High-Performance HVAC Today

< Previous10 JANUARY 2021HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY tinuous training and certiﬁcation to keep current. But, in March, almost all training activity in our Industry lurched to a stop. Mike Greany, service manager at All Pro Heating and Plumbing in Ontario, CA says, “We saw what happens when we stop doing perfor- mance training and practicing as a team. It hurt our productivity. “We took two steps backward in our mission to improve airﬂow and temperature measurement and testing. The Pandemic reduced the amount of time we typically spend teaching each other and commu- nicating, and that cost us personnel who got nervous and jumped ship.” He says the shutdowns made several things abun- dantly clear: his training programs needed to change, and he didn’t react fast enough. Plus, he needed to learn to delegate better. At GV’s Heating and Cooling in Glenview, IL, pandemic pressures were also very high. For Dawn Mroczek, it directly impacted sales, which up until March were very strong. “Now everything is ﬂat. Plus, we were impacted by equipment shortages from the distributors and manufacturers. It’s like we’ve taken one step forward and two steps backward, which aﬀected my family, our co-workers, and our customers.” Still, she says they kept up with performance-based contracting thanks to having access to online learn- ing. Because her installers stayed sharp, they saw an exponential increase in duct renovation work. COVID-AGE REMOTE LEARNING PLATFORMS Everyone has been reading about online learning platforms changing how our children attend school and how that impacts working parents’ lives. Existing online learning platforms provide for stu- dent-teacher interaction and more. But business needs to go beyond this model. That is where Distance Learning comes in. Dis- tance Learning is closely linked to formal education- al institutions. Typically, an employer pays for tradi- tional higher education that speciﬁc employees, like L et’s face it: COVID-19 isn’t the ﬁrst virus to impact the world. Not by a long shot. Humanity suﬀered even worse in the past, and yet here we are. What’s diﬀerent this time around? In a word – the Internet. Without this one tool, the world would have suf- fered even more because the Internet provided hu- mankind the means to continue learning creatively, training, researching, communicating, and more. Back in March, when quarantines began, every- thing was thrown oﬀ balance. No one knew what was going on or how long it would last, or what it would mean. Companies quickly switched to a remote work approach to keep employees safe and help the busi- ness continue, though in quite a diﬀerent way. Most HVAC Industry members – manufacturers, distributors, contractors, trade associations, and more – didn’t have the infrastructure designed and in place for this work-from-home environment. Everyone scrambled to ﬁnd solutions. They found that webinars by themselves wouldn’t cut it. And so, a new gold rush began to become more adept at something called virtual learning solutions. Virtual learning isn’t new technology. It was al- ready making inroads as useful training tools, but it really took oﬀ as a result of stay-at-home orders as the Pandemic raged (and continues to do so even today). TAKING TWO STEPS BACKWARD From a Performance-Based Contracting™ perspective, the business impact was huge be- cause this HVAC delivery method requires con- How COVID Changed Training for Performance- Based Contractors By Mike Weil TRAINING As the global COVID-19 Pandemic continues to limit in-person interaction, remote learning solutions allow com- panies to continue growing. JANUARY 2021 11HVACTODAY.COM ducted service calls and installations. We use not only the online university classes that NCI oﬀers, but their Trail- blazer Coaching as well.” The Trailblazer Coach- ing that Nikkel is talking about is a monthly on- line live discussion host- ed by NCI trainers to help contractors improve processes, better manage implementation strat- egies for Performance-Based Con- tracting, and more to help keep con- tractors on track. Nikkel owns JN Electrical Tem- perature Control of Bowerstown, GA, and is a strong proponent of the performance-based approach to HVAC contracting. He says COVID created diﬃculties in closing more sales, but thanks to his peers’ encouragement and a stick-to-it mindset, they saw a 20% increase in their 2020 revenue. “Distance Learning through the NCI Online University and other sourc- es has helped us as Canada went into shutdown mode in March,” says Will Horner, sales manager of Canco ClimateCare, Newmarket, Ontario. Horner was exposed to the virus and talked about how his quarantine gave him time to focus on self-growth using distance learning programs. “Canco was closed for four months,” adds own- er Nancy McKeraghan. “That set us so far behind in our goals. Our staff stepped up, managers, would undertake. Like eLearning and online learning, distance education relies heavily on the Internet, online classrooms, and training professionals. For example, the National Comfort Institute (NCI) Distance Learning Pro- gram includes self-directed and live on- line classes. These classes range from their HVAC System Performance class, Airﬂow Testing and Diag- nostics, and Performance-Based Selling, to recertiﬁcation classes for several NCI certiﬁcations. Learn more about these High-Per- formance HVAC classes here: ncilink.com/DistLearn. “For me,” says Jason Nikkel, “the closures and social distancing protocol posed logistic issues with how we con-12 JANUARY 2021HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY ing repertoire. Says Dawn Mroczek, “My goal is to focus more on leader- ship development in 2021. That will consist of taking online courses, par- ticipating in online learning, and read- ing more about it. Ken Dean, of Dean Heating and Cooling in Athens, OH, says he is looking to improve his sales processes, especially when it comes to educating customers on duct renovations, air upgrades, and more. “I’m looking into more online classes and podcasts to help with that,” he says. He got a taste for what distance learning can do after hiring a new tech in the middle of the Pandemic and got him up-to-speed quickly using online educational tools. Mike Greany adds that he is look- ing forward to carving more time to use distance learning for his personal growth in 2021. As the global COVID-19 Pandem- ic continues to limit in-person inter- action, remote learning solutions allow companies to continue growing. High-Performance HVAC contrac- tors can rely on courses like those of- fered through NCI’s Distance Learning and Online University programs, or hire professionals to teach their crews with courses speciﬁc to their needs remotely. Regardless of what the world will look like at the end of the Pandem- ic, one thing is clear: Coronavirus has changed employee training at its core. The question is, have you taken advan- tage of what’s out there? filled in the gaps, and helped us make up for those lost months and go be- yond them. “The lesson for us,” she continues,” is that we have to be more ﬂexible and more constant with how we approach customers in this new world. “Thanks to things like distance learning programs, we understand more than ever the importance of con- tinuous training – whether in person or online – as well as recruiting new people,” she says. GOALS FOR 2021 AND BEYOND Based on what they went through this year, the Performance-Based Con- tractors we spoke to have all set plans and goals that now include adding more distance learning to their train- TRAININGJANUARY 2021 13HVACTODAY.COM TESTING AND DISCOVERY The furnace was in a closet with a louvered door. There was no way to watch or test the fur- nace with the door closed. Because it was a lou- vered door, it shouldn’t have made a diﬀerence whether it was open or not. Okay, that was what I thought at the time, but that was to be another learning process later. Using my analyzer to test the furnace, we found the combustion numbers to be stable, but the car- bon monoxide (CO) was over 500 ppm. The insu- lation on the wires leading to the gas valve, fan, and limit switch was melted — a bad sign that ﬂames are rolling out of the front. However, stable numbers indicate the furnace is venting. After a few minutes, the blocked ﬂue switch opened, and the furnace shut down, but it wasn’t spilling! It was a mild day, the outdoor temperature was in the 40s, so draft in the ﬂue was low but ade- quate. Very little dilution air was being drawn into the drafthood, so the ﬂue gases were taking up most of the space. This caused the ﬂue gases to radiate heat down to the blocked ﬂue switch and make it trip. I n the early days of my career in the HVAC Industry, I intended to just sell combustion analyzers, mostly to commercial and indus- trial accounts. However, somehow rumors began spreading that you might be able to solve furnace problems using these instruments. Of course I was the one spreading those rumors! So, in the early 1980s, my employer asked me to go into the ﬁeld with a contractor to look at a furnace that was proving to be a major headache. I learned that the factory representative for the furnace manufacturer would be there as well. I wasn’t sure if I was being set up or that the idea was two heads were better than one. THE CUSTOMER The customer was a local bank. A drafthood furnace in this bank kept tripping its blocked ﬂue switch three or four times a week, but the ﬂue wasn’t blocked. The contrac- tor changed the switch sever- al times, but it kept tripping. I was always anxious to use my combustion analyz- er on new things, especially when there were problems. The more I tested, the more I could learn, and the more I could ex- plain the value of the combustion analyzer, even though at the time it cost over $2000. I was already somewhat familiar with diﬀerent venting problems on larger drafthood equipment, but this was the ﬁrst time on a furnace. During the mission to determine the cause of the blocked ﬂue switch tripping, we also found other import- ant issues. These had to do with a ribbon burner position and air shutter or damper adjustments. A Lesson on the Dangers of Improperly Positioned Ribbon Burners By Jim Davis TECHNICAL Here we see a Ribbon Burner ﬁred up in an old furnace. A similar ribbon in our case study kept trip- ping its blocked ﬂue switch.14 JANUARY 2021HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY the ﬂames when it lit. That is if you wanted to avoid hair loss. The CO was more than 1,000 ppm in each heat exchanger after ﬁve minutes of run time and still rising. This is the most dangerous furnace situation, and yet it was not shutting oﬀ. ANALYZER ACCURACY? The manufacturer’s rep was confused and wasn’t sure about my combustion testing results. Digital combustion analyzers were new technology, and I might have been the ﬁrst to use one on a residential-style furnace in the ﬁeld. I noticed the burner ﬂames angled sideways and were hitting the side of the heat exchanger. I was pretty sure this was not a good thing. Then I saw this little shutter inside the burner, and I wondered what was it for? The rep said it was an air shutter to ad- just the primary air on the burner. It was diﬀerent from other air shutters I had seen. In this situation, the shutter was ful- ly closed, so I asked if the tech could open it on one burner. When the shut- ter was opened the ﬂame moved in an upward position and no longer hit the heat exchanger. CO dropped by more than half but was still on the high side. We then adjusted the other burner shutters. Even the rep was surprised how much eﬀect the shutter had on the ﬂame and combustion. A few years later I saw that replace- ment burners had the shutter screwed down. My takeaway from this was that air shutters could be a good thing or a bad thing, but it took a few more ﬁeld experiences to ﬁgure that out. FRONT-ROLLING FLAMES I also noticed there was more ﬂame towards the front of the burner than in the rear. You could feel the heat radi- ating to the front. The manufacturer’s rep explained that having downhill burners made it easier to convert the furnace to LP (propane) in the ﬁeld without chang- ing the burners. So I asked why couldn’t the burn- er just be changed by the installing contractor? He said they were afraid the contractor would for- get or not read the in- structions. The result of keep- ing the burners in an uphill conﬁgura- tion after converting the furnace to LP would be a small explosion! My next question was why couldn’t we raise the burner for natural gas? The rep said he didn’t know. I had the contractor raise the burners, so they were uphill instead of downhill. The CO reading dropped below 25 ppm. When the burner lit, ﬂames rolled to the back instead of the front. The fac- tory rep was quite impressed and said oﬃcially he could not recommend what was done. But he thought it was a good idea. Something else that was quite no- ticeable with these burners: their ends were corroded badly, as was the back of the heat exchanger. I later dis- covered this happened because there was less ﬂame in the back of the heat exchanger which is where most of the airﬂow passes. So, the ﬂue gases cooled more and partially condensed out, causing the corrosion. This type of furnace and burner is no longer made, but there is a chance I knew what needed to be done to solve the one problem, but the manu- facturer’s rep wasn’t too agreeable. He recommended (oﬀ the record), that the blocked ﬂue switch be replaced with an automatic reset switch, so the furnace could recycle. I knew that wouldn’t solve the high CO reading or keep the wires from melting. I was told there was another furnace in another closet in another part of the bank, but it wasn’t tripping its blocked ﬂue switch. For comparison’s sake, I suggested we look at it. THE MYSTERY OF BURNER GUARDS AND AIR SHUTTERS Approaching the other closet, I sensed a problem. There was a famil- iar stench. Opening the louvered clos- et door, I recommended the furnace be turned oﬀ immediately and the area ventilated because I was measuring CO in the ambient. This furnace also had a blocked ﬂue switch, but it wasn’t tripping, and this furnace was spilling CO into the space. I could see ﬂames coming out from under the rear burner guard. I was not sure at this time why some burners had rear burner guards and others didn’t? Was this a guard or a support? I asked the factory rep and he said this furnace model had a tendency for the ﬂames to roll-out when it lit. I asked for the guard to be removed for a visual inspection. I noticed the burners had a downhill slope from front to back. After the area was ventilated, the furnace was turned back on so I could do a combustion test. Yes, indeed the ﬂames rolled out the front excessively. This was deﬁnitely a furnace you did not want to squat down and eyeball THE MANUFACTURER’S REP WASN’T SURE ABOUT MY TESTING RESULTS. TECHNICALJANUARY 2021 15HVACTODAY.COM he had these burners. Unfortunately, because something else on his fur- nace was diﬀerent, I almost caught his pants on ﬁre. Whoops!! That’s another lesson to be discussed at a later date. P.S. I believe using those rear burn- er guards or supports were ﬂame roll- out band-aids. ly mentioned downhill burners. So, we went to his parents’ house and tested their furnace. The CO lev- els were over 2000 ppm. The furnace was venting and showed little signs of spillage which gave him a sigh of relief. The burners were corrected and made safe. As a result, this contractor knew he had to visit a few other customers and make the same corrections. LESSONS LEARNED As National Comfort Institute train- ers, we pay special attention in class to the position of ribbon burners. They must be slightly uphill on natural gas (lighter than air) and slightly downhill on LP (heavier than air). I even raised the burners on my fa- ther-in-law’s furnace when I found out there are some still in use and operat- ing. Furthermore, some ribbon burn- ers still used on certain boilers and water heaters today are in the wrong position in the ﬁeld. SIDE STORY Right after I started sharing this information with my students, one asked if I could meet him at his par- ents’ house. This contractor told his parents to turn oﬀ their furnace until then. Fortunately, it wasn’t that cold. He told me that when they installed his parents’ furnace and air condi- tioner, his team mounted the A-coil with the drain in the back. Then tilted the furnace slightly backward so the coil would drain better. This was, of course, the furnace with the previous- Jim Davis is the senior instructor for National Comfort Institute (NCI). He has a long and storied career in the HVAC Industry. That career began back in 1971. Today he is considered one of the HVAC Industry’s foremost authorities on combustion and carbon monoxide safety. Jim is credited with developing the first combustion testing protocols and field diagnostic methodolo- gies using digital combustion analyzers. To contact him, go to ncilink.com/ContactMe .16 JANUARY 2021HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY with the End in Mind.” The ﬁrst exercise Covey has his readers perform is to imagine themselves going to their funeral, three years from now. It in- structs the reader to visualize the legacy they will leave behind and what impact they had on others. This powerful exercise has the reader consider where they want to be in three years so they can work their way back to achieve those goals today. I want you to do the same thing with the Per- formance PATH. Start with what you want to ac- complish one year from now using HVAC system performance testing, diagnostics, and repairs. Then, work your way back to the present-day and recognize what steps it will take to get there. When my family-owned company started down the PATH back in 2000, we knew what we want- ed to accomplish. We wanted to prove our instal- lations worked better than our competitors and prove it through airside measurements like static pressure and delivered airﬂow. However, once we began measuring, what we discovered took us on a minor detour. But the “end in mind” didn’t change. Don’t let it sur- prise you when detours appear along your path. WISDOM OF THE CROWD If you have trouble deﬁning what your “end in mind” goal is, ask for feedback from your colleagues. Get their ideas and opinions. They may see opportunities you didn’t consider and help you ﬁnd alterna- tive ways to use system performance test- ing and diagnostics. Your chances of suc- cess are much higher when your team takes ownership of the idea. This step is also a good time to ﬁgure out and decide who will walk the PATH ﬁrst and lead the way. Choose wisely – the most technical person you have might not be your best choice. Look for some- A s you look down the Performance Path, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the performance tests and diagnostics you can perform. Don’t make the mistake of trying to do everything at once. You will end up frustrated and anxious. Wherever you are on the path, focus on small steps and consistent habits to give you the best chance of success. Remember, this is a walk, not a 100-yard dash. Let’s look at the wisdom shared by other Perfor- mance-Based contractors who walk the PATH to Performance. START WITH THE END IN MIND In Stephen Covey’s book, The Seven Hab- its of Highly Eﬀective People (ncilink. com/7Habits), he refers to a habit called “Begin Walking the PATH to Performance By David Richardson MANAGEMENT This marks the ﬁnal installment of our series that discusses the PATH ( P ressure, A irﬂow, T emperature, and H eat) to Performance. ● Read Part 1 here: ncilink.com/PATH1 (Overview) ● Read Part 2 here: ncilink.com/PATH2 (Step 1: Pressure) ● Read Part 3 here: ncilink.com/PATH3 (Step 2: Airﬂow) ● Read Part 4 here: ncilink.com/PATH4 (Step 3: Temperature) ● Read Part 5 here: ncilink.com/PATH5 (STEP 4: Heat). Remember, practice makes perfect. So, as Richardson explains, become proﬁcient in each step before proceeding to the next. In the end, you will be able to deliver the greatest value in service and performance that your customers have ever seen. And that will help you deliver the most well-deserved proﬁts to your bottom line. The PATH to Performance: A Six-Part Series THIS IS THE LAST ARTICLE IN A SERIES BY DAVID RICHARDSON DISCUSSING THE PATH TO PERFORMANCE: PRESSURE, AIRFLOW, TEMPERATURE, AND HEAT.JANUARY 2021 17HVACTODAY.COM picture of learning a new skill and how to master that principle. Often, the act of starting will prompt further ideas and additional consider- ations you wouldn’t have thought of until you started. Take one step, then another, then another. If you have children, remem- ber how you taught them to move from crawling to walking. Each child progresses diﬀerently, just as every- one will progress with testing at their own pace. Some will grasp the principles on the ﬁrst attempt – others may need more encouragement and coaching. Recognize the diﬀerent speeds and ad- just expectations accordingly. FOCUS ON PROGRESSION When you focus on a single step at a time, you tune out all the noise around you and stay focused on what you need to accomplish. Don’t work on more than two testing principles at a time. For best results, the tests should com- plement each other, such as total ex- ternal static pressure (TESP) and plot- ting fan airﬂow. As you continue to test, you get a feel for what works and what doesn’t. The testing process will vary slightly for each company, but the principles remain the same. Refer to the static pressure article (ncilink.com/PATH2Boylan) of this series and the Lakeside Service example. You can see how John Boy- lan and his team use a process that handles static pressure. They have the steps down for how to test, diagnose, explain, hand-off, and sell with this single principle. The goal is to achieve consistent progress forward, not going in circles. Mile markers help you determine your progress as you travel down a road. If you continue to see the same mile marker repeatedly, you aren’t mak- ing any progress. Consider how you will measure and track your progress. What types of information can you easily track to assure you’re moving in the right direction? PARKINSON’S LAW AND QUARTER POUNDERS It’s often said the day before vaca- tion is the most productive day of the year. You have a massive number of tasks to complete but you somehow accomplish them in record time. How is that possible? The answer: setting deadlines that appear slightly out of reach. Deadlines drive results and they’re an important part of Parkinson’s Law (ncilink.com/ParkinsonsLaw). It states a task will grow in importance and diﬃculty in relation to the time allotted for its completion. In other words, you can take a mi- nor task, such as learning to install test ports, and turn it into a year-long project, if you want to. Deadlines force you to focus on what is essential. Your goals and deadlines should pinpoint what needs to get done and push you a little. However, they should not be so overwhelming that one who sees the big picture and un- derstands why the performance path is important. It may surprise you who volunteers to lead the way if they see your vision and choose to take ownership of it. Most times you are the ﬁrst key play- er. You must learn the skills and then teach those skills to other key players. After that, they become the teach- ers and multiply the lessons you taught them. Establish speciﬁc tests for each team member. Then determine how each “role” will communicate or hand oﬀ results to others. See how comfortable each team member is performing dif- ferent tests and assure they know what they should do. A good rule to follow is that all testing skills must be scalable and repeatable by anyone who per- forms a speciﬁc job. Your goal is to as- sure you don’t create a position only a select few can perform. AVOID PERFECTIONISM Sometimes you won’t know where you want to go or what you want to do with these tests. You may even feel like your head is spinning when you con- sider the potential options and oppor- tunities. It’s normal to feel unsure of what to do ﬁrst and okay if you don’t have the perfect plan. If you don’t know what your “end in mind” is, then start with the ﬁrst letter of PATH (Pressure) and begin testing. Start as small as you can think of and then gain momentum. If you don’t see the big picture, then focus on the small 18 JANUARY 2021HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY MANAGEMENT surement in heating mode, you can apply the same fundamentals to cool- ing operation. While I abbreviated the steps in these four quarters, they pro- vide a starting point and clear dead- lines for completion. They are often all your team needs. If the steps don’t work for where you are, adjust them. KEEP MOVING You’re the only one who can deter- mine how far you progress along the PATH. The hard part is getting start- ed. Once you start, keep moving for- ward because each step gives you mo- mentum. It might not feel like it, but the progress is there. One day you’ll turn around and recognize how far along you are. Avoid stopping. It is dangerous be- cause with each stop it is harder to get going again. So, consistency is im- portant. If you measure static pressure only in slow times and drop it during the ﬁrst week of hot weather, you lose all momentum. Remember this statement: If walking the PATH were easy, everyone would do it. The farther down the PATH you go, the less congested it gets. Now it’s time for you to decide if you want to be one of the elites who commit to ﬁnish- ing their journey on the PATH to Per- formance. THIRD QUARTER: TEMPERATURE 1. Understand why system tempera- tures are important 2. Know how to measure system temperatures 3. Understand how to use the duct loss formula to show duct system defects and the need for repairs beyond the equipment 4. Learn to discuss duct system temperature losses in a simple way 5. Use system temperatures in combination with static pressure to generate leads. FOURTH QUARTER: HEAT 1. Understand why equipment and system Btus are important 2. Know how to determine rated equipment Btu capacity from manufacturer speciﬁcations 3. Learn to measure sensible Btus at the equipment in heating mode 4. Move from equipment sensible Btus to system sensible Btus on your next installation 5. Score installed heating system performance on the installation from step four. Identify what is right and what needs work. Once you master sensible Btu mea- they are out of reach. To challenge you and your team, I recommend you stuﬀ a pound of testing into each quarter of the upcoming year. Make it a challenge for them to see if they will step up and accept it. I believe it will surprise you how many people rally around this challenge. Good teams like to beat the odds and prove they can win. Consider the following quarters and ﬁve skills in each. Set them as goals with a deadline to learn. They can serve as potential steps forward your team will use to move along the PATH to Performance. FIRST QUARTER: PRESSURE 1. Understand why static pressure is important 2. Measure and diagnose Total External Static Pressure (TESP) 3. Learn to discuss TESP and compare it to blood pressure 4. Add component pressure drops and duct pressures once you master TESP 5. Use static pressure measurements to diagnose problems and gener- ate leads. SECOND QUARTER: AIRFLOW 1. Understand why airﬂow is important 2. Know how to calculate required fan airﬂow 3. Plot fan airﬂow and compare to required airﬂow. Add balancing hood readings once you master fan airﬂow 4. Use balancing hood readings to verify duct system installation quality and make needed changes before you solve your competitor’s duct issues. David Richardson serves the HVAC industry as a curriculum developer and trainer for National Comfort Institute, Inc. (NCI). If you’re an HVAC contractor or technician interested in learning more about airside performance, contact David at ncilink.com/ ContactMe or call him at 800-633-7058. NCI’s website www.nationalcomfortinstitute.com is full of free technical articles and downloads to help you improve your professionalism and strengthen your company. Measuring airﬂow is the second step on the PATH to Performance.JANUARY 2021 19HVACTODAY.COM 2020 HVAC Today Photo-of-the-Year National Comfort Institute and High-Performance HVAC Today magazine are pleased to announce the 2020 HVAC Photo of the Year ! The grand prize winner is chosen from the 11 monthly winners in 2020 as voted on by the readers of this magazine and visitors to HVACToday.com . Besides being featured in both the digital and print edition of the magazine, on the website, and via our social media out- lets, the Photo of the Year winner receives the GRAND PRIZE — a FREE registration to NCI’s High-Performance HVAC Summit* (up to a $795 value) in Branson, MO in August, 2021. THE WINNER IS ... Nathan Miller of Campbell & Son, Yakima, WA! Nathan’s original entry won in the December 2020 issue and was titled, “Tremendous Prioritized Airﬂow.” Congratulations to Nathan and we look forward to seeing him at Summit this coming Summer. * Airfare and hotel ARE NOT included. The prize is for FULL Summit registration only. AFTER BEFORE PHOTO OF THE YEARNext >