High-Performance HVAC Today March 2020 Issue

< Previous10 MARCH 2020HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY and expanded to where it has more than 2,100 employees nationwide. R.E. Michel founder, Robert Emory Michel, started his new business and established the mission for the com- pany to provide business-quality prod- ucts at a fair price with a devotion to customer service. Today the company is led by Robert’s son, John W.H. “Doc” Michel, with grandson, Bobby. According to Doc, his father began the business during the transitional time when coal heating was being con- verted to fuel oil. His father saw an opportunity and began manufacturing and selling oil burners. “My father branded the oil burner the REMCO,” he explains. “He trav- eled around the Baltimore area with people from the oil companies basi- cally showing them how to convert coal-burners to oil burners.” EXPANSION INTO BRANCH OPERATIONS In 1942, R.E. Michel opened its ﬁrst branch operation in the nation’s capi- tal. That was followed up by opening branches in both Richmond and Nor- folk, VA. Gradual growth continued over the years with branches opening in other cities. When Doc’s older brother, Butch, came into the business full time in 1960, the focus of the company began to change, to modernize. R.E. Michel had left the manufacturing side of its business in the late 1950s and the next decade saw the introduction of aﬀord- able residential air conditioning and natural gas heating. R.E. Michel began adding that equip- ment to its line card. Those products included unitary equipment lines and other parts and supplies – ductwork, grilles, and registers. According to Doc, it was in 1960 that they became Heil Quaker distributors. He adds that Butch embraced tech- nology, especially computer tech, and had the ﬁrst one installed in the com- pany in 1972. Two years later, in need of more space, R.E. Michel moved from its original location in downtown Balti- more to Patapsco Avenue. All their of- ﬁces were moved there. This was the ﬁrst step to the growth spurt that lead to the company being where it is today. That growth was through acquisi- tion of smaller wholesale operations around the country to where they now have 294 stores in 33 states, plus eight D espite popular belief, the American economic engine truly runs on the back of small, family-owned busi- nesses. According to the Small Busi- ness Administration (SBA), there are 30.2 million small businesses in America that account for 99.9% of all business conducted. Also, small busi- nesses employ nearly half (48%) of the country’s workforce. Case in point: R.E. Michel Com- pany, headquartered in Glen Burnie, MD. This national HVAC wholesale distribution company, which cele- brates its 85th anniversary this year, was born in 1935 in the throes of the Great Depression as a supplier to the residential home heating oil burner industry. Despite the odds being against this new venture, R.E. Michel has grown PARTNER SPOTLIGHT By Mike Weil R.E. Michel Celebrates 85 Years of Excellence and Service Eighty-ﬁve years of family ownership. Left to right: Doc Michel, his brother Butch Michel, and Doc’s son Bobby Michel.MARCH 2020 11HVACTODAY.COM sending them to wherever the custom- er needs them. “Not many other dis- tributors do anything like this,” McAl- lister says. Today R.E. Michel employs 19 TSAs who travel around the country helping contractors. According to Doc, they are like superheroes – besides being highly technically qualiﬁed, they also must be very customer-oriented. He likens them to the Swiss Army knives of HVAC. They will bring con- tractors into Glen Burnie’s training room, as well as other company facil- ities around the country, where con- tractors can physically work on a va- riety of functioning boilers, furnaces, and condensing units. McAllister adds that TSAs have one of the toughest jobs in the company. Bobby Michel, Doc’s son and presi- dent of the company, says that it’s im- portant to remember that TSAs are not there to do the work for contrac- tors. “They are advisors. They trou- bleshoot only. They do not work on equipment,” he says. THE PERFORMANCE CONNECTION When it comes to the concepts be- hind High-Performance Contracting, the team at R.E. Michel are believers. or nine regional warehouses. According to Doc, they are still making acquisitions today, but nowhere near the level they were in the 70s and 80s. In 1996, Doc had been employed at the company for around 30 years and was running the purchasing depart- ment. He took over as president after the death of his brother, Butch. THE TSA PROGRAM “Over the years,” Doc says, “the in- dustry became so much more compli- cated as opposed to when I was grow- ing up and everything was mechanical. Now everything is electronic. Just to adjust an oil burner you need special tools that weren’t required before. I always considered myself pretty me- chanically adept, but today, you need to understand computers, electronics, and so much more. “As a result, it became obvious to us that we needed to train our customers better. To do that we needed our own highly-skilled trainer personnel.” That group of people came to be known as R.E. Michel’s Technical Ser- vice Advisors (TSAs). They are most- ly focused on training the company’s contractor customers as well as helping them troubleshoot issues in the ﬁeld. According to Chad McAllister, di- rector of sales for the company, TSAs must know everything about HVAC in- cluding oil, gas, Hydronics, air condi- tioning, geothermal, heat pumps, mini- splits. “They need to understand those technologies because that is what our contractor customers run into in the ﬁeld every single day,” he adds. This is a huge investment on behalf of their contractor customers. Besides investing in training TSAs with many manufacturers, they also invest in Exclusive Supply Partner Part of the R.E. Michel performance and service credo is getting product to the customer whenever and wherever they need it. To provide the service their customers need, R.E. Michel developed their own inventory control technology that has evolved to the point that the company can track any product through any store or warehouse, to the second, at all times. Doc says, “We evolved this process so we can bring our distribution model to our contractor customers. We call this our Exclusive Supply Partnership (ESP) and it allows us to enable contractors to manage their truck inventories the way we manage our warehouse inventory (learn more at ncilink.com/ESP ).” According to Tracy Johnson, who is in charge of the ESP program, they work with contractors to set up a base inventory level and then replenish it as needed. That could be daily, every other day, twice a week, whatever. She explains, “The ESP program works no matter how big the contractor is. It is very scalable. The cool thing is that the contractors manage their ESP on their own. We give them access to our web-based software, we train them on how to use the software, and they manage their truck and warehouse inventory this way. For the record, ESP has been a long time under development. It originally start- ed back in 1990 by Doc’s brother. It was a paper-based system back then. Says McAllister, “We look for contractors who value partnering with their distribu- tor. Then we deliver on our commitment to whatever parts the contractor wants on their truck, whenever they want it, and how ever they want it. We will do whatever is necessary to come through for them.” Alex Beecher, R.E. Michel’s director of marketing, adds that the ESP program is a “game-changer.” He adds, “It is a perfect ﬁt for NCI contractors because they are the type of people who are looking to improve, streamline, and oﬀer better services in their market area. ESP helps them do that. Plus, they seem to value this level of relationship and service in a partnership.” “NCI-trained and certiﬁed contractors aren’t low-priced. They understand the value of being able to provide homeowners a full assessment of their equipment, their air system, and the impact of balancing those things. We feel we operate at their level and can oﬀer them higher-level options to help them in their quest to High-Performance Contracting™,” concludes Tracy Johnson.12 MARCH 2020HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY PARTNER SPOTLIGHT He is also Doc’s nephew and has been in the business since 1987. “This industry has changed so much from the day when a distributor sales- man walked into the back of a con- tractor’s shop with pencil and paper in hand. “Today many contractors are con- nected directly to our inventory sys- tem so they can ﬁnd the products and equipment they need, even if their lo- cal branch doesn’t have it available NCI, performance goes well beyond just making sure the equipment is in- stalled and operating correctly. You have to consider the air system, the ductwork,” Doc says. “This is a growing partnership that means a lot to us. The goals we’ve set as an R.E. Michel/NCI Team are very exciting. We are committed to not only taking care of the customer we have today, but also to ﬁnding the cus- tomer of tomorrow, together. That’s where we will see growth with the NCI group of the contrac- tors,” he says. R.E. MICHEL TODAY J.V. “Beau” Michel III is the director of purchasing and distribution for the company. After all, it ﬁts into their overarching philosophy of putting the customer ﬁrst in all things. “We will not lose a customer over an issue,” Doc explains. “We do ev- erything possible to resolve customer problems and keep them happy.” He says the idea is to ﬁnd ways to serve the best interest of the custom- er at the level closest to the customer. Which is another reason why R.E. Michel is a strong supporter and pro- ponent of training. Through their mission to train contractor customers, R.E. Michel manage- ment became aware of the Na- tional Comfort Institute (NCI). Many of their customers were al- ready members of NCI. “Today, as we’ve learned from Beau Michel R.E. Michel’s Glen Burnie Training Center includes hands-on training on boilers, condensing units, mini-splits, and more.MARCH 2020 13HVACTODAY.COM to spend more time than ever training their technicians. “The technology and requirements for installing and maintaining HVAC equipment are becoming ever more complicated and the ramifications of poorly designed and installed sys- tems can be dire in terms of consumer health, comfort, and safety. “And we (the distributors) need bet- ter sales and branch personnel to help our contractor customers.” It is these things that help tie togeth- er the relationship between the dis- tributor and contractor. Congratulations to R.E. Michel on its 85th Anniversary of service and for be- ing this month’s High-Performance HVAC Today magazine’s Partner Spotlight. ufacturers can be ready with product. And we really haven’t settled into a standardized replacement refrigerant which can cause even more problems.” He adds that he knows that indus- try associations like HARDI and AHRI are on top of all this, but it is an uphill battle with grave ramiﬁcations for the entire industry. “No matter what happens,” he con- tinues, “success in today’s world de- pends completely on having a well- trained workforce. Contractors need when they need it,” Beau explains. “We buy well, track inventory re- turns, and translate that into provid- ing our contractor customers what they want, when they want it, at a price they can afford. We have the right inventory at the right time and at the right price,” Beau says. INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVES Like every business in the HVAC In- dustry, R.E. Michel faces many chal- lenges, from government regulations to a major shortage of people coming into the trades. Doc Michel says the latter is the biggest hurdle today. “The next biggest challenge is the upcoming refrigerant phaseout. I worry about the 2023 deadline. “The question really is whether man- Left to right: Chad McAllister, Alex Beecher, and Tracy JohnsonHIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY Your job is to ﬁnd and eliminate the causes of excessive airﬂow resistance to increase eﬃciency and comfort. Unfortunately, most systems suﬀer from measured TESPs that are more than 150% of maximum-rated pressure. This problem usual- ly goes undetected. TOTAL EXTERNAL STATIC PRESSURE Total external static pressure is the ﬁrst air pressure you’ll measure and calculate when you diagnose an HVAC system. It only takes a few minutes to measure pressure before and after the air-handling equipment. Then you simply add these two pressures together and compare it to the maximum-rated TESP. If measured TESP is 20% higher than maxi- mum-rated fan pressure, your job is to continue static pressure diagnostics to ﬁnd and eliminate the cause(s). NCI publishes various static pressure budgets for several system types. Find NCI static pressure budgets in your training manuals, NCI’s online training modules, or on the NCI website at ncil- ink.com/PSIBudgetTable. THE COOLING COIL The highest airﬂow restriction in many systems is often the cooling coil. It is usually located at the fan discharge, at the beginning of the duct sys- tem. Many higher eﬃciency cooling coils have re- sistance to airﬂow greater than the fan can aﬀord. Our studies show coil resistance to airﬂow in well-performing systems does not exceed 40% of fan-rated pressure. So, a fan rated at .50” w.c. should not exceed .20” of static pressure (.50” x 40% = .20”). Pressure drop over a coil is found by installing test ports (ncilink.com/TestPortInstall) into the air stream before and after the coil. The W hen a blower circulates air, it faces two expected obstacles on its jour- ney through the duct system – the coil and ﬁlter. The cooling coil is usually the airﬂow’s takeoﬀ from the fan and the air ﬁlter is the landing near the end of its journey through the system. These two parts of the trip are expected to be bumpy. Ideally during the rest of the trip, airﬂow should enjoy “great weather and smooth sailing.” Let’s take a look at how you can forecast and eliminate high-pressure issues in HVAC systems using static pressure diagnostics. In the U.S., we use inches of water column (w.c.) as our pressure unit of measurement. This is the distance, mea- sured in hundredths of an inch, that pres- sure will push or pull water in a U-shaped tube. EFFECTS OF PRES- SURE ON AIRFLOW Resistance to air- flow often negatively aﬀects static pressure in a forced-air HVAC system. Each fan has a max- imum-rated total ex- ternal static pressure (TESP). If it exceeds the maximum-rated pres- sure when measured, airﬂow decreases, sys- tem performance takes a nosedive, comfort suﬀers, and utility bills skyrocket. A Fresh Overview - Static Pressure Diagnostics and Solutions By Rob “Doc” Falke TECHNICAL Taking the total external static pressure. 14 MARCH 2020MARCH 2020 15HVACTODAY.COM sity of the ﬁlters without consideration to its increased airﬂow resistance. Measure ﬁlter pressure drop to veri- fy if it is in or out of acceptable ranges. Install test ports before and after the air ﬁlter. Measure and record the two pressures, then subtract to ﬁnd the ﬁl- ter’s airﬂow resistance. NCI has established static pressure budgets for air ﬁlters calling for no more than 20% of the fan’s rated pres- sure to be consumed by the system’s air ﬁlter. If a system’s fan is rated at .80” w.c. ﬁlter pressure drop should not exceed .16” of static pressure (.80” x 20% = .16”) When air ﬁlters excessively obstruct airﬂow on its way back to the fan, ﬁlter modiﬁcations are required. Options to reduce ﬁlter static pres- sure include: ● Replacing the restrictive ﬁlter with a lower pressure drop ﬁlter. ● Installing additional ﬁlters in the system to increase ﬁlter surface area. The greater the square feet of ﬁlter, the lower the amount of airﬂow mov- ing through each square foot of ﬁlter, lowering its restriction to airﬂow. ● Installing “V’ or “N” conﬁguration ﬁlter racks. ● Using several return air ﬁlter grilles to increase ﬁlter surface area. MEASURE DUCT SYSTEM PRESSURES NCI’s static pressure budgets rec- ommend no more than 20% of the fan-rated pressure from the supply duct system. And no more than 20% of fan-rated pressure from the return duct system. If a system’s fan is rat- ed at .30” w.c., the supply or return duct pressure should not exceed .06” of static pressure (.30” x 20% = .06”). Duct system pressures are not mea- sured in pressure drop as with other system components. Since pressure, pressures are taken and recorded, then subtracted from each other to ﬁnd coil pressure drop. Compare measured coil pressure drop to 40% of fan-rated pressure. If coil pressure drop is excessive, you should do an additional diagnos- tic. Inspect the coil to see if it is load- ed with dust, cellulose insulation, pet dander, or other airborne pollutants. If you do ﬁnd these issues, clean, re- pair, or in extreme circumstances, re- place the coil. You may be surprised to ﬁnd a clean or new coil that is overly restrictive to airﬂow. This is a tough one to explain to your customers because it reveals a design problem when the system was built and it may still be quite new. Check your measured coil pressure drop against the coil manufacturer’s pressure drop data to verify the coil is not internally packed with debris. AIR FILTER PRESSURE DROP The duct system terminates or lands at the air ﬁlter. Some air ﬁlter eﬃciency is made possible by increasing the den- Technician demonstrates where to take coil pressure drop readings. Measuring air ﬁlter pressure drop. Technician demonstrating where to take supply duct pressure measurement. This time, the technician demonstrates taking the return duct pressure.16 MARCH 2020HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY TECHNICAL Duct obstructions exceeding 25% of the duct system’s measured pressure normally require repairs. Static pressure testing and diagnos- tics are the keys that unlock the door to the world of HVAC system perfor- mance diagnostics. In this world the population is sparse, competition is low, and opportunity abounds. Turn the key and come on in. ● Eliminating kinks, pinches, and damaged duct ● Installing less restrictive ﬁttings or opening closed volume dampers ● Increasing duct system capacity by adding more or larger ducts from the equipment to rooms needing more airﬂow ● Adding duct suspension and im- proving installation conditions ● Replacing overly restrictive grilles and registers. Furthermore, you can identify in- dividual restrictions in duct systems using the pressure drop test method described for filters and coils. Install a test port before and after any com- ponent, measure, record, and subtract the two pressures to discover airﬂow resistance. where air exits supply registers or en- ters return grilles, is near 0” w.c., a single point measurement identiﬁes supply or return duct pressure. To measure supply duct pressure, in- stall a test port near where the air exits the air handling equipment. Then mea- sure the supply duct pressure. You measure return duct pressure using the test port you installed in the return duct just before air enters the air handling equipment. This single point measurement is the return duct pressure. If either of these pressures exceed 20% of rated-fan pressure, duct mod- iﬁcations are required to reduce duct system airﬂow resistance. A shortlist of duct system repairs include: Rob “Doc” Falke serves the industry as president of National Comfort Institute, Inc., an HVAC-based training company and membership organization. You can contact Doc at robf@ncihvac.com or call him at 800-633-7058. Go to NCI’s website at nationalcomfortinstitute.com for free information, articles, and downloads.MARCH 2020 17HVACTODAY.COM T oday we talk a lot about leadership. It is prevalent all over the news and in social media. The discussion often centers on the lack of leadership on both sides of any question. We send our youth to “Leader- ship Conferences” and we discuss leadership at length in sports, government, church, business, school, and in our personal lives. While I spent much of my working career in the Plumbing and HVAC industry, I also served as an elected oﬃcial both on my communi- ty’s City Council and as Mayor. I also sat on the board of several non-proﬁt organizations as well as a locally-owned bank. In each of these roles I witnessed and learned that there are three types of leadership. One is the leader who loves to exercise power over others. Another is the leader who only looks for personal gain. The third leader is one who wants to make ev- erything better for all. I believe this last exempli- ﬁes what is now called Servant Leadership. This is not a “new” idea. The idea of servant leadership goes back at least 2,000 years. But the modern servant leadership movement was launched in 1970 by Robert K. Greenleaf (ncilink.com/ServantLeader). PERFORMANCE-BASED CONTRACTING AND THE SERVANT LEADER When it comes to the High-Performance HVAC Contracting Industry, we have to understand what it means to be “Performance-Based.” We can de- ﬁne it simply by saying that HVAC performance is based on measuring the airﬂow and combus- tion of each system we encounter and bringing it to the speciﬁcations at which it was meant to op- erate. This is a noble and worthy cause. I define a Performance-Based Contracting ﬁrm as a company where every member of the team performs these functions to the very best of their ability. John Wooden, the historic basketball coach from UCLA who guided that program to 10 national championships in 12 years, defined success as doing the very best that you can. This is an attitude that will drive every team mem- ber to deliver the best they can with every task. That is a good baseline for any leader to strive for. I also believe such an attitude is the cata- lyst to inspire and empower every team member, creating great employees, no matter their posi- tion or job in the company. HOW IS SERVANT LEADERSHIP RELEVANT? Suppose you are a great technician and you decide to start your own company (which is what I did). Or maybe you just bought a com- pany or got promoted to leadership within the company you work for. Regardless of whether you have a business By Dave DeRose LEADERSHIP How You Can Become A Servant Leader PASSION FOR EXCELLENCE AND THE TRUTH MUST ALWAYS BE AT THE CENTER OF EVERY SERVANT LEADER’S DECISION18 MARCH 2020HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY in an inventory that will help guide you towards servant leadership. When you are willing to make this assessment and work to strengthen your weakness- es, then I believe you can begin a jour- ney toward becoming a servant leader. MY JOURNEY In 1988 I decided to start my own HVAC and plumbing com- pany. At ﬁrst, I operated as one man in a truck to repair systems and plumb houses. I really had no plans to grow the business. I was just trying to make a living. When it came time to hire em- ployees, I thought about all the employers I had worked for. I de- cided I wanted to be better than they were. Having witnessed how other contractors and businesses oper- ated and treated both customers and employees made me want to have a company that people could de- pend on and one that made their lives better because we were there. That is what inﬂuenced me to learn about ser- vant leadership. We are all inﬂuenced by our sur- roundings and while I was trained as a union plumber and pipeﬁtter with all the beneﬁts that came with that, I was in an area where many employers pro- vided no beneﬁts for their employees. Most contractors paid as little as pos- sible. Their work and production re- ﬂected that. It was diﬃcult to break out of that thought process. Since I was employed with health insurance and a retire- ment plan, I wanted to do the same for my employees. So, I took the time to learn how to do this and though it took several years to establish health insurance and 401K plans, I did make that happen. I also wanted to provide customer service that did not leave the door open for contractors from other towns to compete in my small area. Both goals took long-term planning and commitment to put into operation. But the reward was great. We could hire employees who needed health in- surance and who desired to work for a company that had their interests at heart. I believe they will return the fa- vor. If they don’t, then it is time to ex- ercise leadership and remove their bad attitude from your company. This desire to provide exemplary service has led to market expansion beyond our area. We now operate as far as 200 miles away. That built our reputation and eventually led to me being called in as a local expert for customers trying to get a handle on their mechanical systems. FIRST STEPS When you look at the servant lead- er trait inventory list, I urge you to pay particular attention to items 1 and 2. I have found organization to be the greatest shortfall of so many business operations. I am continually confront- ed by people who are frustrated with the performance of contractors and other service businesses. The service norm, unfortunately, seems to revolve around the comment: “I will get to that tomorrow.” Without organization, tomorrow never comes. It is a human trait to delay anything we really do not want to deal with. Those items get relegated to out-of-sight, and out-of-mind. Hiring more people will only expand the problem. If you face this problem, it must be ﬁxed right away. It starts with you — management degree, or just a high- school diploma — you are now a lead- er. It is up to you to become the type of leader you desire to be. Many times you have to try each of the three types of leadership before you decide which ﬁts you best. SKILLS INVENTORY LIST To become a servant leader, the ﬁrst step is to take a serious inventory of your current leadership skills. Be hon- est when you evaluate what you are good at and what needs work. Think about the following: 1. Are you organized? 2. Do you have a passion for excel- lence and a desire to learn truth? 3. Do you have the skills needed to lead in all areas of the business? 4. Are you willing to listen to others who may have more experience? 5. Are you willing to change paths if you ﬁnd you are wrong? 6. Do you ask others to do some- thing you would not do? 7. Are you willing to be mentored either in person or with study? These seven questions are just a few LEADERSHIPMARCH 2020 19HVACTODAY.COM Over the years, I’ve been asked to perform many jobs that I knew were not what we were built to do. While I knew we had the talent to do those jobs, I worried that taking them on could lead to the demise of the whole operation and the loss of our eﬀective- ness in our community. One big job is only proﬁtable if you have the skills and resources to han- dle it. So be honest with yourself and with potential customers. Passion for excellence and the truth must always be at the center of every servant lead- er’s decision. In conclusion I challenge you to take a serious look at where you are as a leader and determine how you could improve. There are inﬁnite resources to help you make the change in your leadership skills. This can be learned without a huge investment of mon- ey but will require a commitment to learn, an open mind to step out of the box you may have been placed in by your background, training; and a will- ingness to change and evolve. I know it has been a great experi- ence for me and I believe it will be for you. the leader who is not as organized as you should be. You need to change this. You need to under-promise and over-deliver and hold yourself to a much higher standard than you expect of your followers. The unorganized leader is the weak- est link in the chain toward servant leadership. Item 2 talks about passion for ex- cellence and truth. Without that as a driving force in your life as a lead- er you will fall prey to under deliv- ery of your mission. Without passion, you won’t demand excellence and will be easily swayed from the consistent proﬁtable operation of your mission. In the immortal words of Clint Eastwood “A man has to know his limitations.” Dave DeRose founded Masterworks Mechanical in Craig, CO in 1988. At the time, he was a master plumber with experience in plumbing, heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration. He grew the company over the years and eventually sold it to employees Victor and Amy Updike in 2015. Dave remains active in and is a servant leader for the HVAC Industry, particulary the High- Performance Contracting segment.Next >