ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: • Today’s Word: CO And First Responders • Get Ready for the CO Season • Vision Beyond Sight with Combustion Testing hvactoday.comSEPTEMBER 2022 HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY TM If You Don’t Measure, You’re Just Guessing! ™ Carbon MONOXIDE High-Performance Testing, Diagnosing and PreventionMANAGEMENT: Get Ready for the CO Season How do you do this? Contractor Tom Spall shares his company’s process for keeping customers and team members safe. 15 DEPARTMENTS SEPTEMBER 2022 3HVACTODAY.COM Today’s Word .........................................................................................4 High-Performance Product Review ...............................................5 Partner Spotlight: FieldEdge by Xplor .........................................6 NCI Update .........................................................................................19 HVAC Smart Mart ...............................................................................20 Ad Index ................................................................................................21 One More Thing ................................................................................22 Vision Beyond Sight with Combustion Testing NCI’s Jeff Sturgeon discusses the beauty of combustion testing based on his NCI Summit 2022 presentation. 10 SEPTEMBER 2022 VOLUME 6 NUMBER 9 HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY TM PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: Success Powered by Training This month we focus on NCI Partner FieldEdge by Xplor. Learn a bit of history and how this software can help your HVAC business. 06department is fully trained and up-to-speed on what to do in emergencies. In those cases, you could be the expert they turn to for help finding the cause of the issue and resolving it. You could even work with first responders on which low-level personal CO monitors to use, why certain low-level monitors for customers are better than store-bought CO detectors, and what the monitor readings mean. Below are recommendations from the CDC on what first responders should do during a CO emergency. Many trained and certified HVAC contractors already do many of these things: Interview the Occupants: Talk to the occu- pants and look for symptoms of CO exposure. Ask about possible sources of combustion. Measure for Carbon Monoxide: We have entire articles on this subject. Here is a recent one from Jim Davis: ncilink.com/COGuess. Inspect Venting Systems: Check all chim- neys and all other appliance venting systems for leaks, cracks, holes, and blockages. Check Carbon Monoxide Alarm Location and Serviceability: Again, this is geared to first responders. Several steps may be beyond a first respond- er’s capability and training. This is where you, the trained and certified High-Performance HVAC contractor, can help. Imagine how many lives can be saved and injuries avoided by working together. You can help bridge the communication gap be- tween the public and our industry when you look out for your customer’s best interests by working with first responders. The CDC says, “Treat every carbon monoxide call like your life depends on it – because it does.” With the Fall CO season coming, does it make sense to reach out to your local first responders? You might sleep better if you do. T he theme of this issue focuses on carbon monoxide (CO) safety. With Fall soon upon us, dropping temperatures outside mean furnaces and boilers are heating up inside, putting homeowners and first respond- ers at a higher risk for CO poisoning. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Con- trol and Prevention (CDC), there are more than 50,000 people in the U.S. hospitalized each year for CO poisoning, and at least 430 people die from it. Yet many first responders (fire departments, Emergency Medical Services, and police) often mistake CO poisoning for the flu, or food poison- ing, or other ailments with similar symptoms. Though the training of emergency responders is not the responsibility of the HVAC Industry, as members of your communities, it is in the best in- terest of your customers and your team to reach out to local fire departments, EMS personnel, and police to talk about the importance of CO safety. Many High-Performance HVAC contractors al- ready have procedures for when their techs enter a home. Many technicians carry personal low-lev- el CO monitors and include combustion testing as part of their maintenance/service process. Last October, National Comfort Institute’s Da- vid Richardson wrote an article about what the HVAC Industry could learn from the Texas CO crisis of that year. In that article, he discussed why it’s so important for you to promote CO Safe- ty and education to your customers. What about promoting your expertise to your local first responders as well? Developing a re- lationship with them can help your community while at the same time promote the high-perfor- mance approach to HVAC. While there are plenty of first responder train- ing programs on how to deal with CO, not ev- ery local fire department, EMS team, and police 4 SEPTEMBER 2022HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY CO Season: Working with Local First Responders 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.SEPTEMBER 2022 5HVACTODAY.COM for Manual J, D, and S calculations. The software you choose should be af- fordable, user-friendly, accurate, and well supported. RHVAC rates well in all these categories. Get started learning any room-by- room load calculation software by at- tending a live or online training seminar. Sign up for training today. You will be glad you did. Elite’s lifetime tech support is easy to access with no additional annual fees. Purchase is a one-time fee for the desk- top version with no yearly fees. The basic version includes a Manual S equipment selection calculator that is easy to use. You can calculate a load using the simple data entry method or purchase Drawing Board , which produces CAD drawings and enables you to layout your duct design by buying the Manual D Ductsize module. RHVAC incorporates an RPER form that consolidates all the information typical- ly required by Code officials for permits. For more software product information, go to elitesoft.com. The Manual J Design Studio ( manu- alJdesign.com) provides a nationwide residential HVAC system design service. They also train contractors on how to make sense out of Manual J, D, and S. Training is available in person or through online webinars. — by Paul Wieboldt, National Comfort Institute Instructor Elite RHVAC Manual J Software To provide the right comfort solution, you need a basis of design for new HVAC installations and retrofits. Manual J is a building science-related engineering calculation that evaluates a structure’s ability to resist the loss and gain of heat in specific climate conditions. The information you input describes the structure’s thermal envelope, such as window energy efficiency, insulation val- ues, orientation of the house, etc., and the output is measured as the Btuh load of the house. I’ve been running load calculations since 1993. There are several excellent software choices available to do this right. Elite RHVAC is the tool I use most HIGH-PERFORMANCE PRODUCT REVIEW Written by HVAC Professionals for HVAC ProfessionalsEric Rausin joined the company in the mid-1990s after retiring from a ca- reer with the U.S. Navy, where he fo- cused on leadership and inventory management. Today he serves as vice-president of research and development. “One of the things that attracted me to this company was their desire for innovation and unending learning. They had great customers, incredible co-workers, and provided me oppor- tunities to grow and advance,” Rausin explains. WHAT IS FIELDEDGE? According to Rausin, FieldEdge is designed to be the nerve center for an HVAC con- tracting business. It handles custom- er management, dispatching, in- voicing, estimat- ing, service agree- ments, and item tracking. He says it also has real-time integration with both QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online, and can be used in the United States and Canada. FieldEdge also includes other inte- grations to help contractors manage payments, GPS tracking, flat rate pric- ing, marketing, and more. “Our secret sauce,” Rausin says, “is that we started as an HVAC company. The Slay brothers understood the con- tracting business and took the time to learn how other contractors operate and what issues they face by sitting with them. They translated everything they learned into the software. “This is something we haven’t stopped doing over the past 42 years. And now we have a global presence with the resources and financial ca- pabilities to keep us going strong for a very long time.” What Rausin is talking about is FieldEdge becoming part of Xplor Technologies in 2021. Xplor is an international full-service, integrated payment solutions, and business man- agement software provider. In recent news, Xplor recently final- ized the acquisition of Enterprise Selling Solutions, LLC (ESS) and its platform, HVACBizPro, to help HVAC contractors improve their sales process. With this acquisition, FieldEdge has a new professional proposal feature, Proposal Pro, based on ESS’ digital tools. A press release states, “Designed to help HVAC businesses grow, the ac- quisition will bring real-time equip- ment pricing to technicians in the field and office, and live AHRI data to the FieldEdge platform.” Rausin adds, “As new technolo- gies develop, we will take advantage of them. We want to make it easy for people to do business with us and help them process payments easily. I n the late 1970s, HVAC contrac- tors George and Glenn Slay strug- gled to find ways to automate their company’s business and field ser- vice sides. These were the early days of the computerization of the HVAC Industry, and for the Slay brothers, there just wasn’t anything available that they felt would work for them. So, they took matters into their own hands and designed their own soft- ware. It was based on an operating sys- tem called Theos. It worked so well that they decided it would be great to pro- vide this software to other HVAC con- tractors around the country. In 1980 they founded an organiza- tion called Coastal Computer Corp. in Fort Meyers, FL. Coastal’s software became the first package to provide an electronic dispatch board. Eventually the software was integrated with the Quickbooks ® accounting system. Over the next 42 years, Coastal Com- puter grew and evolved. Twenty-six years ago, it was completely updated and redesigned and became ESC – a Windows-based platform. Since then, the company has integrated with nu- merous partners, created its own ac- counting system, and built a tight in- tegration with six other accounting systems. After years of development, evo- lution, and changes, today this soft- ware is now known as FieldEdge by Xplor and services more than 40,000 users across many industries. 6 SEPTEMBER 2022HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY FieldEdge: Success is Powered by Training Eric Rausin, Vice President, Research and Development, FieldEdge PARTNER SPOTLIGHT By Mike Weilpany. The more education we can pro- vide on using our software, the less painful the process is, and the faster they will begin benefiting from it,” he continues. FIELDEDGE ACADEMY When contractors first buy the soft- ware, Rausin says the FieldEdge team sits down with them and takes the time to help them learn it. “That’s great during the initial roll- out, but unfortunately, when a con- tractor later hires someone, they often don’t take the same time to train them. They are busy. They want something easy. Something they can look at and get the answers they need when it’s convenient for them. “So, we faced this reality and devel- oped good quality training that’s con- tinually updated and accessed over the Internet. We call it FieldEdge Academy. This software continuously morphs and changes over time. So does the help content. This way, con- tractors can get the information they need to do their job. “We try to do this training in small chunks not to overwhelm the tech, who doesn’t want to spend two hours on a Saturday or first thing in the morning learning software. We have dedicated trainers and customer suc- cess managers who do ad hoc training on the fly and can also set up a dedi- cated training.” Rausin also says that the company is adding a new part to the Academy that focuses on best practices. He says it’s not FieldEdge specific but more focused on how to be a successful contractor. “We are covering things contractors “I love that we are con- nected to subsidiary compa- nies that have their own in- credibly talented engineers. We can use some of the piec- es they’re developing, al- lowing FieldEdge to develop things faster and better. That means some really neat things are coming out in the near future.” POWERED BY TRAINING Another aspect of FieldEdge software Rausin points out is that it is also a teaching tool. “It allows us to record phone calls, then go back and listen to those so we can see what happened on calls where something went wrong. Then our team can sit down with the contractor’s CSR and/or dispatcher to figure out what happened and then do some coach- ing on what they can do differently to improve. “The idea is it helps our customers be more successful,” he says. “And that is why I believe FieldEdge is a nice match with National Comfort In- stitute. We have the same mission: to help contractors get better. To do that requires training. I believe that suc- cess is powered by training.” Rausin explains that from his per- spective, many contractors started as field technicians who decided to start their own companies. He says most didn’t know that running a business requires an entirely different toolset than fixing equipment. “In becoming businessmen, they need help through training and tools that make it easier to manage the com- SEPTEMBER 2022 7HVACTODAY.COMbetter for everyone involved, especially NCI members. “We’re proud to be a partner that can help members build their NCI Bucks which can be used for valuable training and take their business to the next level, time and time again.” A MAGIC WAND? One of Rausin’s pet peeves is that the HVAC Industry struggles with in- ventory management on every level for whatever reason. He says, “if there were a magic wand I could wave and improve the industry, it would be this: better, easier inventory control. Hav- ing a good inventory system is more complicated than it should be. “In today’s retail world, inventory is getting so simple. For example, I vis- ited a brick-and-mortar store recently with no checkout lines. You walk the aisles, put the items you want in a bas- ket, and leave. “The technology in the store tracks your purchases and bills your cred- it card! Eventually, I’d like to see that happening in the HVAC Industry. “I think it’s a huge step because right now, inventory is an expensive prob- lem to solve. However, as in the exam- ple I just cited, a lot of exciting tech- nology is coming down the pipe that could make this easier to manage and control. That is my magic wand wish.” Furthermore, Rausin says he be- lieves it is essential for service and in- stallation technicians to key in on do- ing their jobs well. “They need to take pride and own- ership of their creativity and craft,” he says. “That means committing to con- tinuous education and training. “The grass isn’t greener on the oth- er side of the fence either. Someone will sometimes try to lure your techs away for $0.50 more per hour. Once upon a time, that was enough to lose good techs. “Technicians should remember that a slight increase in pay doesn’t mat- ter nearly as much as the people they work with, the integrity of the compa- ny they work for, and the pride they have in their knowledge and skills. “As a tech, if you do find yourself working for a company that doesn’t have high integrity, remember there are other companies out there that DO have that integrity. They are worth finding and working for. This is how you will improve your livelihoods and create your future.” The High-Performance HVAC Today and National Comfort In- stitute team congratulate Eric Rausin and the FieldEdge team on being named the September 2022 Partner Spotlight. If you’d like to learn more about FieldEdge and take advantage of their Training Incentive Partnership Pro- gram with NCI, log into the member page at ncilink.com/FE-TIPP. If you have any questions, you can contact Tracy Kellogg at TKellogg@ fieldedge.com. didn’t necessarily learn growing up in the contracting industry,” he adds. THE NCI CONNECTION In Rausin’s view, partnering with NCI makes a lot of sense. He says the FieldEdge approach aligns with NCI’s motto, “If You Don’t Measure, You’re Just Guessing™.” He explains that the software helps contractors track and measure all the different aspects of running a field service business. “Our mission is to educate, improve, and help contractors be more success- ful. The more educated contractors can be, the more pain and time they can save themselves. Plus, they can save a lot of effort and get much bet- ter results. “For me, one of the most frustrat- ing things is watching people strug- gle. The technical training that NCI provides helps technicians and con- tractors become craftsmen by helping them develop the skills necessary to solve customer problems and succeed in business. “I liken that to the importance of doing it right the first time. You can learn by trial and error, but that is a painful way to learn. I resonate with the craftsman mentality; many of our contractor customers have it. I also think the craftsman mentality spreads down to the technician level. “For these and many other reasons, FieldEdge has partnered with NCI. We’ve been partners for some years but only recently formed a dedicated team that will now work hand-in-hand with NCI and their members to establish, grow, and maintain a fruitful and re- warding relationship for all involved.” Rausin says their goal is to enhance that relationship and make it much 8 SEPTEMBER 2022HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY PARTNER SPOTLIGHT The FieldEdge team takes their solutions on the road to show contractors the advantages of their software.Next >