< Previous10 OCTOBER 2021HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY GADGETS ARE NOT THE ANSWER Stop the gadget upselling. Contrac- tors tend to have the misconception that certain products are silver-bul- let solutions based on manufactur- er claims. They think these products are like bug-zappers: zapping pollut- ants, bacteria, microbes, and viruses in midair. This is often not the case. In fact, in many instances, the byproducts these devices produce are more harm- ful than the actual pollutants they are meant to treat. Contractors need to of- fer real solutions. DUCT CLEANING AND UV TECH MANDATES Because of the pandemic, another hot IAQ topic right now is whether a governing body (local, state, or feder- al) should mandate duct cleaning or require all ducts to include UV tech- nology to kill germs. Let me take you through how such a process or direc- tive could change the HVAC industry. If states mandated duct cleaning, the results would be inconsistent at best because most duct-cleaning tech- niques do not address the sterilization of microbes, viruses, or bacteria. In some instances, if not done properly, duct cleaning can make IAQ worse. With regard to UV technology, UV lights purify by attacking contaminants and microbes at their basic molecular level and then damage them enough so that they may no longer repro- duce. However, this process is directly SIX FUNDAMENTALS There are six fundamental princi- ples to offering a solid IAQ solution. These are six areas that we should already be addressing in our every- day HVAC business. By understand- ing and controlling these principles, you can be well on your way to pro- viding a substantial IAQ solution for your clients. These six principles are: ● Thermal Comfort ● Humidity Control ● Filtration ● Building Pressures ● Ventilation ● Pollutant Source Control. Remember, “Prescription without diagnosis is malpractice.” Using the six previously mentioned principles, we, as an industry, need to look at the whole house or building as a system. As an HVAC contractor, you must consider how the building performs; how the mechanical systems perform; and how the occupants interact with the two. Then and only then can we start to understand the dynamics of IAQ and all it entails.OCTOBER 2021 11HVACTODAY.COM MANAGEMENT an asbestos abatement company, an air-sealing and insulation company, or a building science professional. By taking on IAQ investigative pro- cesses, we can not only serve our cus- tomers better, but we can also avoid the mandated solution mistakes of the past. that included: duct leakage, fan watt draw, and refrigerant charge require- ments. Each system had to meet a cer- tain standard. The energy savings were minimal after the state spent millions of dollars on incentive programs and complet- ed thousands of houses. So, you can imagine that trying to put a prescrip- tive mandate on IAQ would be next to impossible. Whether the HVAC industry could handle the issue of IAQ by themselves, without mandates, depends largely on the working knowledge and education of the contractors. IAQ often requires a team approach. It is also multi-disci- pline. A contractor may need to team up with a certified industrial hygien- ist, a mold remediation company, related to three essential factors: the intensity of the UV light spectrum, the amount of time the organism is ex- posed, and the distance the light is to the organism. This technology works very well on wet surfaces, such as a coil or pan. But even though there have been advanc- es in UVC technology, they don’t work well in an airstream. So, mandating duct cleaning, or ducts with UV tech- nology, without clear performance re- sults would be overkill. PRESCRIPTIVE MANDATES ACHIEVE LITTLE Mandates and directives are often prescriptive. For instance, in 2005, the California Energy Commission in- troduced their prescriptive mandates John Ellis not only owns Dynamic Air Consulting, but he also teaches a NATE-approved course on Indoor Air Quality Principles through Dai- kin/Amana/Goodman. You can find this course at ncilink.com/AQP . He is also a business coach and field service trainer for The New Flat Rate. In addition, John is an author ( ncilink.com/ IAQ-SP ) and speaker. Email John at ncilink. com/ContactMe .Monoxide (CO) and Combustion Safety are the first line of defense against CO poisoning. No ser- vice provider is in the homes of the public more than HVAC contractors. How many of your competitors even discuss safety? Unfortunately, most don’t. So, you can use the CO safety difference to distinguish your company from the rest. Let competitors keep do- ing what they do while you innovate and promote unique solutions that no one else considers. In addition, you’ll feel better about yourself, your work, your contribution, and sleep great at night knowing you’re doing the right thing. OPENLY PROMOTE CO SAFETY AND EDUCATION To be the local safety expert, you need to pro- mote CO safety and education in your newslet- ter, on your website, and in your marketing. You can offer links to industry resources and provide general tips. The goal is to educate, not to fright- en. Awareness could have prevented many of the CO poisonings in Texas. Some try to take advantage of people’s fear of the unknown, like an invisible gas that can harm them. Look at the COVID-19 media coverage to see the backlash from this type of awareness. Negative awareness equals negative responses. People go on the defensive, put up their guard, and won’t trust you. Instead, share advice such as CO sources that many don’t consider including running cars in a garage, burning charcoal and wood indoors, heat- ing with a gas oven, or using a generator indoors. Your advice should be simple and in list form. For ideas, Google “winter travel safety tips.” You can also download and offer NCI’s Home Com- fort Report, “Why Should I Demand a CO Test T his past February, carbon monoxide (CO) incidents hit Texas families hard during severe winter storms. Sub-zero temperatures and statewide power out- ages that lasted many days lead to heartbreaking stories of families using unsafe heating methods to stay warm. The aftermath left 11 people dead, 1,400 emergency room visits, and other unknown long-term health issues. Most people are unaware of CO poisoning. They don’t know what causes it, the sources, or what to look for in their home. They occasionally hear about CO poisonings on the news, but don’t think it will happen to them. Those who ARE aware think a store-bought CO alarm is the only protection they need. People need to know the facts about CO. As a trained and certified High-Performance HVAC contractor, you are in the perfect position to raise awareness. So let’s look at how you can help your customers and community become more aware of CO dangers. YOU ARE THE CO SAFETY EXPERT If you were to poll your customers, most would rank safety as their number one HVAC priority. When you raise CO aware- ness in your commu- nity, you become the local HVAC safety expert and “go-to” company. Performance-Based HVAC professionals certified in Carbon 12 OCTOBER 2021HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY What Can You Learn from the Texas Carbon Monoxide Crisis By David Richardson LEADERSHIPJim Davis taught me a simple way to help customers understand the dif- ferences using a home security system comparison. Low-level CO monitors are the type of home security system that alerts a homeowner to danger once an intrud- er steps foot on their property. The homeowner isn’t in immediate dan- ger, but they know they should act now before the situation escalates. Store-bought CO alarms are the se- curity system that delays letting the homeowner know the early warning signs. Instead, they alert the home- owner to danger once an intruder is in the home. PROVIDE CO TESTING AND SAFETY CHECKS Besides low-level monitors, offer your customers something that no one else does. Add CO testing to your ser- vice and maintenance calls. It’s quick- er than ripping a furnace apart to in- spect for a cracked heat exchanger and provides a lot more information. You need the right test instru- ments, but you also must know what readings and ranges to look for to verify safe operation. You won’t know if the equipment is safe without them. Here’s an abbreviated list of mea- surements and ranges you’ll want to know for gas equipment: ● Flue gas CO readings – typically, less than 100 ppm and stable during the run cycle ● Flue draft pressure – typically -.01 to - .02 inches of water column ● Flue temperatures within range based on equipment type. You can take many more measure- ments and ranges, but these three are a start in the right direction. When these measurements are out of range, they provide clues about where a problem exists. Being able to inter- pret these clues determines if you catch or miss a dangerous condition. Remember, to be the CO safety ex- pert in your market, you need the proper training. There’s more to CO than cracked heat exchangers. It takes knowledge of combustion, equipment operation, airflow, and building sci- ence to understand the factors influ- encing CO production. (ncilink.com/WhyTestCO)?” Besides helping people understand potential CO sources, they need to know about CO poisoning symptoms. You could provide a list of the symp- toms or links to industry resourc- es to increase awareness. However, if you’ve been to the CO class, you know such articles are often peppered with poor advice. So choose wisely. Since most of the public doesn’t know what to do when a CO alarm goes off, they just disconnect it. Why not start there? Focus on action steps people can take and what they should do when their alarm sounds. Once you’ve increased awareness and suggested practical, easy-to-fol- low advice, it’s time to offer services and solutions that take your custom- er’s protection one step further. OFFER LOW-LEVEL CO MONITORS One simple step is to offer customers low-level CO monitors. Many HVAC contractors and their customers don’t know the difference between a store- bought CO alarm and a low-level CO monitor. OCTOBER 2021 13HVACTODAY.COM Satellite image shows ice-covered Texas in February, 2021. The extreme weather caused power outages that left Texans in the dark and cold for several weeks. The number of carbon monixide poisonings and deaths rose as a result.14 OCTOBER 2021HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY LEADERSHIP freeze last year. It’s unfortunate that CO poisoning only becomes a priority after a trage- dy. It’s time we took a proactive stance instead of a reactive one. You can help bridge the communication gap be- tween the public and our industry when you look out for your customer’s best interests. pairs are complete, confirm your work corrects the problem and performs as intended with appropriate test-out procedures that verify safe operation. BE PROACTIVE INSTEAD OF REACTIVE Talking to customers about CO isn’t easy. Don’t get discouraged when peo- ple ignore you. Ignore those compet- itors who call you Chicken Little. Re- member this: if one customer hears what you share, or you help to save one life because of what you teach, all the effort is worthwhile. Imagine how many lives could have been saved, how many injuries could have been avoided, had consumers living in Texas been well-informed and protected prior to that bitter deep DELIVER RESULTS THAT SOLVE THE PROBLEM Test results lead to solutions when you diagnose them correctly. Without the proper diagnosis, you’re guessing. For example, a cracked heat exchang- er is rarely the source of a CO prob- lem, so find the actual cause to provide the right solution. Some common repairs NCI-certified combustion analysts make after testing and measuring include: ● Makeup air systems ● Fan-powered combustion air ● Double-acting barometric dampers with spill switches ● Duct renovation ● New equipment. Your measurements will guide you to the proper corrections. Once the re- David Richardson is the newly appointed director of technical curriculum at National Comfort Insti- tute (NCI). His technical knowledge fuels much of NCI’s course and ma- terials development and his organization, writing, and editing skills continue to advance the message of High-Performance HVAC Contracting across the entire Industry. You can contact him at ncilink.com/ContactMe .OCTOBER 2021 15HVACTODAY.COM By Darl Works TECHNICAL going on. THE NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR Six months later we received a call from an At- lanta-based company that needed a function- al performance test done on their equipment in their Tampa server facility. They said the electric company was having an issue with the amount of power they were using. When I pulled into the parking, I saw that our brewery client was next door! How is that for a small world! We walked through the server farm facility and got to the area next to the brewery. You could smell beer coming through the firewall. That is when it dawned on me that the server farm was somehow the culprit of the issues at the microbrewery. The server farm used three 65,000 CFM ex- haust fans, four 25-ton and one 70-ton rooftop units (RTUs). They planned to install three more fans on the loading dock. The client said they op- erated the RTUs 24/7. However, the fans were designed to operate only when it was necessary to remove excess heat. NEXT STEPS To tackle this unique situation, we took it one unit at a time, traversing with a pitot tube, and vel-grid. When we finished our testing, we could still smell the brewery through the firewall. By the way, the firewall is a 6-in. frame with fire-resistant insulation and two layers of 5/8-in. fire-rated sheetrock on both sides. At the front door of the server farm the pressure was at 0.21 in. with all the fans and RTUs operating. The dry bulb in the server farm space ranged between 80 to 85F. The humidity ranged from 55 C an a neighbor affect your building pres- sure when you are only separated by a two-hour firewall? The short answer is “YES”! Remember, truth can be stranger than fiction. Here’s the story: A few years ago, we were called out to a microbrewery experiencing a building pressure issue. The client explained that after the tenant moved in next door, the brewery began having issues with their equipment. The biggest issue was with a cooker used to brew beer. So we conducted an onsite survey of the build- ing and equipment and everything seemed to be in working order. We also inspected the firewall between the brewery and their tenant and found no issues there, either. The microbrewery had 30 tons of cooling and one 12-foot kitchen hood with makeup air. There were different types of brewery processing equip- ment using either exhaust or makeup air or a combination of both. We tested out all the equip- ment. Everything was working fine. We could not find anything wrong with the brewery’s cooling units. This was not the outcome anyone wanted. A few weeks later we received another call from the brewery. A power-exhaust burner back drafted and caused the con- trol wiring to melt. I made a trip out to see what was going on and again, had no more suc- cess than before. I placed data loggers onsite for seven days and once again found no major issues. This was driving all of us crazy. After near- ly four months, we couldn’t recreate what was Commercial Pressure Imbalance Impact on Indoor Air Quality16 OCTOBER 2021HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY By Darl Works TECHNICAL side air coming through the units. Now they had five 65,000 CFM ex- haust fans providing 325,000 CFM total exhaust. The fans were not used constantly. Walking around the facil- ity was like walking inside a vacuum cleaner in some places and a hurricane in others. The units were set and oper- ating ±10%. The dry bulb ranged from 75 to 85F, however, the humidity was between 45 to 55%. The smell from the brew- ery was worse after adding the equip- ment. This was with the exhaust fans running. We had no way to resolve the smell from the brewery coming through the wall. While working on the server farm, we spoke with the new owners of the brewery next door, to see if they were still having issues with their equip- ment. They were and didn’t know why. I explained to them all the pressuriza- tion issues their neighbor was having and that most likely was causing their problems. Ultimately, the server farm owners decided to relocate this facility and moved out. Soon after, we received a call from the microbrewery and asked to come back and retest their side of the building. FINALLY, GOOD NEWS After retesting and measuring the microbrewery, we found their stat- ic pressures changed from .15-in. neg- ative to .03-in. positive. We had ac- cess to the old server farm, so I went in there to see if you could still smell beer. The smell was still lingering but didn’t seem to be coming through the wall. Here is what we discovered: The ventilation needs of these two spaces were incompatible. The fire wall was not suited as a good barrier between them. When the fans on the server side of the building came on, the amount of outside air was overwhelming. The additional outside air coming from the back of the building also added to the imbalance. We still talk about this project. I still wonder how air can be pulled through something like a firewall. That doesn’t make sense. Neverthe- less, the brewery came full circle, and this became the “best worst” job we ever worked on. Unfortunately, in 2020 the brewery went out of business due to Covid. The lesson learned from this experi- ence is that even though pressure test- ing a building may seem unorthodox, it can save your customer big mon- ey and eliminate many headaches for them and for you. to 60%. The space was around 85,000 sq. ft., and the building was built in the early 1980s. After performing our testing, adjusting, and balancing mea- surements (TAB), we told them they needed additional make-up air. The server farm general manager decided to use the bay doors as make-up air for the back part of the building! Yes, I’m talking about the bay doors on the loading dock. Each of the four 25-ton and the 70-ton units were set to operate ±10%. However, they were not reducing the heat load as they were designed. The humidity and tempera- ture were still high in the server area. Several weeks later the general man- ager of the server farm wanted to meet and go over the TAB report. He said they planned to add another 50-tons of cooling and two more 65,000 CFM exhaust fans. However, they couldn’t do any of this work without upgrad- ing the transformer. They had a request into the land- lord but had to wait to have the trans- former changed out. The GM then wanted testing and balancing done on this additional equipment. FROM BAD TO WORSE Unfortunately, the landlord said they could not increase the transform- er size. That meant the server farm owners needed to buy or rent genera- tors to operate the new RTUs, and ex- haust fans. I didn’t believe this would work, but the customer is always right. They had the equipment installed and started it up. Here is what then happened: After they installed these units and fans, they had 220 tons of cooling (88,000 CFM) on an 85,000 sq.ft. building. However there was no out- Darl Works is president of Performance Air Bal- ancing, Inc., a 16-year- old Testing, Adjusting, and Balaincing (TAB) firm based in Crystal River, FL. He is a Nation- al Balancing Council (NBC) Qualified Su- pervisor who oversees the daily operations and performs TAB report review and certification. He can be reached at ncilink.com/ContactMe. SOMETIMES the ventilation needs of two commercial spaces within one building are incompatible and nothing you do can fix it. But you can’t know that without testing and measuring.OCTOBER 2021 17HVACTODAY.COMsure and airflow. So be sure to join David in this work- shop on how to use AirMaxx Lite. This simple smart device app allows you to quickly calculate TESP and interpret approximate airflow at the equipment. It also provides a very simple visual way to get this information across to your customer. There are 17 more such class- es. Check them out at ncilink.com/ 2022Sessions. Visit the Summit Week website at GoToSummit.com to reserve your seats for what is shaping up to be the best Summit ever. Register for Summit 2022 today at ncilink.com/summitreg. Early bird dis- counts are available! NSI 6000™ CO Monitors Now In Stock The latest and greatest iteration of Na- tional Safety Instruments (NSI) carbon monoxide (CO) monitors are in stock and ready for you to order! The NSI 6000™ monitors are the indus- try’s first Bluetooth-enabled Low-Level CO monitor. Bluetooth syncs the monitor with a smart device. Your smartphone or tablet then communicates with a cloud envi- ronment that securely stores activation data and any CO events data. Learn more about these monitors here: ncilink.com/NSI6000Review These devices are sold exclusively by re- sellers who are pro- fessonals trained and certified by National Comfort Institute (NCI). The NSI 6000 monitors aren’t available in retail stores or websites. If you’d like to learn more about how to become a reseller, visit ncilink.com/ NSI6000. Or call your Customer Care representative at 800-633-7058. Order yours today! ComfortMaxx™ Updates and Improvements National Comfort Institute’s Com- fortMaxx™ cloud-based software has evolved greatly over the years. It’s faster, easier to use, and is included as part of any NCI membership. Recently NCI announced a number of great updates including: X Room and Register Setup — This is no longer required for starting a Com- fortMaxx Verify™ test X Auto Plot Airflow — We’ve added the option to automatically plot fan air- flow for applicable system type and blower combinations using NCI Generic Fan Performance Data X Auto Equipment-Rated Capacity Under Test Conditions — All you have to do is enter the Nominal Capacity and (optionally for more accuracy) the Equip- ment Rated Cooling Capacity at AHRI Con- ditions in the System tab. ComfortMaxx then uses ASHRAE Standard 221 compli- ant methods to accurately estimate ex- pected capacity under your test condi- tions. X Preview Results — Before finalizing your test, hit Preview Results. This lets you view test results before finalizing your test and locking in the values. Preview Results also includes critical diagnostics to help validate the data you collected, and will provide Warning or Error mes- sages if something doesn’t seem right. Learn more about ComfortMaxx and how it can help your techs and your cus- tomers. Just call your Customer Care Rep at 800-633-7058. More Summit News Ladies and Gents -- as Summit 2022 draws closer we will continue updating you on the latest and greatest news. As a reminder, Summit is being held at the We-Ko-Pa Resort in the spring of 2022 in Scottsdale, Az. If you book your rooms now, you can get the NCI group rate of $189 per night. Just go to ncilink.com/BookNow and get your rooms locked down for this amazing event. THIS TIME IT’S PERSONAL This conference is open to the entire industry. Summit is a welcoming gather- ing of like-minded people who are open and willing to share with their fellow per- formance-based professionals. For the 2022 conference, we creat- ed a breakout session approach where each topic area will have three options. It’s personal in that you can design your own experience using the following: X Novice X Practitioner X Mastery. For the relative new-comer to the High-Performance approach to con- tracting, we are offering a Novice class on how to Use AirMaxx Lite™ to Educate Your Customer . In this class, NCI’s David Holt ex- plains how a simple app can help customers understand static pres- NCI MEMBER UPDATE OCTOBER 2021 19HVACTODAY.COMNext >