< Previous10 NOVEMBER 2019HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYsons from industry events are being forgotten. Think about a child on a trip across the country who is too preoccupied with their gaming sys-tems and computers to notice the landmarks and beauty they drive past. They miss the opportunity to appreciate the sig-nificance of the moment. Today we are too busy selling, installing, and repairing equipment to see the landmarks and milestones of the industry. In those days, we could simply drop new equip-ment in and experience little pushback from cus-tomers or manufacturers. Since we didn’t mea-sure performance, systems limped along with little indication of any problems outside of a high electric bill and marginal comfort. CURRENT EVENTSEnter today’s equipment. Many manufactur-ers include technology that will not allow equip-ment to run when installed incorrectly. Furnaces and air conditioning units use sensors that mon-itor airflow, refrigerant levels, and oil distribu-tion, shutting the equipment down prior to dam-age occurring. Furthermore, customers are becoming better educated with access to information via the inter-net and the growing interactive web presence of manufacturers. As a competent contractor, you must be critically aware of the right way to install. You also must be aware of how much information on the internet is not true or is misleading. Finally, manufacturers won’t sell equipment The year was 2000. The “Y2K” bug (ncil-ink.com/Y2KBug) arrived with much fanfare and little bite. Some called it a hoax and others credit the $300 billion spent to avoid a worldwide system crash of power plants, banks, and even automotive systems.Interestingly, that same year two authors’ —Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins — first novel was re-leased as a movie. “Left Behind” (leftbehind.com) was one of 16 books in a series and the first of three films. The movie was a view of global end times and the peril humans would face. Today, we steal the title and apply it to a popular topic in the air conditioning and heating industry. In place of an “end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it” scenario, we set the stage for our industry and the companies within it that fail to embrace the concepts behind “Home Performance” and “Per-formance-Based Contracting™.” Our industry, for the most part, continues down a path of plug-and-play without regard to consequences of underperforming equipment. A soon-to-come reckoning will end that journey for many in the HVAC contracting industry. Equipment manufactured today is too sophis-ticated to not be installed properly. When today’s high-end equipment becomes the basic standard, many in our industry will be “Left Behind.” LESSONS FROM HISTORYAs the current crop of baby boomers begins stepping off the contracting stage, significant les-Technology’s Impact on the HVAC IndustryBy Tom TurnerTHE LEADING EDGENOVEMBER 2019 11HVACTODAY.COMly improve our jobs. Here is an outline you can follow:ANALYZE PROJECTS CORRECTLYNew Construction. You are at the mercy of the information provided by the builder. Be sure all relevant infor-mation is included. This includes all plans that define wall, window, and door materials. The framing plans should give your company an idea whether or not you can install correct-ly sized duct. When necessary you must push back on construction themes that limit your access to do the job correctly. It may be the prudent option to walk away on occasion when you know the job will not perform as it should. Just because the architect wants a specific look or the owner wants spe-cific floor space does not mean we ac-quiesce and install an inferior design. Retrofit. These are the jobs we can impress customers with. Homes built in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s are homes we can influence greatly. Don’t be afraid to trust a load calcu-lation that tells you something other than what the old rules-of-thumb say. When we follow the Energy Code with appropriate methods and mate-rial, we move performance well above the 650 to 750 feet per 12,000 Btu performance range. This includes an efficiently functioning duct system.Set up a plan of attack. After an-alyzing the structure, create a compre-hensive plan to address each job with the same comprehensive scope cus-tomized to meet specific needs. Share with the team. Too often we assume our team understands how a job should be installed. Clear in-structions with an accurate material list will go a long way to improving job quality and profits. In today’s market, your workforce can change. You should begin the pro-cess of continuous training in-house or contracting it out.SYSTEMATICALLY APPLY PRINCIPLES Envelope efficiency will influence your job beyond comprehension. The more efficiently the envelope is sealed, the more effective all other measures become compounding savings and comfort at every level. Aligning Insulation and thermal properties will ensure all installed products will perform efficiently and improve comfort. Too often we over-look construction issues that impact the equipment performance. to just anyone. The expense involved with warranty issues is becoming too great to simply take a hit and pass on the costs. Add these issues together and you can see how a plug-and-play installation approach is soon to be a thing of the past. IT’S NOT A GIMMICKThe number one cause of under-performing HVAC systems is inad-equate airflow. The number two is-sue is equipment not matched to the conditions the system can handle. In other words, the capacity of the sys-tem is mismatched with the home’s heat load.While there are few in the industry who embrace Home Performance or Performance-based Contracting™ as their preferred delivery method, many will soon adopt the idea out of necessi-ty. Some in the contracting communi-ty use the phrase as a gimmick, not un-derstanding the commitment. Contractors who make the commit-ment are shocked to see the incredible system performance improvements to their new installations and will tell you they wish they had embraced per-formance models earlier. Why? Each aspect of a Performance-Based job acts upon other components pro-ducing increasingly better results. When we follow an outline that ad-dresses all aspects of the home with proven methodology, we continual-“PERFORMANCE-BASED CONTRACTING” ISN’T A CATCH-PHRASE THAT WILL FADE OVER TIME. IT’S THE PROTOCOL FOR THE FUTURE OF THE INDUSTRY.12 NOVEMBER 2019HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYTHE LEADING EDGEtals of ductwork outlined in National Comfort Institute’s (NCI) training. A quick reference guide is included on clipboards from NCI’s sales and support page (ncilink.com/Clipbds). Duct Install. The efficient use of duct materials is the number one trait of a quality installation. Using the smallest amount of duct routed straight and turned on a slow radius will yield great airflow results. Just because flex duct is flexible doesn’t mean it should be. View ev-ery flex duct run as if it is rigid pipe. Where you don’t have room, you must find a solution or quality will suffer. Transitions. All too often we see filter housings butted up against a fur-nace, air handler, or a slab evaporator with a transition that exceeds 25 de-Whether in heating- or cooling-dom-inant climates, make sure the system has the capacity to handle the second-ary load. Pay special attention to high SEER heat pump capacity.Duct Layout. Too often we send an installation crew out with little more than a truck full of duct materials. Why would we expect a quality instal-lation with no guidance? Take the time to survey and measure the job from inside the home. Make ad-justments once you view the job from the attic. If we view the job from the at-tic only or initially, we will always in-clude too much linear footage of duct as it is extremely difficult to judge dis-tances or measure in the attic. Make sure you follow the fundamen-Having a basic understanding of Building Science is necessary. Without knowledge, we will continually chase goals that are unachievable. FOLLOW PROTOCOL FOR INSTALLATIONLoad Calculation. This is a most important requirement. You must re-member, no matter who performs the load calculation, you and your compa-ny are responsible for the end results.Equipment selection. Taking the results of the Manual J and Manual S will help you select the correct equip-ment for the job. Avoid preconceived notions on tonnage for the job. Pay attention to sensible and latent loads and match them with systems that perform at the correct capacity. NOVEMBER 2019 13HVACTODAY.COMhappier when a prob-lem occurs, and it is re-solved quickly vs. no is-sues to deal with at all. You should take ad-vantage of the informa-tion and include a vis-it post-installation at the nine to 12-month point.Supply your customer with a full set of documentation. Think twice prior to furnishing your custom-er with a load calculation, equipment selection criteria, full duct layout, or job scope information. Once the job is complete and you have payment in hand, THEN provide a complete set of documents that in-clude an additional set of owner or op-erator manuals, a detailed load cal-culation, a summary sheet of work performed, and a clean copy of the paid invoice. This package will provide value be-yond what the customer paid in his or her mind. “Performance-Based Contract-ing” is not a catchphrase that will fade over time. It is the protocol for the future of the HVAC industry. Technology is driving our industry whether you choose to embrace it or not. Remember, if you choose to keep using old-school methodology you will be Left Behind. The refrigerant charge. Please note that weighing in the charge at startup will save your company on re-turn trips and warranty calls. Super-heat and subcooling stats take you only so far. To accurately charge a system with this method you must verify that air-flow and air temperatures fall within seven to 10 degrees of desired labo-ratory settings. Anytime we charge a system when temperatures are low, we can overcharge it. When tempera-tures are high, we can undercharge the system. On a final note, it is impossible to charge a heat pump correctly in the winter without weighing in the charge. TEST TO MAKE CERTAIN OF YOUR RESULTSTesting products after installation should be standard. How do we walk away without knowing how well our job is performing? While the model for performance- based contracting will give you the template for successful jobs time after time, validation through testing allows you to adjust installations to maximize performance and quality. Back at the office. Take the time two days after a job has closed out to handwrite a note of thanks to the cus-tomer. Surveys indicate customers are grees. These close-up en-counters with components in the air stream cause noise, excessive velocities, high in-duct pressures, and poor heat transfer. Where evaporators are placed too close to the air outlet, the result is an appli-ance that will never achieve its potential for removing heat.Adequate return grille size. Ad-equate return grille size is easy to cal-culate. Divide the required cfm of the appliance by 2 and you have the gross grille area required for proper airflow at a reasonable velocity. An example is 2.5 tons requires 1000 cfm. Divide 1000 by 2. So, we need 500 square inches of gross grille area. What we pay little attention to is the choke on performance the filter pro-vides. That is our next point. Using the appropriate filters. If performance is your goal, you un-derstand that one-inch filters have lit-tle room in your inventory. Only the smallest air handler and furnaces will operate efficiently with one-inch fil-ters, and those filters will not be above a MERV 7. Where capacity exceeds three tons nominal, you will likely need two me-dia filters to handle the job. With evaporator fin count so dense it is imperative we protect the custom-er’s investment with better filtering. Perhaps you include media filters as a standard with all your jobs. The deep-pleated media will help prolong the life of the evaporator, even when time gets away from the custom-er. If we change the filter annually, the evaporator will most likely survive. These filters will not break the bank. IF YOU CHOOSE TO KEEP USING OLD-SCHOOL METHODOLOGY YOU WILL BE LEFT BEHIND.Tom Turner has 40 years experience in construction and the HVAC residential/commercial industry. He is an advocate for the Performance- Based Contracting business model. Currently, Tom works for Austin Energy as the Environmental Program Coordinator for the nationally recognized municipal utility.14 NOVEMBER 2019HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYTesting-in and testing-out became necessary to meet government requirements for tax credits. It is also when people began questioning the abili-ty of these analyzers to calculate actual efficiency.During that time, servicing and/or upgrad-ing equipment showed little or no efficiency cal-culation improvement, and in some cases a de-cline. Yet customers were saving a considerable amount of energy in all situations. The question in both my mind and the custom-ers’ was Why? Unfortunately, no information on when or how these calculations were developed is available.Currently these calculations remain an indus-try standard and are used to rate the efficiency of all HVAC equipment currently manufactured be-cause that is the way it has always been! APPLYING THE LAWSFigure 1 lists five sets of combustion readings, on the same piece of natural gas equipment, ad-justed with different gas pressures, that all have the same analyzer-calculated efficiency. Before breaking down the calculations, here are three rules or laws of combustion and energy you need to know:• The temperature of an object deter-mines the amount of Btus it contains• Air contains 21% Oxygen and 79% Nitrogen• Natural gas has an adiabatic flame temperature of 3600° at 0% - O2.Adiabatic simply means 100% of the energy is available and not lost to any other substance. In the real world, the substance that absorbs or steals a good per-Today, with all the new digital combus-tion analyzers available, more HVAC contractors are checking equipment efficiency. This efficiency is based on calculations built into the combustion analyz-ers using an O2 and a flue temperature reading. These are the same calculations once used on the original slide-rule (ncilink.com/SlideRul-er) efficiency calculators. However, unless someone was working on oil equipment, the old slide rule was rarely used. Even when it was, how often did contractors test-in and test-out?SOME BACKGROUNDIn the 1970s and early 1980s, there was an energy crisis and a push to use less fuel. This was the same time the first digital combustion analyzers were introduced. Combustion Efficiency Calculations: Are They Misleading?By Jim DavisTECHNICALNOVEMBER 2019 15HVACTODAY.COMwas transferred.Divide 1960 degrees by 3600 de-grees and you get 54.4% efficiency or transfer. Again, where did that 82.2% come from?3 8% Oxygen equals 32% Nitrogen. This cools the flame to 2500 de-grees out of a possible 3600 degrees. This equals 69.4% of the energy being available for transfer.The flue temperature is 320 de-grees; therefore 2180 degrees of heat was transferred.Divide 2180 degrees by 3600 degrees and you get 60.5% efficiency or trans-fer. What’s up with this 82.2% in the energy efficiency calculations above?4 6% Oxygen = 2800 degrees or 77.9% available energy. The flue temperature is 350 degrees; therefore 2450 degrees of heat was transferred.Divide 2450 degrees by 3600 de-grees and the result is 68.0% efficien-cy or transfer. Once again I ask where does this 82.2% comes from?5 4% Oxygen = 3100 degrees or 86.1% available energy.The flue temperature is 380 degrees therefore 2720 degrees of heat was transferred.Divide 2720 degrees by 3600 de-grees equals 75.5% efficiency or trans-fer. Getting closer!The calculations in my five scenari-os only consider sensible heat and yet there is another loss of latent heat that is not even being considered. ONE LAST NOTE Older combustion analyzers could not calculate efficiency on condensing equipment because of Latent Heat. Today, new calculations have been added for Latent Heat recovery (based on theory) and the calculations are impressive!15% Oxygen – Flue temperature 90 degrees = 99% efficiency!!!The point I’m trying to make is that if you depend on the calculated efficien-cy of a combustion analyzer to deter-mine the actual performance of a piece of equipment, you are being misled. Maximizing efficiency means ad-justing equipment to operate as close to its rated output as possible. Using the formula CFM x DeltaT x ADCF (Air Density Correction Factor) gives you the approximate output. Keeping oxygen the lowest, flue temperature in a proper range, and carbon monoxide at a safe level will produce the best results. When this is accomplished, efficiency has been maximized. centage of combustion energy is Ni-trogen. For every 1% Oxygen in the combustion air, there is 4% Nitrogen. Nitrogen absorbs the heat or cools the flame and makes the energy unavail-able for transfer. Now examine each of the readings, try to avoid being too scientific, and just use some simple math.FIVE EXAMPLES:1 12% Oxygen equals 48% Nitrogen. This cools the flame to 2000 degrees out of a possible 3600 degrees. That equates to 55.5% of the energy being available for transfer.The flue temperature is 250 degrees; therefore 1750 degrees of heat was transferred.Divide 1750 degrees by 3600 de-grees and you get 48.5% efficiency or transfer. So where did the original 82.2% energy efficiency calculation shown above come from?2 10% Oxygen equals 40% Nitrogen. This cools the flame to 2250 de-grees out of a possible 3600 degrees. This equals 62.5% of the energy being available for transfer. The flue temperature is 290 de-grees; therefore 1960 degrees of heat FIGURE 1: Combustion ReadingsO2Flue TemperatureEfficiency Calculation112%250°82.2%210%290°82.2%3 8%320°82.2%4 6%350°82.2%5 4%380°82.2%Jim Davis has a long and storied career in the HVAC Industry. That career began back in 1971. Today he serves the industry as the senior instructor for National Comfort Institute and con-tinues researching into all things combustion related. He can be reached at JimD@ncihvac.com.16 NOVEMBER 2019HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYfor streamlining a business and field automated technologies help with productivity, cost avoid-ance, and potential energy savings. The truth, however, is these streamlined processes and ad-vanced technologies have only exasperated the problem by revealing a deeper knowledge gap that has existed for decades without detection. Most people are unaware this knowledge gap consists of confounding variables from more than 144 known problems that impact the perfor-mance and energy use of HVAC systems. The atti-tude of technicians and their level of engagement is directly connected to an appreciation for how well they impact these problems to make a differ-ence for the customer and how well they repre-sent the mission of your company.In an effort to identify and reduce the number of possible causes to comfort problems, techni-cians attempt to deploy refrigerant measurement and diagnostic technologies. Some of these are included as HVAC measures in utility energy pro-grams across the nation. When using these tech-nologies, techs receive multiple major and minor fault messages relating to refrigerant charge and airflow. What is wrong and what may be wrong are left to the technician’s discretion to correct. This attempt to increase field productivity, ac-curacy, and professionalism is well-intentioned, but does not reveal what is truly plaguing system performance. The reason is, these technologies are being built upon assumptions that exclude how well the entire HVAC system is performing. THE COST OF CHANGEASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrig-eration, and Airconditioning Engineers) has gone on record and indirectly stated this truth – yet few know this. Even fewer have been willing to put these truths into practice. Who can blame them? There is a serious perception issue within the HVAC Industry that prevents many people from knowing who they really are, what they really do for their customers, and why they really matter to their community. Most HVAC businesses believe they are only as good as the brands they carry, the volume of prod-ucts they install, and the amount of service agree-ments they sell.Unfortunately, most HVAC business owners will not do anything to change this perception until something unexpected happens. It usually begins with a decline in their custom-er base, fewer jobs, lower profit margins, loss of key performing staff, a higher number of call backs, and an increase in customer dissatisfaction. The work environment and morale begin to decline and quick-ly spiral into a race to the bottom.MORE THAN PERCEPTION Let’s start this conversation on the deck plates in-stead of the boardroom. Our industry not only fac-es a perception problem, it is also encumbered with a major labor shortage. This is a problem further compounded by a great gap in skills and conduct. Yes, field service management platforms are great You Cannot Judge a Book by its CoverBy Mel Johnson, NCI Vice President, Utility ProgramsINDUSTRYFigure 1. Field measured system delivered capacity data collected by NCI-certified contractors from 2012-2018.NOVEMBER 2019 17HVACTODAY.COMpractice work ethics, and exhibit craftsman-like behavior?Our industry is positioned to change the consumer view of HVAC from a commodity to a well-performing asset that increases the value of homes and buildings. Perfor-mance-based HVAC contractors are the only ones capable of doing this and here is why: professionalism.MEASUREMENT IS A PATH TO PROFESSIONALISMIn the old days, a coat-of-arms distinguished “profes-sions.” Professional people have taken the time to study and train to establish their individual identity. They then perceive themselves as professionals. They don’t need a brand, association, or company to identify their worth. Yet, they recognize their individual value and know why they are important. A person without a coat-of-arms associates their identity to things outside of themselves and experience more uncer-tainty in terms of their value. They question their problem- solving skills and struggle with adaptability.Just looking at the outside does not distinguish a coat-HVAC Contractors already made enormous investments in service management software, automated field service tech-nologies, as well as facility, utility, and third-party programs. Right now, the current approaches with these technolo-gies are stranding thousands of comfort systems that deliv-er less than 60% of what is promised by manufacturers in their capacity and efficiency ratings. What’s worse is, these systems under-perform and under-deliver when they are needed the most.As utilities adopt Time of Use Rates (TOU’s), customers are being hit with new pricing signals. This signal shifts en-ergy use from peak hours to off-peak hours which penaliz-es end-users for excessive HVAC energy use. In addition, in the Western U.S., there is a bold movement toward “building electrification,” meaning changing reliance from gas to elec-tricity in residential and commercial buildings. What most regulators and utilities don’t realize is the margin of error with heat pumps is even less tolerant than gas equipment to these confounding variables.TESTING AND MEASURING ARE KEYWhat I find most alarming is technicians are not expect-ed to measure and correct an HVAC system that is not per-forming to its designed capacity and efficiency ratings. No one in the value chain knows, expects, or requires this to happen. If manufacturer equipment ratings are not measured in the field by the technicians who install, service, and repair them, then who are we expecting to perform this task? Again, what IS wrong and what May Be wrong are left to the technician’s discretion to correct. Businesses are being built upon assumptions that ex-clude a customer valuing how well their entire HVAC sys-tem is performing. Unfortunately, by continuing to make these uninformed assumptions these issues will penalize your customers’ safety, comfort, and efficiency, as well as your business’ value proposition! This also means technicians go unappreciated for their contributions. So the customer value proposition, contrac-tor differentiation, along with increased selling prices and profit margin, are all hidden from sight until the business owner decides to require measured field performance.If what ASHRAE states is true, shouldn’t we be building workforce professionals who focus on HVAC system perfor-mance, who know their identity, and who have strong values, 18 NOVEMBER 2019HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYmanufacturers’ capacity and efficiency ratings, but performance can now be valued by customers. This means the perception issue within the HVAC Industry can now be addressed head-on! People can know who they really are, what they really do for their customers, and why they re-ally matter to their community. HVAC businesses can now be differentiated by professional people who believe in themselves, knowing they deliver all the potential of the brands they car-ry. The bonus value is that they can in-crease the margins and volume of the products they sell and install while ex-panding their service agreements.Now is the time for HVAC contrac-tors to grow their customer base, in-crease the number of jobs they do, raise profit margins, and scale-up the performance of their staff. At the same time these profession-als will reduce performance call backs while increasing customer satisfac-tion. There has never been a more op-portune moment to raise morale and create a performance-charged work environment. of-arms professional. Any novice can provide a 15-point clean and check, a summer/winter visual inspection, use an industry/association consensus checklist approach, or even conduct a refrigerant circuit analysis. These approaches won’t distinguish a company, nor will they reveal what is plaguing system performance. Measurements beyond the refrig-erant must be taken to address elec-trical and mechanical issues. These range from supply/return air balance, control system problems, fan perfor-mance, compressor performance, to the delicate balance of refrigeration temperature and pressure, superheat, and subcooling. The most overlooked is airflow, which is foundational to air condition-ing performance. Yet, the published data for these performance factors dif-fers between laboratory environments and real world in-field applications.BUILDING PROFESSIONALISMThis coat-of-arms comes from build-ing and mentoring each technician’s professional identity in HVAC system performance. As an industry it is our job to help them become comfortable with their professional value, under-stand their specific job requirements, and develop the skills needed to meet the demands of a changing workforce. Professionals must know how to use the right instruments and tools. Their confidence comes from hands-on train-ing. All of this positively impacts HVAC system performance. We have found that, on average, trained and certified technicians can improve a system’s delivered capacity more than 50%. Not only will consum-ers receive what is promised in the INDUSTRYMel Johnson is vice president of utility programs at NCI. His depth of knowledge is derived from nearly two decades of experience within the energy utility and HVAC Industry. He continues to interact with a broad array of stakeholders, associations, industry trade allies, and end-use customers. Mel has created, directed, super-vised, and governed mass market Investor Owned Utility projects mandated by the State of California through the CEC and the CPUC. Commonly available refrigerant-side diagnostics charts and software imply that you can diag-nose all issues based on refrigerant measurements. This is misleading and commonly leads to misdiagnosis and missed opportunities.NOVEMBER 2019 19HVACTODAY.COMPHOTO OF THE MONTH“It’s a wonder you’re still alive!” — Nate Copeland, Copeland & Son, Nashville, TN This is a horizontal, 80% AFUE furnace with a single-wall vent side discharge and a plastic dryer vent cover outside. Someone used spray foam to seal the holes in the vent pipe. Epic fail!!Nate Copeland, from Copeland and Son, is the November 2019 winner of our Photo-of-the-Month contest, in the “Bad” category, 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 DECEMBER CONTEST OPENS ON NOVEMBER 8, 2019. That gives you plenty of time to submit something in any of our three categories: The Good, The Bad, WTH (What the heck).Next >