PLEASE JOIN US! April 17-20, 2023 Branson, MO hvactoday.comMARCH 2023 HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY TM If You Don’t Measure, You’re Just Guessing! ™ SUMMIT 2023 ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: • What Does it Take to Win with Maintenance? • How Financing Can Sell More High-Performance Systems • Contractor Spotlight: Westland HVAC + PlumbingMARCH 2023 VOLUME 7 NUMBER 3 HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY TM COVER STORY: Service: High Performance Starts Here National Comfort Institute’s High-Performance HVAC Summit is just a month away. Here is the definitive breakdown on what’s happening and when. 11 DEPARTMENTS MARCH 2023 3HVACTODAY.COM Today’s Word .........................................................................................4 High-Performance Product Review ...............................................5 Contractor Spotlight: Westland HVAC + Plumbing ................6 NCI Update .........................................................................................23 HVAC Smart Mart ...............................................................................24 Ad Index ................................................................................................25 One More Thing ................................................................................26 SERVICE: What Does It Take to Win with Maintenance? Based on a discussion he will lead during NCI Summit 2023, Jim Ball discusses how to create a win using maintenance agreements. 16 19 MANAGEMENT: How Can Financing Options Sell More High-Performance Systems? Making High-Performance HVAC systems more affordable to customers helps both them and your contracting company.questions and offering suggestions for solutions. Does this set off alarms with any contractors who do high-performance HVAC work? On the HVAC-Talk.com discussion forum, there is an entire thread on the subject. One comment that struck a chord with me was how ChatGPT answers to HVAC questions can “cer- tainly look convincing to someone not in the in- dustry, but often they (the answers) aren’t actu- ally correct or are only partially correct.” I understand that no contracting firm will use AI instead of field technicians for testing and di- agnosing HVAC system issues. The problem is that the average consumer who encounters this AI bot may take it at face value. Especially now, in the very early days of this technology. Another comment in that same HVAC-Talk. com discussion says, “If this (ChatGPT) starts to give step-by-step instructions, there will proba- bly be more homeowner visits to the ER, more homes burning down, and even deaths as a re- sult. The world is full of unqualified people who want to save money, but you should always leave ANY mechanical job to a professional!” Many pundits are writing about how ChatGPT and its cousins will change how business is done and become vital to business growth and success in the future. This evolution may be true, but it is still a long way down the road. I get that change, especially technical change, is coming faster than ever before and, as the Star Trek Borg would say, “Resistance is futile.” But in the High-Performance HVAC Contract- ing universe, face-to-face contact with customers while conducting system performance testing and diagnosis is vital. Furthermore, regarding auto- mated answering systems, let’s not assimilate all the latest tech too quickly and make it even harder for customers to talk to a live person. I must be getting old. As a younger man, tech- nology was like candy to me. I couldn’t gobble it up fast enough. From personal computers to personal digital assistants (remember the Treo?), from pneumatic controls to digital build- ing control technology, from the modem days of the Internet to today’s web tech and beyond, I was completely enamored. Then somewhere along the way, the introduc- tion of automatic answering systems began to change things for me. I mean, it’s one thing to figure out better ways to control environments and design buildings, but another thing when a customer calls your company and has to listen to a disembodied voice drone on about numeric choices to get them to the department they need. When I’m calling a department store or a car- pet cleaner with a question or a problem, I want to talk to a real person—someone who can help me and make me feel like I’ve been heard. Today, automated answering systems are the norm, and I hate it. But what can I do, right? Now there is this new thing called ChatGPT. It is an artificial intelligence (AI) program that is so brilliant (tongue firmly in cheek) that it writes college-level essays and dissertations that can pass as original work. These AI programs work by culling information from the Internet based on search parameters and other algorithms. Ethically, this poses a problem concerning copyright laws and plagiarism. On the other hand, AI bots open the door to en- hancing existing business management technolo- gies or even replacing them. They can eventually replace automated answering systems. Some of my media colleagues are touting the great potential for AI bots like ChatGPT in the HVAC space. Some see AI as being able to di- agnose HVAC issues for customers by asking 4 MARCH 2023HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY ChatGPT and the HVAC Contractor: Prepare to be Assimilated 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.senses the leak, it will appear that you have the police rolling up on you. Don’t be alarmed at the flashing red lights with the blare – that’s the DR82 telling you it found the leak. The DR82 has four sensitivity levels: high, medium, low, and Turbo! Turbo helps with locating the harder-to-find refrigerant leaks. For those who like graphs, Fieldpiece thought of you as well: it graphically displays how high the reading is that it detected. The good news is that using IR tech- nology makes leak detection much fast- er. Also, battery replacement is unnec- essary: the DR82 requires charging every 10 hours. Just remember to throw it on the charger. Full charges require at least six hours. However, the battery lasts 10 to 18 hours once fully charged. You get a nice hard case, five filter tips with gas- kets, and a charging cord. For more information, visit the Field- piece website at ncilink.com/DR82. — by Casey Contreras, instructor, Na- tional Comfort Institute FIELDPIECE IR REFRIGERANT LEAK DETECTOR Alright, guys and gals: It’s time to put the soap bubbles down and step away from the patient. Soap is meant for cleaning, not leak detection. The Field- piece DR82 is an excellent replacement for soap. It uses infrared (IR) refrigerant leak detector technology with a 10-year sensor. As always, Fieldpiece tools are very durable against our clumsy nature. Each instrument has a large backlit LCD screen. You should turn on the DR82 out- side, away from the refrigerant leak, after it’s gone through a warmup peri- od. Once warmup ends, leak detection can begin. Moving the wand back and forth near the suspected area will help pinpoint that pesky leak. When the DR82 MARCH 2023 5HVACTODAY.COM HIGH-PERFORMANCE PRODUCT Written by HVAC Professionals for HVAC Professionalsbecause I didn’t like digging holes and trenches to reline gas lines in winter. That wasn’t for me,” he says. So, in 1985, Mitchell opened the doors of his new company, Westland Heating, Air Conditioning + Plumbing. WESTLAND TODAY For 28 years, Jeff grew the compa- ny, added personnel, and set it up to sell to his son, Zack, in 2013. Today, its gross revenues are between $30 and $40 million in both the commercial and residential market sectors. On the commercial side, Westland has two di- visions: Commercial Construction and Commercial Replacement. On the residential side, Westland has a residential replacement divi- sion. Their service department, which includes repairs and maintenance, serves both the commercial and resi- dential divisions. Jeff says they recently added plumb- ing to their repertoire through an acquisition. They do a lot of work with hydronic systems, including water balancing. “If the system heats or cools water or air, Westland wants to learn about it, install it, and service it,” Mitchell says. They employ from 65 to 80 people depending on the number of projects. Westland also fields around 40 vehi- cles throughout their market area, which covers most of Northeastern Ohio – from Sandusky to Eastlake. “However, from a residential stand- point, it makes more economic sense for us to focus on Cleveland’s western suburbs because that is our headquar- ters location,” Jeff says. MILESTONES According to Jeff Mitchell, the most significant milestone for the company was the conversion to a younger man- agement team. “I think one of the most import- ant milestones is growing the com- pany enough to start bringing in the next generation of leaders and man- agers. After selling the business to my son, Zack, he took over the manage- ment of the commercial construction business. “I changed my responsibilities to fo- cus on being the service manager and making sales within our commercial replacement division,” he says. The next milestone was promot- ing one of his long-time service tech- I t’s not every day that we begin a profile of a successful High-Per- formance HVAC contractor with a science fiction quote, but in this case, it seems most appropriate. Westland Heating and Air Con- ditioning + Plumbing was founded in 1985 – a time in history when hi- jackings of passenger planes and tour- ist boats were at an all-time high. It was also a time when great un- certainty existed about war with Rus- sia, and the U.S. economy was slow. In fact, 1985 saw a decrease in real GNP growth from 6.5% in 1984 to 2.2%. Unemployment was over 7%. There was a lot of fear and worry that year. It was really a tough time to start a business. But Jeff Mitchell, who left college early and began working for other contractors, wanted to strike out on his own. He wasn’t afraid of taking this risk, despite the economy at that time. “I knew I didn’t want to be a plumber 6 MARCH 2023HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY CONTRACTOR SPOTLIGHT By Mike Weil Westland Heating: We’re Not Afraid of Anything “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” — Frank Herbert , author of Dune.MARCH 2023 7HVACTODAY.COM Westland Heating, Air Conditioning + Plumbing is located in Westlake, OH, a western Cleveland suburb. Established in 1985, the residential and commercial firm serves much of northeastern Ohio and specializes in High-Performance HVAC contracting. staying. He describes this equipment as having individual galvanized hous- ing; each stenciled with the word Multicity on it. “I’d never seen this before, so as soon as I returned to Ohio, I began do- ing some research and eventually dis- covered it was a Mitsubishi Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) product line.” Says Sean Rusnak, “Today, we’ve done hundreds of installations of VRF systems from Mitsubishi, Daikin, LG, and Samsung. Our team is trained, and we have qualified professionals to work on all those systems. We’ve in- stalled and serviced them in nursing homes, schools, office buildings, and more.” “We also install them in multi-fam- ily buildings and anywhere they make sense,” says Christian Wimmer. Rusnak adds that the company not only seeks out new equipment tech- nologies but is also on the cutting edge of test instrument and tool tech. “Westland isn’t afraid to invest in the proper tools, software, and computers to do the job properly,” he says. “The same is true when it comes to training. Westland has always promoted train- ing for all our technicians and install- ers, both commercial and residential.” THE TRAINING CONNECTION Jeff Mitchell smiles when the train- ing topic comes up. “I may not have thought college was for me when I was a young man,” he says, “but I have al- ways been fascinated with technology and tools and always wanted to soak up as much knowledge about them as possible. Sometimes the lessons I learned were through taking classes; sometimes, they came from hard life lessons.” He tells a story about taking his fam- ily on a skiing vacation in New York years ago, where he decided to take a nap before heading out to the slopes. After two hours, his family woke him up and had to push him to get out of bed and out of the condo. “I woke up with the worst freaking headache you could imagine. I felt like I was going to throw up. Once I got outside and into the fresh air, I felt a little better. Later, I noticed it smelled like exhaust fumes back in the con- do. That was strange because electric baseboards heated the building.” As it turns out, the complex had a large gas-fired hot water tank sys- tem that was having problems, and its mechanical room was directly beneath Jeff’s bedroom. nicians to service manager. His name is Sean Rusnak, and he has worked with Westland since 2003. In ad- dition, Jeff’s son-in-law, Christian Wimmer, is a comfort specialist for both residential and light commercial sales. He’s been with the company for 23 years. “Another milestone,” Jeff adds, “is that we are developing our guiding at- titude, which is, We’re not afraid of anything.” He attributes that attitude to the incredible success Westland has en- joyed. “We have never been afraid of being on the leading edge of technol- ogy or trying new things that can help us improve our customers’ comfort,” he says. ADAPTING NEW TECHNOLOGY For example, Jeff tells the story of how Westland became involved with a new product manufactured by York called the Triathlon. This product was a gas-powered heat pump. “Though this product is no longer available, our local utility was promot- ing the heck out of it at the time. I was intrigued by it. We ended up becom- ing one of the biggest Triathlon con- tractors in the country. “York sent me around the U.S. to talk with contractors about the prod- uct and our experience using it. We had all positive experiences with it for the first two or three years until York went into mass production. Then the product quality decreased, and they started experiencing issues.” Similarly, Westland discovered vari- able refrigerant flow technology al- most accidentally. While on vacation in Mexico, Jeff says he saw lines of roof- top units at the resort where he was will land renovation work. We do a lot of repairs, add returns, and so on.” Rusnak says they instruct all their ser- vice technicians to check static pressure on every call for new and existing customers. They re- cord measurements in forms built into their Service Titan software manage- ment system. “We then can go through those forms looking for static pressure points that flag customer issues. These points are the telltale sign that something is not working properly. If we see something in those pressures, we make a note to follow up,” Rusnak says. “Based on their findings, techni- cians recommend changing the fil- ter to allow better airflow. They may also find an issue with the return duct, which becomes a lead for Jeff or Chris- tian. And, as Jeff says, if a customer is willing to listen, we can get past their objection. We provide options and don’t force repairs on anyone. “Our slogan is, We Make Your Life Comfortable. In the end, that has to be the focus of our approach.” “But the struggle is real, especially on the residential side,” Rusnak con- tinues. “Many people are motivated by price, and we cannot perform the testing and necessary repairs for a low price.” Christian Wimmer concurs. He says, “our field people must under- stand how to explain things to a cus- tomer in simple terms so that it makes sense to them. I believe people inter- pret things differently all the time,” Wimmer says. “Technicians can in- terpret static pressure differently as well. It’s a slippery slope because you don’t want to overstep what you’re doing and scare customers. “That’s why training the technicians and the customers so that everybody has the same understanding of what’s good, what’s bad, what’s of immedi- ate concern, and what can wait is so important.” “The challenge,” Jeff Mitchell adds, “is getting your team to com- municate in a way that custom- ers can understand. When you can do that, in most cases, they will buy. THE FUTURE LOOKS BRIGHT Regarding the future of West- land Heating, Air Condition- ing, + Plumbing, Mitchell, Rus- nak, and Wimmer all agree: “I am 100% positive that I was ex- posed to carbon monoxide. When I got home, I did a lot of research and learned about Jim Davis, whose rep- utation was that of a CO and combus- tion safety guru.” Mitchell says they decided that all of Westland’s field service and instal- lation teams had to train in combus- tion safety. “Safety has always been #1 with us, and this was big,” Mitchell says. “To- day, we all carry personal CO monitors, and we replace those every few years. “That was at least 20 years ago, and the company Jim Davis worked for, National Comfort Institute (NCI), was in its early days,” Jeff says. “Now we’re heavy into airflow and per- formance testing. I inspect everything when on a job. THE STRUGGLE IS REAL Regarding duct renovations, the Westland team agrees that they don’t do as much as they’d like. Says Mitchell, “I hate to say it, but the market is very competi- tive. We certainly talk about the ductwork, and if a customer is willing to listen, chances are we 8 MARCH 2023HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY CONTRACTOR SPOTLIGHT Westland manage- ment team, from left to right: Jeff Mitchell, Zack Mitchell, Sean Rusnak, and Christian Wimmer. Westland fabricates it’s own custom duct fittings and sheet metal runs in their comprehensive shop.MARCH 2023 9HVACTODAY.COM CONTRACTOR SPOTLIGHT performance training, they can ex- pand their vision, keep themselves and their team safe, and protect their customers. And one more thing: they can make much more money and be much happier.” For these and many other reasons, the High-Performance HVAC Today magazine team has select- ed Westland Heating, Air Condi- tioning, + Plumbing as the March Contractor Spotlight. Congrats to the entire team. more efficiently.” “Our success is pinned on the fact that we are not afraid to do what’s right for custom- ers. We have no fear because we are well-trained and know our business,” says Christian Wimmer. “Knowing what to do when encoun- tering different situations in the field is important. And we see so many things like undersized ductwork that’s falling, returns starting to come loose, and cracked heat exchangers. It makes me sick as I wonder how long these conditions have endangered the cus- tomers,” Wimmer adds. “Performance training for our guys is the groundwork behind our suc- cess,” Jeff Mitchell concludes. “With focus on customer comfort, fear no new advances in technology, always provide the best training, and the company will continue to grow. Rusnak says NCI’s training has dramatically impacted the Westland team, especially the CO and Combus- tion safety training. He says nine out of 10 service techs are certified in com- bustion analysis. “The air balancing and static pres- sure classes are also critical to us,” Rus- nak says. “We apply the lessons from those classes to every HVAC system. If air is moving through ductwork, then balancing and measuring are neces- sary to diagnose systems. This mea- suring and balancing process is how we make customers more comfort- able, and their HVAC systems work Next >