ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: Lessons From the Texas CO Crisis Commercial Building Pressure Impact on IAQ Contractor Spotlight: T.E. Spall & Son State of the Residential and Commercial HVAC Industry INDOOR AIR QUALITY hvactoday.comOCTOBER 2021 HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY TM If You Don’t Measure, You’re Just Guessing! ™ DEPARTMENTS OCTOBER 2021 3HVACTODAY.COM Today’s Word .........................................................................................4 High-Performance Products .............................................................5 Contractor Spotlight: T.E. Spall & Son ..........................................6 NCI Update .........................................................................................19 HVAC Smart Mart ...............................................................................20 Ad Index ................................................................................................21 One More Thing ................................................................................22 LEADERSHIP: Lessons from the Texas CO Crisis NCI’s David Richardson talks about the events in Texas in February 2021 that led to so many CO deaths and what the HVAC Industry should learn from it. OCTOBER 2021 VOLUME 5 NUMBER 10 HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY TM MANAGEMENT: IAQ: Current State of Affairs Is the HVAC Industry prepared to handle IAQ issues resulting from the pandemic? Not really. John Ellis explains. 12 15 TECHNICAL: Commercial Building Pressure Imbalance Impact on Indoor Air Quality TAB Contractor Darl Works shares a “truth stranger than fiction” project that shows how neighbors do impact each other’s IAQ. 09forced most people to shelter at home where they discovered the air quality isn’t what it should be. In fact, Dominick Guarino addressed this issue in his August 2021 High-Performance HVAC Today column, just a few months ago (ncilink. com/0821-OMT). He talked about how changes to HVAC sys- tems can negatively impact their operation, hurt indoor air quality, and even reduce efficiencies without proper testing and diagnosis. IN THIS ISSUE In this issue, IAQ Specialist John Ellis writes about the current state of affairs (ncilink.com/ IAQaffairs) and provides six fundamentals to follow to properly address IAQ issues. He points out the importance of process for addressing is- sues and the need to not view “gadgets” as silver bullets. Our IAQ coverage continues with an article by David Richardson. He takes on the education- al failure that contributed greatly to the number of carbon monoxide injuries and deaths in Tex- as this past February (ncilink.com/COCrisis). Richardson points out the lessons we can take away from that disaster so that we can continue providing comfortable and safe environments, even in the face of a disaster. Finally, on the commercial front, Contractor Darl Works discusses the impact of commer- cial building imbalances on IAQ (ncilink.com/ CommIAQ) and how his company works toward correcting such issues. Yes, this month our focus is on IAQ. But ulti- mately IAQ leads to comfort and comfort isn’t a luxury -- especially today. It’s the basis for pro- ductivity, health, and safety. We should never lose sight of that importance or our industry’s role in it. O nce upon a time on a different trade publication on which I served as chief editor, I wrote a column that talked about the vital importance of com- fort in the overall HVAC Industry. I discussed how the industry changed, moving away from the idea that people were more productive when they were comfortable, and more toward the need to seal up buildings and homes to increase energy efficiency at all costs. Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) was one of several focal points of that change, and yet, the overall HVAC industry really didn’t pay it much attention. Not until that fateful event in the summer of 1976. I am talking about the first major outbreak of Legionel- la pneumophila (ncilink.com/Legionellosis) during an American Legion convention at the Bel- leview Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, PA. That changed our world. It led to a national push for IAQ legislation and ultimately, in the 1980s, to the quality revolution which served to take the industry back on the road toward comfort. Perhaps a true turning point happened around the time of an editorial written by NCI CEO Domi- nick Guarino. In another trade magazine, Guarino wrote, “After a 20-year derailment triggered by the energy crisis, the HVAC industry is showing strong signs of getting back on the comfort track.” Comfort began the long trek back to the reason why the HVAC business exists. Comfort no longer took a back seat to energy efficiency, but regained its position as the embodiment of how buildings and homes should be designed, built, commis- sioned, and serviced. BUILDINGS STILL NEED HELP Fast forward to 2020 and 2021. The world con- tinues battling COVID-19. This pandemic has 4 OCTOBER 2021HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY It’s 2021 And Comfort Is More Important than Ever! TODAY’S WORD By Mike Weil Mike Weil is editor- in-chief and director of communications and publications at National Comfort Institute, Inc. Contact him at ncilink. com/ContactMe.OCTOBER 2021 5HVACTODAY.COM wire to help attach it to the equipment re- paired. You use the yellow tag after you modify the system and deem it to be safe. These tags serve several purposes. One, it’s your stamp of approval. Two, it allows the customer to have peace of mind. The third is the most import- ant. It warns others who may come after you not to make life-threatening adjust- ments to the equipment you’ve already adjusted and deemed safe. We all know and agree that only a trained professional should adjust a gas- fired system. Most of the industry looks at themselves as trained professionals. Unfortunately, we know that’s not al- ways the case. Oh, and there is one more thing: only NCI Carbon Monoxide certifed contrac- tors can buy these tags. So, make your mark, give the customer peace of mind, and prevent twinkle fin- gers from adjusting your perfectly oper- ating equipment. For more information, visit ncil- ink.com/YellowTag or reach out to your customer care representative at 800/633-7058. — Casey Contreras, NCI Field Coach, and Trainer Combustion Equipment Caution Alert Tags Combustion red tags are a huge state- ment when dealing with unsafe gas-fired equipment. But what do you do when you’ve modified a piece of equipment to operate safely and efficiently? What do you leave behind to let any other service provider know not to tamper with the system? You can leave behind an NCI yellow tag. These three-part tags are just like the NCI red tags. You place one part on the unit, give another to the customer, and the last is for the shop records. The tags have spots for recording date and time of the repair, customer and tech- nician signatures, and a place for your company label or stamp. Each tag has a HIGH-PERFORMANCE PRODUCT Written by HVAC Professionals for HVAC Professionals“It was very frustrating,” he says, “but in retrospect, it caused me to be- come more resourceful and develop a network of people who could help me.” Spall says that network began with him diligently calling companies like Carrier, Trane, and York until he found someone who could help with “quality answers.” He also joined several industry trade associations, including the Cen- tral Eastern Pennsylvania Heat Pump Association, sponsored by the local utility. He also joined RSES in 1986. “I would go to all the meetings be- cause I was on a quest for knowledge, information, and understanding of what it is that I was supposed to be do- ing. Even more importantly, I wanted to do things right.” ‘AH HA’ MOMENT NUMBER ONE Spall says that two big things came out of his Central Eastern Pennsyl- vania Heat Pump Association mem- bership. He says one was perhaps the most impactful and important event of his career. “They sponsored a three-day Manual D training program taught by Hank Rutkowski. So, the guy who wrote the book was my instructor, and he helped me immensely. “This was the best thing that could have happened to me so early in my career. I began to understand airflow and its importance. Over the next 36 years, I learned that airflow is the most overlooked aspect of comfort and effi- ciency in our industry. I would ven- ture to say that less than 10%, may- be even less than 5%, of the industry gives airflow the attention that it deserves,” he says. He adds that over the years, through the efforts of Nation- al Comfort Institute (NCI), more contractors today are paying at- tention to airflow, but there is a long way to go. “After all, it took me 15 years to realize air flow’s value,” he says with a chuckle. “I learned how to conduct manual D calculations and started to understand better the impact of the components that we install on airflow and comfort.” ‘AH HA’ MOMENT NUMBER TWO AND THREE Spall’s second major ‘aha’ moment in his education occurred after learn- ing about a company called NCI while reading the trade magazines, particu- larly Contracting Business. “I was always on a quest for infor- mation. Contracting Business maga- C arbondale, PA, is located 15 miles northeast of Scranton. It got its name in 1851 as the anthracite coal industry was on the rise. In fact, Carbondale was the site of the first deep vein anthracite coal mine in the U.S. and, most nota- bly, where the Carbondale coal mine fire burned for more than 25 years. Like the entire area, the city has suf- fered economically with the demise of the coal mining industry. But it is an area on the rise. And it is where High-Performance HVAC Contrac- tor T.E. Spall and Son call home. Tom Spall says, “my dad was an electrician, so I grew up pull- ing wires with him and being around construction for my entire life since the time I was probably around seven years old. My fami- ly is all very mechanically oriented. During my high school years, my dad asked me to consider going to school for air conditioning and refrigeration, which I did. “I was in a two-year associate de- gree program and worked every single weekend and summer while I was in college. We started the company upon my graduation in June of 1985.” SEEKING ANSWERS AND RESOURCES Spall explains that the company had few resources in the beginning, and Tom had to seek answers to any HVAC questions he had on his own. 6 OCTOBER 2021HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY CONTRACTOR SPOTLIGHT By Michael Weil T.E. Spall & Son: On A Quest for High PerformanceOCTOBER 2021 7HVACTODAY.COM zine was the first one I subscribed to in the mid-1980s. Until the late 1990s, I completely focused on technical mas- tery, how to do my job properly, and how to do the right thing for my cus- tomers and myself.” He says he eventually knew he had to work on the business and not in the business. His educational quest led him to implement flat rate pricing in 1999. He says NCI hit his “radar” in the 1990s, and then he went to an NCI training program in 2003. That is when he had what he calls his third epiphany. “We spent three days in this class. We realized that quantifying airflow performance was the piece that’s been missing for us. Sure, we were design- ing duct systems using Manual D. We were also doing best practices by in- stalling local total equivalent length fittings. But we didn’t know about ver- ifying that work. “Within a month of taking that class, we had an in-house meeting and trained every single one of our techni- cians on airflow and CO/Combustion safety with NCI. “The proverbial light bulb went off, and we totally immersed ourselves in the performance-based culture be- ginning in 2003. We’ve been students ever since.” HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC CONTRACTING CULTURE At T.E. Spall and Son, the perfor- mance culture began with implement- ing measurement and testing practices in the field. But it also meant educat- ing potential and existing customers on the difference between their ap- proach to contracting and that of their competitors. “When we began working with con- sumers who never used our services before, the challenge was overcom- ing the misinformation they received from other HVAC companies. Some people don’t want to hear anything about what we do, and others want all the details, facts, and information we can provide. “Customers often tell us that our competitors say we over-price our work, and sometimes that can make closing a sale more difficult. But I don’t care what my competitors say. We perform to a certain standard to deliver the highest level of service, and we stand behind that work. “We will never be the least expen- sive HVAC company in our market- place. Why? Because we deliver a much higher value, and we’re not going to apolo- gize for it.” Spall adds that early on in their process, they faced the issue of when to tell a customer their duct system’s blood pressure was too high. “If the standard static pressure read- ing should be 0.5-in. W.C., at what point is the pressure high enough to warrant further examination,” Tom says his team asked themselves. We eventually settled on .7-in as the point where we make the customer aware and explore their options together.” He says that if his technicians dis- cover the static pressure is extreme, they will recommend an air diagnostic where Spall sends out an “expert tech with all of their instruments to deter- mine exactly what is happening with the customer’s system. They also do a Manual J load analysis on the build- ing to determine the room-by-room requirements. “We will measure system perfor- mance to quantify airflow, and then we’ll determine what they have, what they need, and what we need to do to get them to a better place. We’ll give them a menu of options, then explore that with them.” OPTIONS ARE THE KEY Spall says the company is what he calls ‘options-based.’ “There’s not a service we provide where we don’t give the customer mul- tiple options,” Spall explains. “Our be- lief is we’re invited to their house as professionals to help solve a problem that they can’t solve themselves. We need to give them options, and they need to tell us what they want to do.” He says some people choose the band-aid fix, and others choose the to- tal system replacement. Options run the gamut from duct renovations, air upgrades, to equipment replacement, or some combination of them. “Approximately 75% of our replace- ment jobs have some duct system up- grade attached to them, where we are enhancing return air, or modifying duct fittings to lower total equivalent length and improve static pressure. This is just part of our regular daily routine.” MAKE THE RIGHT TRAINING INVESTMENTS According to Spall, the High-Per- formance HVAC delivery method has changed his business. He says that success starts at the top of a company Tom SpallCONTRACTOR SPOTLIGHT our team remotely. We use this space every week -- typically three to four training days per week,” he explains. The live-fire lab is set up with newer modern equipment that includes two basic HVAC systems, a geothermal system, a combi boiler system, and an inverter system. “Our success today stems from our adoption of the High-Performance ap- proach to the HVAC business, to our investment in training and continuing education, and for being able to adapt to the changes these things bring to the business.” Tom concludes. For these and many other reasons, High-Performance HVAC Today magazine has chosen T.E. Spall and Son to be the subject of this month’s Spotlight. ally where it all came together for me. “Our continued success means we must continue training and moving forward. “ For Spall, that training includes a $150,000 investment in what he calls their T.E. University. The company always had a small live-fire lab and training/meeting room, but Spall says they outgrew it. So he took an 1800 sq. ft. section of their build- ing (it used to be a garage), completely renovated it, and fitted it out. “Today, we have a fun- damentals lab, a Live-Fire lab, and a classroom with a Smart T.V., and we do both live and virtual meetings from there. NCI can even conduct a training class for and works its way down. “I believe the leader sets the tone for the entire team. I have been a believ- er in this approach since the first day I learned about it. It’s not easy because high performance deals with invisible issues. The lessons I learned showed me how to quantify this, and that’s re- 8 OCTOBER 2021HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYOCTOBER 2021 9HVACTODAY.COM to have a process to address each situation on a case-by-case basis. There always seems to be a debate about whether IAQ services are warranted and neces- sary. The main reason for this debate is the lack of real knowledge. Many companies use IAQ as a catchphrase. They offer it but don’t understand it. I think the HVAC community has some of the smartest people and the best group of profession- als to go after the IAQ market. We control humid- ity, filtration, air exchanges per hour, and much more. HVAC has the biggest impact on a build- ing or home. Even as a contractor in California, I based my whole business model around IAQ. IAQ REQUIRES A PROCESS Having a solid working knowledge of IAQ will better prepare contractors to serve their clients’ needs. Pandemics will come and go. But I think now, more than ever, people have become more aware of the importance of IAQ and having a clean, healthy, home environment. It’s been said that we spend 90% of our time indoors. With the current events and the stay-at- home orders, that number is much higher. Our homes are supposed to be our sanctuary, our ha- ven. Offering solid IAQ solutions can help home- owners achieve that goal. IAQ is not just a single service but a process. A contractor must be able to go into a project and Investigate, Analyze, and Quote. The in- vestigation process consists of your technicians gathering evidence and data, then analyzing that data. From there, you present a quote based on the information collected. I am often asked how I would rate the HVAC community’s level of preparedness to handle the COVID-19 pandemic. My answer is this: The HVAC industry is ill-prepared. Everyone is looking for a quick fix, plug-and- play, and cookie-cutter solution, but no one wants to do the actual work. Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is not a “one size fits all” process, but rather, it re- quires a multi-discipline approach. Plus, every client, every home, every building is unique. IAQ IS COMPLEX The HVAC community struggles to under- stand IAQ complexity. There needs to be a para- digm shift in the way we think and approach IAQ. This shift should include more training, not just in HVAC mechanical science but also in building science and building forensics. If HVAC companies genuinely want to offer their clients the best IAQ solutions, they need Indoor Air Quality: Current State of Affairs By John Ellis MANAGEMENT HVAC technician using a vane anemometer to test room airflow at the grille.Next >