HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYHVAC TODAY TM If You Don’t Measure, You’re Just Guessing! ™ hvactoday.comNOVEMBER 2020 HOW YOU CAN Close More Sales with Testing ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: Virtual High-Performance Summit Takes the Industry by Storm Temperature: The 3rd Step on the PATH to Airside Performance: Part 4 2020 Federal Legislation and the HVAC Distribution IndustryNOVEMBER 2020 3HVACTODAY.COM NOVEMBER 2020 VOLUME 4 NUMBER 11 HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYHVAC TODAY TM SALES: Use a ‘Performance Playbook’ to Close More Sales Dawn Mroczek of GV’s Heating shares how she turned her training into useful tools that help her close more sales. MANAGEMENT: First Virtual Summit Takes HVAC Industry by Storm Here is a recap of all that took place during the 2020 Virtual High-Performance Summit in October. MANAGEMENT: 2020 Legislation and the HVAC Distribution Industry Alex Ayers from HARDI shares his analysis and insights on several issues affecting distributors and contractors alike. TECHNICAL: Temperature: The 3rd Step on the PATH to Performance, Part 4 This month David Richardson focuses on the ‘T’ in PATH as he discusses testing and measuring airside performance. 20 17 12 10 DEPARTMENTS Today’s Word .........................................................................................4 High-Performance Products .............................................................5 Company Spotlight: National Comfort Institute .....................6 Photo of the Month .........................................................................23 HVAC Smart Mart ...............................................................................25 Ad Index ................................................................................................25 Member Update ...............................................................................264 NOVEMBER 2020HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY fornia that also included others from around the U.S., dedicated to help California implement its Long Term Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan. I attended the very first meeting in California that led to the formation of this group, as did many other HVAC Industry representatives from trade associations, manufacturers, distributors, and more. Dale worked tirelessly behind the scenes to help guide those talks which eventually led to the launching of the alliance. He then managed the WHPA and continued to help with proj- ect work through his company — Better Buildings, Inc. — from 2009 to 2016. In an article written by past WHPA Board member and Coun- cil of Advisors Chair, Dominick Guarino for Contracting Busi- ness in 2014 (ncilink.com/ WHPA), Dominick said, “Since the WHPA’s inception, Dale has had the dogged determination, vision, and stubbornness to make sure this group would continue to work together and flourish.” He never looked for recognition. He never looked for glory. His mission was to help guide and improve the industry and he always put the work and the people before his own needs. The result has been the betterment of both the energy and HVAC industries. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease many years ago, yet continued to work and help others throughout the industry. Dale Gustavson passed away on September 28, 2020. He was 73 years old. The industry lost a great teacher, thinker, and leader. He will be missed. I first met Dale Gustavson during an AHR Exposition in the early 1990s while I was a staff editor on Contracting Business mag- azine. I was sitting in on a meeting of energy gurus who gathered to discuss the many issues facing the HVAC Industry at the time. Dale was sitting up front, attentively listening to the con- versation, and every once in awhile, in a soft voice, would ask a question or share an idea that dove deep into the topic and often brought side conversations to a standstill. Later, my publisher introduced Dale to me and he immediate- ly impressed me with his warm smile and friendly personality. He was small in stature but big on knowledge and was more than willing to share everything he knew about the energy industry with anyone who was interested. Over the years he became more involved with the magazine and when we decided to launch a new publication dedicated to the en- ergy industry, it was no surprise to me that Dale was named its editorial direc- tor. He was most likely instrumental in helping to create it. It became a reality in 1997. The truth is, this quiet, unassuming man dedi- cated his entire life to increasing the quality of en- ergy management in the residential and light com- mercial HVAC markets for more than 30 years. He worked tirelessly to help recruit, train, and equip contractors to be technically competent and qual- ity-driven in their efforts to sell and deliver energy efficiency projects across the country. Among his many contributions to the industry was his role in helping to establish the Western HVAC Performance Alliance (WHPA). This or- ganization is a group of stakeholders from Cali- The HVAC Industry Mourns the Loss of A Leader Mike Weil is editor-in-chief and director of communications at National Comfort Institute, Inc. He can be reached at ncilink. com/ContactMe TODAY’S WORD By Mike Weil Dale GustavsonNOVEMBER 2020 5HVACTODAY.COM als we offer is the convenience of Static Pressure Stickers ( ncilink.com/SPPort ). These self-adhesive “visual” represen- tations of where the HVAC professional installs Static Pressure Test Ports gives the added bonus of the quality of care you provide as a Performance-Based Contractor. Use these stickers to record up to nine pressure readings with “Date,” “Tested By,” and “Reading” on a durable white vinyl with a matte laminate applied for writing. It also allows you to mark wheth- er it is Test Port A, B, C or D to be used in conjunction with the Air Upgrade Re- ports that NCI offers. These stickers come in shrink-wrapped packs of 100 and include split crack-and- peel backs for easy application. They are only available for those companies cer- tified by the National Comfort Institute. You can also customize these static pressure stickers with your logo, which gives you another “Why you should use me” arrow in the quiver against your competition. — John Puryear, NCI Instructor NCI STATIC PRESSURE STICKERS As an instructor for the National Com- fort Institute, I often hear that the reason contractors come to our classes is to set themselves apart from their competi- tion. HVAC contractors are always look- ing for an “edge” over the other compa- nies they compete against. What NCI teaches helps them accom- plish that by educating their coworkers on how to determine the “High Blood Pressure” of the customer’s existing HVAC system. NCI’s trademarked slogan, “If You Don’t Measure, You’re Just Guessing™“ becomes a mantra for the people who attend our classes. When you record static pressure readings, you stay ahead of any deterio- rating trends developing in the system. One of the many supporting materi- HIGH-PERFORMANCE PRODUCT REVIEW Written By HVAC Professionals for HVAC Professionalshave previously worked in a residen- tial contracting business as a sales- person and installation manager. Like everyone else, I had been conditioned to sell the highest possible efficien- cy equipment. While in the field, this schism between efficiency and com- fort became a louder and louder voice in the back of my head. Then one day on a sales call I had my ‘Aha’ moment. I remember it like it was yesterday. On a cold and snowy winter day in Cleveland, Ohio in the early 1990s, an elderly couple had me out for an esti- mate to replace their 30-year-old fur- nace. As I entered their home, I no- ticed the living room was very cold. When I asked why they kept it so cold, they told me it was not by choice – it had always been that way since they had the house built, so they avoided using that room in the winter. We then proceeded to the kitchen, which was very hot and stuffy, and sat down at the kitchen table to talk about replacing their system. After a quick walk through of the rest of the home, I headed down to the basement to measure the system. I no- ticed they actually had very well-de- signed ductwork complete with damp- ers at all the take-offs. At that time I didn’t know much about air balanc- ing, but I decided to try adjusting the dampers to drive more air to the liv- ing room, and less to the kitchen and some of the other rooms. When I went back upstairs I imme- diately felt a major change in tempera- tures. I asked the couple to follow me to the living room. They looked at me like I was crazy, asking “Why would we want to go in there?” They reluctantly followed me in, and I wish I had a camera to capture the shock on their faces when they real- ized the room had warmed up. “What did you do?” they exclaimed incredu- lously! “How were you able to get this room warm when you were only downstairs 15 minutes?” I explained that I had made some simple adjustments to their duct sys- tem to see if I could get it to distribute the heat throughout their home more evenly. They were literally in tears re- alizing they had needlessly lived this T his October at our Virtual High-Performance HVAC Summit I shared some his- tory on how the National Comfort Institute (NCI) got started and how it has evolved over the years. A number of our members and fans asked if I would share this history from my perspective in the pages of this magazine. So without further ado, here is how NCI came into being. IN THE BEGINNING... In the early nineties, as Chief Edi- tor of Contracting Business mag- azine, I wrote a number of articles on how our industry had somehow be- come derailed from its primary mis- sion: It had become mostly focused on selling ever increasing efficiency equipment. This shift began with the energy crisis of the 1970s. I had been fortunate enough to COMPANY SPOTLIGHT By Dominick Guarino The leadership of National Comfort Institute: (left to right) President Rob Falke and Chair- man & CEO Dominick Guarino. National Comfort Institute Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow National Comfort Institute Headquarters in Northeast Ohio. 6 NOVEMBER 2020NOVEMBER 2020 7HVACTODAY.COM ing Gary’s system, went out to lunch for Thai food, all the while talking non-stop about how the industry just missed it. We talked all afternoon and into the wee hours. Somehow I made my early morning flight the next day. Over the next few years Rob and I continued to communicate about this approach to balancing and deliver- ing comfort. He wrote articles for the magazine, becoming a regular con- tributor for many years. NCI IS BORN! Soon after, Rob and I met in person again at an industry conference where he was presenting on Residential Air Balancing. He mesmerized the room with his passionate message on how we can make homes more comfortable. After the conference we left for the Dallas airport together and sat at our gate sketching out this crazy idea to teach what we had been learning over the previous years. We shook on it and NCI was born. Over the next few years the fledgling company consisted of Rob and I work- ing part-time while still holding down our real jobs as a magazine editor and salesman/air balancer. Together we wrote the first NCI manuals. I focused primarily on marketing and selling classes as Rob flew around the coun- try teaching them. THE NEXT PHASE By 1998 NCI became a full-time mission for both of us. We quit our day jobs and started to grow and add staff, including new instructors. We had one important rule with regards to new trainers: they had to have actu- ally done what we teach in the field be- fore they could teach for NCI. Around the turn of the century we also realized that there was more to it than balancing comfort. As we dove into the engineering and conducted ex- tensive field testing, we learned that comfort and energy efficiency didn’t have to be mutually exclusive. In fact, all of our testing and evaluations (what later evolved into ‘Performance’) led us to conclude that high-performance testing should be all encompassing. We conclusively established that when you properly design, install, test, and balance a system you can make a home or building safe, healthy, com- fortable, and energy efficient. Plus, we can do this without compromising any one of these parameters. The key is measurement. There is no way around it. You have to measure to verify performance. This is why near- ly 20 years ago NCI’s motto became “If You Don’t Measure, You’re Just Guessing™.” In 1999 we expanded beyond airside training to teaching combustion and way for the past 30 years. Suffice it to say I won the job. But that incident has stuck with me for more than 30 years now. It was the epiphany that sent me on a quest to understand why our industry had tak- en its eye off the ball with regards to comfort. A PIVOTAL MEETING In 1992 my publisher and mentor, Jeff Forker, who has since passed, mentioned to me that he met a fellow who seemed to be on the same mission I was on. He urged me to go to Califor- nia to meet this guy who sold for his family HVAC business in Turlock, CA. It took Jeff a while to convince me, but I finally gave in and called Rob Falke to learn about what he was doing. Rob was just so excited to share his experiences with this thing called Air Balancing. I think he kept me on the phone for at least an hour. He certain- ly piqued my curiosity enough that I had to see this for myself. We made plans to meet up in Sac- ramento at the home of a gentleman by the name of Gary Klein, who hap- pened to work for the California En- ergy Commission at the time. Once he started pulling out the pressure and airflow measurement tools, it was all over. I was hooked. We spent the morning testing and balanc- NCI has grown into an extensive advanced training and membership organization with 30 team members in nine states across the U.S.8 NOVEMBER 2020HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY SPOTLIGHT ON NCI across North America and around the world. We continue to train around 2,000 professionals a year from HVAC contractors to government groups, fa- cilities management companies, col- lege campuses, and military bases. We also conduct 40-50 classes a year on behalf of several of the country’s larg- est utilities. A NEW CHAPTER This past spring NCI entered a new phase of its journey, not exactly by choice, but because the COVID-19 Pan- demic virtually shut down in-person training. While we’ve had a robust On- line University with self-directed class- es for many years, in April 2020 we made the leap to live, online training. Since then we’ve created eight new carbon monoxide safety with the help of Jim Davis, one of the world’s top ex- perts in this area. In 2000, we launched a member- ship organization of like-minded con- tractors, and continued to add new classes as we improved our existing training year after year. In its first 10 years, NCI near- ly doubled in size almost every year. It has since grown into an organiza- tion with training centers in North- east Ohio and Southern California with 30 employees. We also regularly work with more than 50 HVAC dis- tributor locations around the country who host our classes. Over the past 26 years NCI has trained more than 30,000 industry professionals in 7,000 plus companies NCI training centers in Southern California (above) and Northeast Ohio (below).NOVEMBER 2020 9HVACTODAY.COM will continue to offer both in-person and live online High-Performance training to HVAC professionals. Bar- ring any unforeseen events, we plan to hold Summit 2021 in person in early September — stay tuned! We are so grateful and humbled that thousands of contractors and HVAC professionals continue to come to NCI for knowledge and training. Both Rob and I have seen our wildest hopes and dreams materialize and continue to evolve as we serve this wonderful in- dustry which has given so much back to us. Thank you. The best is still yet to come! partners, who had booths in our first ever virtual tradeshow. WHAT’S NEXT? We will be premiering some amaz- ing new programs and products this fall and winter – some of which have been two years or more in the making. While virtual training has been pret- ty successful, nothing beats face-to- face training and hands-on learning. We plan to restart in-person training at our centers and distributor/partner locations across the country as soon as it’s safe to re-open. As things get back to normal, NCI Online Live classes and broadcasted 60+ virtual events for more than 1500 students! This September we broke another barrier and launched two new online NCI Certification classes with proctored online exams. It all happened so fast it’s hard to re- member how we pulled it off. And we are adding two to three new certifica- tion classes by the end of 2020! This past October, in less than 60 days, we designed and launched our first virtual High-Performance HVAC Summit. Early feedback indicates the event was very successful for all in- volved, including attendees and our IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO ACCESS ALL RECORDED SUMMIT SESSIONS AND VIRTUAL TRADE SHOW, WHICH WILL BE ONLINE THROUGH JANUARY 2021. 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