part of the Jerry Kelly culture around 2005 and remains integral to how they go to market to this day. Miles says his field team took to it almost from the get-go with very little pushback at adding testing to their regular maintenance repertoire.“Once they took NCI’s Combustion Performance and CO Safety training and saw how little they really knew, they became excited. They wanted to learn more. And as they got more effi-cient at it, they realized it was so easy to keep our customers safe and that gave them a great sense of pride.”In fact, Miles says over the years, mostly through word-of-mouth, Jerry Kelly became the de facto CO experts in their service area.He adds, “This wasn’t something we marketed a lot. It’s really hard to make Existing technicians – whether they are on service or installation crews – are required to obtain and maintain their NATE certifications within six months of starting their employment. “In addition, we are 100% NATE certified,” Miles says. “We are also 100% NCI (National Comfort Insti-tute) Combustion and CO-certified, and 100% of our field staff are Heat Exchanger Experts certified.”THE NCI CONNECTIONFifteen years ago, Steve Miles real-ized how very little he knew or under-stood about the combustion process and Carbon Monoxide (CO) produc-tion after having a conversation with NCI CEO Dominick Guarino at an industry event.CONTRACTOR SPOTLIGHTThe new building’s open floorplan allows even the sheet metal workers to feel more part of the team. Pictured here is the new and improved sheet metal shop.SEPTEMBER 2019 11HVACTODAY.COMry Kelly using a tool fund.“They buy their tools through us, so we know they are using the right tools,” Miles says. “They pay off the purchase or get them forgiven over time through a $25/week tool allowance program we have. As they need new tools, they can buy them on their tool account and pay them off over time.”In addition, Miles says the compa-ny provides each tech with a $25 per week Warranty Reserve Fund that gets settled annually. “We are a Performance-Based Pay company. This fund is set up to pay for callbacks. If a tech has a callback, he or she can go out and resolve the is-sue on their own or not. If they choose NOT to go back, we pay another tech to make that fix out of the first tech’s Warranty Reserve,” Miles explains.“Whatever is left in the reserve at the end of the year is used to pay off their tool fund. The remainder be-comes their annual bonus.PROFESSIONALISM AND PERFORMANCEFor Steve Miles, success means building a professionally-operated business, one that runs not on price-to-the-consumer, but one that seeks to satisfy customers by doing quality work and delivering what you promise. That means working on the business by improving internal and external efficiencies, creating and improving procedures for everything, and per-forming at the highest level without causing your team to burn out.And their ability to do these things show in the form of local and national recognition. For the last 24 years, Jer-ry Kelly Heating and Air Conditioning has been recognized as the number one air conditioning contractor in the St. Charles area, based on a local newspa-per’s reader poll done annually.Furthermore, they have been recog-nized by their peers with the following awards: z2018 Ron Smith Leadership Award from Service Roundtable zService Roundtable’s 2013 North American Comfort Contractor of the Year zContracting Business magazine’s 2006 Residential Contractor of the Year zExcellence Alliance 1999 Contractor of the YearIt is for these and many more reasons that High-Performance HVAC To-day magazine has selected Jerry Kel-ly Heating and Air Conditioning as this month’s Contractor Spotlight. being CO-certified sound sexy. We do have it on our website, in our company bio, and in all the literature we hand out to customers. But with regard to adver-tising and radio/tv promotions, it really is hard to communicate.“But in face-to-face meetings with customers we talk about what being CO-certified means to them in terms they can understand. We use it as dif-ferentiation during the sales process.”“Our successes, especially in light of our CO training and certifications” Miles continues, “is that we’ve been able to identify hazardous appliances and put them out of commission. “The challenges have been mostly from others who don’t have the train-ing. This includes other contractors, utilities, even distributors. They con-tradict our diagnoses causing confu-sion in the marketplace. Again, this happens because they DON’T have the training. This makes our job of edu-cating the customer a little harder.”In the end, Miles says he believes that you need to learn what you don’t know. “In the HVAC Industry gas furnaces are very safe appliances, thank good-ness. The industry has more than 100 years of experience building these ap-pliances. However, there are things about the combustion process you might not be aware of and, as a profes-sional, it is incumbent on you to learn about it.”THE RIGHT TOOLS FOR THE JOBTraining isn’t the only factor in Jer-ry Kelly’s success. A well-trained tech-nician is only as good as the tools and instruments he or she has and knows how to use properly. Their field teams own all their own tools and instru-ments, but they buy them through Jer-Collaboration is key, which is why Jerry Kelly Heating is set up with an open floorplan.HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYHVAC technicians create solutions day in and day out. It’s a simple task when you know what you’re doing. What escalates the difficulty is not knowing the out-come when you make system improvements. The next time you create a scope of work, consider this: for every action, there is always a reaction. Take driving a car for example. Step down on the gas pedal and you increase the car’s speed (that’s the action). But getting a speeding tick-et (reaction) is a potential outcome. Another outcome is that I get to my destination faster. Similarly, any renovations you make to an HVAC system can result in either a good or bad reaction. Good performance-based technicians can think on their feet and use small windows of time to test, diagnose, and repair problems. But within that small window, you should ask yourself if you’re overlooking the outcome of the changes you make.NEW OPPORTUNITIES After my training and two years of doing high-performance testing, my mindset was either I totally fixed a problem, or I walked away. It was all or nothing. That meant walking away from jobs if I couldn’t fix 100% of the system. That plan was a bust!After dealing with enough rejections, I figured out this approach wasn’t working. Then I learned about optional duct renovations. I began offering these to my customers and my outcomes changed for the better. Learning how to do this work, and then doing it, increased my closing rates and prof-its. It also created new opportunities.My first duct renovation started out as a no-cool-ing call. When I arrived, the customer took me to the outdoor unit insisting that it needed to be “topped off.” Here was my first opportunity. I took time to educate him on what first needed to be done and why, before checking the refrigerant charge.I explained the importance of static pressure and airflow in relation to refrigerant flow. His tone soon changed and he wanted to know how well the airside of his system was operating.Like many systems out there, his system suf-fered from high return-duct pressure. Further-more, his system’s filter pressure drop was in the clouds and supply duct pressure was nowhere to be found. Very quickly, the customer understood there was more going on than verifying refriger-ant charge. From the Field: A Day in the Life of an HVAC TechnicianBy Casey ContrerasTECHNICAL12 SEPTEMBER 2019SEPTEMBER 2019 13HVACTODAY.COMcomponent to its corresponding bud-get. Whenever measurements ex-ceed the budget, a renovation is like-ly. When you find the static pressure below the budget, I assumed that you leave it alone.TEST OUTIn the world of Performance-Based Contracting™, it is standard practice to test out after your renovation work is completed to ensure you achieved what you set out to do. Testing-out the sys-tem was my next step and I felt the out-come was going to be good. Believe me, it came as a shock when the test-out measurements told a dif-ferent story. Return duct and filter pressure drop showed huge improve-ments. Keep in mind, I didn’t touch the supply side besides sealing plenums and collars. So where did the high sup-ply static pressure come from?WHAT I MISSED Despite being well trained and certi-fied in this work, I didn’t quite remem-ber everything I learned. One of those things is Fan Law Two. In essence, that law states that static pressure squares with an increase of airflow. Confused? Look at the numbers again. There’s a reduction in static pressure on the return side (filter drop, return pressure). Remember, anytime static pressure decreases, air-flow increases.Why did the return duct and fil-ter pressure drop decrease? Because when you increase the size of a duct or filter, it’s easier for the fan to move air through the system.Why did coil pressure drop and sup-ply duct pressure increase? This hap-pened because removing the pressure on the return side allowed the fan to circulate more airflow. Now that the fan airflow increases, more air moves through the coil and supply duct causing higher static pres-sures. As it turns out, the coil was dirty and had undersized supply ducts. I couldn’t tell that from the test-in be-cause of low fan airflow.OUTCOMES AND LESSONS LEARNEDAs trained professionals, it’s our job to correctly assess and test each situa-tion to improve the quality of life for all parties involved. Part of that is learn-ing from both your training and your mistakes. We have so many tools at our disposal and it’s easy to forget them, especially if we are not using them on a daily basis. In this case, that tool is Fan Law Two. If I had remembered it, I could have better served my customer.Life in the field is all about continual learning and this was the best learning experience I could have had. It was the first and last time I made this mistake. From that point forward, I always re-member that using the fan laws helps to predict outcomes.Continue testing my friends. From my perspective, this job need-ed a simple air upgrade. I also felt it needed more filter area, and anoth-er return duct. It wasn’t a high-dol-lar ticket job, but it was very profitable because the material was so cheap.LEARNING CURVESBut I didn’t consider how static pressure reacts when there’s a change in design. I diagnosed the system with an undersized return and filter. I pro-posed installing a 16” return duct, plus a 30 x 20 return air box with a 30 x 20 return air filter grille. The customer agreed and I went to work.The air upgrade took three hours plus an extra hour for testing. I was to-the-moon happy with the install and greatly anticipated my first duct renovation would be flawless. Man, I couldn’t have been more wrong. I fired up the system and saw imme-diate positive results. The noise from the previous return grille dropped considerably. The customer couldn’t believe it was running and after 15 minutes he was beyond satisfied with the work. Unfortunately, testing painted a different picture.TEST INFirst, before starting the job, I mea-sured static pressure to determine what system components needed ren-ovation. These are the readings I mea-sured and recorded.I compared static pressure for each Casey Contreras is a trainer and field coach for National Comfort Institute. If you would like Casey to email you a link to a free App for your phone to quickly determine the airflow of residential fans in the field, email him at caseyc@ncihvac.com or call him at 657-227-6188. TEST INMeasuredBudgetReturn duct pressure.36 in..10 in.Filter pressure drop.26 in..10 in.Coil pressure drop.15 in..20 in.Supply duct pressure.10 in..10 in.TEST OUTMeasuredBudgetReturn duct pressure.10 in..10 in.Filter pressure drop.12 in..10 in.Coil pressure drop.32 in..20 in.Supply duct pressure.41 in..10 in.14 SEPTEMBER 2019HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYplications doesn’t mean that we turn down “tra-ditional” boiler projects. Last month, a nearby homeowner asked us to give a second opinion on a dying mechanical system. Our answer was the same as the first compa-ny that visited the home: a complete system replacement was needed. The difference is how we came to that conclusion, and the results we could deliver throughout the home, not just the boiler room.I make a point to spend a good deal of time ask-ing what the customer wants in regard to the sys-tem as a whole. Where do they need improvement — noise, comfort, energy efficiency, control? Are there areas of the house that go unused? I need to know what the homeowner really wants so my team can deliver it. MURPHY’S LAWThis customer’s system was 25 years old, and it’s a wonder it lasted that long. Anything that could have been installed wrong, had been. There was no primary/secondary piping, no air elimination, no feed valve, and the pump was on the return side of the boiler. Water returning to the cast iron boiler was too cool and the heat ex-changer was condensing. The combustion cham-ber had collapsed, sections were leaking, the flue pipe was rotten, oil use cost well over $3,000 per year, and the home was horribly uncomfortable. Long piping runs and high head pressures creat-ed by strange piping were causing both conden-sation and comfort issues.The house was zoned horizontally, right down the center, instead of being zoned upstairs and down. So, the upstairs was sweltering hot while We used to do general plumbing and a variety of HVAC work in south-east Pennsylvania. But over the past few years, we’ve transitioned to a sole focus on hydronic work. Hydronic heating, and cooling for that mat-ter, is a truly universal form of space condition-ing. What other medium has as much ability, and flexibility? I can heat your building, your spa, pool, your DHW, melt snow, create process wa-ter, and just about anything else. And I can do it with nearly any fuel source you can think of.I got my start in the trades 25 years ago. Our recent move to all hydronic has been so deliber-ate that we’ve recently created two new brands, EcoDronics and Patriot Pool Heater Company.EcoDronics is our ‘unconventional’ hydron-ic brand. Think greenhouses, snowmelt, etc. It’s different than general home comfort, so the new brand reflects that. Patriot Pool Heater Company does exactly what you’d think, but we accomplish that with condensing boilers instead of dedicated pool heating units. The move into unique water-based heating ap-Turn Disaster into Delight:Go Beyond the BoilerBy Tom SoukupSERVICETom Soukup, president of Patriot Water Heater, arrives to the jobsite.SEPTEMBER 2019 15HVACTODAY.COMthink things through before grabbing a pipe cutter, the install was relatively straightforward.My apprentice, Ben Dyson, and I installed a K2 condensing boiler made by U.S. Boiler Company. Considering the efficiency increase from 80% to 95% AFUE, and the fact that we actu-ally sized it properly, we expected at least a 30% reduction in energy spend. The existing supply and return pip-ing were divided into six zones, sep-arating the upstairs and downstairs and creating a few new zones in the process. A seventh was added for domestic hot water. A 35-gallon U.S. Boiler Alliance SL tank was used because of its top con-nections. The existing electric water heater was removed. FINE-TUNED SUCCESSI visited the home on the morning after I fired the boil-er, and the customer mentioned how nice it was to have even heat throughout the house. At the time, the outdoor temperature was 31°F and the boiler was running at 20% input. Nonetheless, there was still a little room for improvement.”Through the K2 boiler’s touchscreen display, we accessed the zone-by-zone runtime data and noticed that the liv-ing room was calling for heat too of-ten. So, we lowered the anticipated Btus slightly on the boiler’s Sage Zone Control and set the programmable thermostat’s temperature differential from one to two degrees. That solved the issue.That’s what I love about these. Once I program the control, I can get really granular by looking at individual parts downstairs occupants froze. The par-ents ran an electric space heater in their downstairs bedroom so that the kids upstairs wouldn’t sweat all night. When the first contractor visit-ed the home, they condemned the boiler but had no interest in ad-dressing the comfort issues, or how the fin-tube radiation had been piped.My apprentice and I had a combined 16 hours into ana-lyzing and diagnosing all the issues with the project before we gave a bid. First we performed a Manual J and an EDR (equivalent direct radiation). An EDR calculation determines the amount of radiation in a system. It’s the standard method for deter-mining replacement steam boiler siz-ing, but it’s helpful on any hydronic retrofit.RUBBER, MEET ROADOver the course of four days, we completely revolutionized the heating system. Aside from the baseboard and some copper pipe, everything was re-placed. As is usually the case when you A boiler with a 10-1 turndown ratio is complemented nicely by variable-speed pumps, making the system very responsive to the needs of the home. 16 SEPTEMBER 2019HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYSERVICElons of LP gas (73,600 MBH). Those numbers don’t include DHW produc-tion either, as DHW had previously been supplied by electric, and are now provided by the boiler via the sidearm tank. And an electric space heater is no longer used in the master bedroom. That’s a staggering improvement, but at the end of a cold winter day, it is pretty hard to quantify comfort. retrofit, and we can use those concrete numbers to sell the next project. For residential jobs like this – which don’t typically provide us with enough data collection time on the front end – we use the owner’s records. On this job, the owners knew they’d used 2,200 gallons of fuel oil (308,000 MBH) the previous year. The year fol-lowing the retrofit required 800 gal-of the system. This allows me to fine-tune the system. If you plan to install a modulating boiler, isn’t fine-tuning the ultimate goal?On commercial projects specifical-ly, we’ve begun installing a meter on the gas valves of the systems we will be retrofitting, sometimes a year in advance. It’s a fantastic way to com-pare the energy use before and after a Tom Soukup is the princi-pal of Patriot Water Heater Co. with over 20 years as a hydronic designer and installer. He specializes in high-efficiency and green technology, and brings his expertise to custom com-mercial work, pool heating, and agricultural projects. You can reach him at: twsoukup@patriotwaterheater.com.The final hydronic solution included a K2 boiler, Sage Zone Controls, and the Alliance sidearm tank. SEPTEMBER 2019 17HVACTODAY.COMWhy?tion rates if you develop the confidence to offer them for what they’re worth to your customers.For example, Henry Ford had a boiler problem and factory production screeched to a halt. He called Nikola Tesla for help. Tesla arrived, diag-nosed the problem and placed an X on the boil-er. He smacked it with a hammer and the facto-ry geared back up. Tesla sent Ford an invoice for $10,000. Ford, surprised at the cost for the short service visit, asked him to detail the invoice. Tesla wrote, “Use of the hammer, $1. Knowing where to strike with the hammer, $9,999.” When you build a company culture that tests, diagnoses, and upgrades HVAC system perfor-mance, your company moves from offering la-bor to delivering professional services. You are paid for your superior knowledge and skill, which earns far more than hammer smacking. HVAC SYSTEMS DON’T HAVE SPEEDOMETERSSay you buy a new car, which you’re confident can drive down the highway at 70 miles per hour all day. You take it on the road and find every-one’s passing you while your pedal is to the met-al. You read the speedometer and see the car will only go 35 mph. Of course, you’d head straight back to the dealership and get your money back.An air conditioning system has no speedome-ter, and you can’t see other systems passing you Why an NCI technician chooses to pull out a manometer to peer into a system’s performance is some-thing I think about every day. This extra effort works like a key that unlocks unseen opportunities to solve problems, delight custom-ers, and earn handsome financial rewards.Let’s take a look at four reasons why you may choose to grow a healthy company culture that tests and diagnoses your customer’s HVAC sys-tem performance. We’ll also look at the value a system upgrade brings to your customers and the beef it adds to your bottom line.DELIVER VALUABLE SOLUTIONS OTHERS CAN’TAir conditioning systems have been around more than 100 years. Fortunately for us, only a handful of people are aware of how poorly in-stalled air conditioning and heating systems perform. The opportunity to harvest this work is ever increasing as equipment efficiency contin-ues to improve, while installed system efficiency continues to decline. Fortunately, the family of NCI professionals is among the few who are qualified and able to dis-cover and improve installed system efficiency. The fact is, this service is needed everywhere and invisible to your competitors. These solutions earn far higher margins than service or installa-Test, Diagnose, and Upgrade Systems Why Contractors Choose toBy Rob “Doc” FalkeMANAGEMENT18 SEPTEMBER 2019HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYWhy?fully committed to training techni-cians and other co-workers. This cre-ates knowledgeable team members and an elevated culture where test-ing, diagnostics, and system upgrades thrive. Technicians can’t help but test when immersed in such a culture.Engaged technicians quickly un-derstand the mission of performance. They have danced around it every day of their careers but had no speedome-ter or a target. They have been unable to properly measure or improve in-stalled system performance. Performance-Based contractors re-port trained technicians are more en-gaged in their jobs and that creates stronger company loyalty. As confi-dence grows, their ability to explain and sell more services to their custom-ers skyrockets. Your customers love being educated by a technician.As recruiting new techs is becoming critical in our industry today, training and having a high-performance mis-sion becomes a magnet for new tal-ent. This is true inside and outside the industry. Trained techs love to con-tribute to a cause and many feel they belong more and are motivated to im-prove themselves and others.Techs take great pride in knowing they are among the best in the coun-try. Being certified in the tenets of Per-formance-Based Contracting™ is of-ten considered the highest professional credential they have earned. The very nature of their job changes when they find hidden problems, upgrade perfor-mance, and then verify they delivered what was promised to their customers.DELIVERING A UNIQUE PRODUCTImagine a product that your compa-ny creates from scratch and is needed and wanted by nearly every customer you have. This product is system-im-proving performance upgrades. You specify it, design it, build it, and then verify it delivers the promised results. You keep nearly 80% of every dollar earned by this product and the cash remains in your company. Often, less than 10% of the job cost is paid out to a manufacturer. You set the system upgrade value without competition because every sys-tem-performance upgrade is a custom project. This product often increas-es system performance by more than 35%. What’s that worth and what other product can top those results?Beef to the bottom line is earned by adding $2000 to $4000 system up-grades, with a 50% to 70% gross prof-it to most of your equipment change-outs. There are zero advertising costs and the expense of job mobilization is already covered in the equipment in-stallation cost.Before your company can sell and earn the high net profit that system up-grades deliver, first you must possess the ability to deliver the goods to your customers. Which is why each year NCI improves its ability to support and help you build the culture of testing, diag-nostics, and upgrading system perfor-mance into your company or career. on the road. Its performance is invis-ible and unknown, except for a few bothersome annoyances your custom-ers have complained about for years without receiving a solution. When a technician uses a combus-tion analyzer or another test instru-ment, it acts as a speedometer mak-ing system performance problems visible to the technician. At that mo-ment, your company enters a market without competition, having earned the right to be paid what you’re worth. The value solutions can bring is two to four times the hourly labor rates you typically earn. The work is thoughtful and challenging, which means you will begin to employ sharp minds, not just strong arms and backs. And yes, someday, you’ll use your mad skills to actually install speed-ometers on the systems you build, upgrade, and service. Your custom-er’s system performance will appear on your dispatcher’s dashboard to identify breakdowns and predict per-formance improving repairs around the clock. RECRUIT, ELEVATE, AND RETAIN TECHNICIANS Recent discussions with owners of Performance-Based Contracting™ companies revealed the key to their success is training and enlisting tech-nicians to test, diagnose, and upgrade poorly performing HVAC systems.With the support and leadership of company management, technicians are the front line. Remember, this work be-gins when the certified technician pulls out his or her test instruments to peer into a system’s performance.Successful performance-based con-tractors agree the company must be Rob Falke co-founded National Comfort Institute in the early 1990’s and leads the technical training and curriculum development teams of the company. Rob’s vision is that the performance of an HVAC system can be effectively measured and diagnosed under live operating conditions in the field. He can be reached at RobF@ncihvac.com.MANAGEMENTSEPTEMBER 2019 19HVACTODAY.COMPHOTO OF THE MONTH“Now that is a Downflow Installation!” — Joe Lozano, Liberty Air, Covina, CA Whoever installed this furnace really had a strange idea of downflow. No wonder Liberty Air was called in, eh?This is a WTH moment. Joe Lozano from Liberty Air wins the September 2019 Photo of the Month contest, as voted on by the subscribers to the High-Performance HVAC Today magazine and visitors to the website. He will receive a $50 gift card.You can too – submissions are always welcome. If you’d like to submit a photo for consideration in our Photo-of-the-Month contest, go to ncilink.com/POMSubmit and fill out the information as requested.THE OCTOBER CONTEST OPENS ON SEPTEMBER 14, 2019. That gives you plenty of time to submit something in any of our three categories: The Good, The Bad, and WTH (What the heck).Next >