< Previousvirtual training is better meeting our needs today. TRADITIONAL TRAINING Over the years it’s been commonplace for in-person training offerings to be provided by manufacturers and distributors, as well as trade associations. But I haven’t always been pleased with the quality of topics or information shared. When it comes to the training provided by man- ufacturers, I find it most often to be more prod- uct related than fundamental, technical training. In fact, I’m very wary of sending my technicians to anything the manufacturers teach because that “training” often ends up being simply a product showcase. I completely understand why they want their products in front of our technicians, but our tech- nicians’ time is much better spent in the field solving customer’s problems than in a sales pre- sentation. I think other levels of sales or manage- ment are better positioned to attend these show- cases and to determine product offerings that most align with company goals. Our local distributor recently hired a new ser- vice advisor with an educational background and I believe there is a lot of potential there. I’m pleased that his training so far has been well pre- pared and stays on topic. He recently met per- sonally with my team and had one formal train- ing class on diagnosing refrigeration problems. We had another in April on airflow. I am im- pressed with what he has done so far. As we continue to build our own techs, using training mentors engaged in daily, on-the-job training, is an important part of this process. I have two senior techs who are mentoring and informally teaching most days. We recently be- gan holding a 15-to-30 minute tech meeting A s an HVAC company owner, training is very important to me. I have owned Baggett Heating and Cooling since 2006 and believe that our success depends on our technicians being up-to-date on current technology and tools so they can take the best care of our customers as possible. As the hiring pool of well trained, experienced technicians shallows, we are choosing to recruit the right candidates and build professional tech- nicians in house. In the last 12 months we have added several new team members and we are committed to up- ping our game and, simply put, being better than everybody else regarding the technical side of the business. Doing this requires a lot of training. We want all techs, regard- less of experience or seniority, to develop new and better skills and be up-to-date on new techniques, prod- ucts, and so on. After all, iron sharp- ens iron and our more senior techs need to be refreshed, on top of changing trends, and on top of their game in order to lead our fresh- est crop of technicians. In the last few years, I have found that web-based and virtual training classes best fit my team here at Baggett. Why? It may make sense to first talk about our ap- proach to traditional training to help explain how 10 MAY 2023HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY Shortening the Learning Curve in the Digital Age By Alana Ward TRAINING Traditional training often takes place in a contractor’s training room, at a distributor’s facility, or a third-party training center.MAY 2023 11HVACTODAY.COM every morning. This is an organiza- tional way of starting the day with an added training element we call “tech talk.” Some mornings techs come in, get their job assignment, then head out. On other mornings they’ll spend more time talking about issues that have occurred on recent maintenance or service calls. THIRD-PARTY TRAINING Most of our training comes from third-party organizations that I hire or through association-offered class- es. Currently, this is most of the live training we do. We also have a train- ing room here at Baggett, and I look for opportunities to bring in trainers and hold classes here. Organizations like National Com- fort Institute (NCI) are among the training suppliers we work with. I feel these groups are most concerned with selling us knowledge and not specific products. They also have established reputations for the highest quality training. This training offers my technicians a deep dive with hands-on learning. This is a great way to build techni- cians with little technical HVAC ex- perience when we hire them. We also send technicians away to training. This is at great expense to Baggett but worth the investment for a quality experience and with the right candidate. VIRTUAL (ONLINE) TRAINING AND MORE During the pandemic years, I began investigating the advantages of on- line or virtual training. The pandemic certainly impacted that, but it also had to do with changes in my staff. Before the pandemic shutdowns, Baggett was already embarking on a new strategy of growing our technicians. We already had several new folks on board and couldn’t go anywhere to train them. The virtual option just came up and changed everything. Today there is more virtual training available than ever before, but that wasn’t the case earlier. In the early part of the pan- demic, groups like NCI began focus- ing more on it and helped to drive others to change their focus, at least temporarily. NCI showed that training doesn’t all have to be in person, in a classroom. I would say it was a perfect storm that brought virtual training together. Once we tried it, the light bulb went off. That is the secret: Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. At Baggett, we have an overall agreeable group of folks working here. In my opinion, typically, good techni- cians love training. They’ll take it how- ever they can get it. The only downside – this is not something they’ve voiced, but I have observed – is when train- ing takes too long. Techs typically don’t like to sit at a desk all day. It’s usually better to split training up over several days. I prefer a two to four-hour class, this keeps the technician engaged and not antsy, and also allows us to have some productivity that day as well. ADVANTAGES OF VIRTUAL TRAINING Digital virtual training changes so many things for us. I am excited about it. The biggest reason is that I couldn’t always justify the investment in send- ing my guys out to live training. With virtual training, the class cost is nothing compared to paying for travel, hotel rooms, time away from work, and so on. In cases where live classes start on a Monday and the techs must travel on Sunday, that eats into their personal time. During the pandemic, many organizations, like National Comfort Institute, developed live online training to help contractors keep their technicians up-to-date.12 MAY 2023HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY TRAINING vice, sales, and business training. Our manufacturer supplier is Temp- star ICP, and they offer some customer service and dispatch classes online. AND THEN THERE IS VIRTUAL REALITY (VR) I believe virtual reality or VR train- ing is in the early stages of becom- ing critical. It’s only a matter of time before it becomes more prevalent. I have NOT used it here at Baggett, but I know VR is part of the evolution of training. Like anything else, the adop- tion of VR will follow this industry’s historical curve of change. Though, in my opinion, nothing will ever replace getting in a truck and riding around with a senior techni- cian, watching them do what they do, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take advantage of all forms of training. Classroom, online, and virtual reali- ty training set people up so that when they get in a truck with a senior tech, they’ll start to pick up things faster. do it at my own pace over a few nights when I came home from work. Instead of watching TV, I would hang out with my laptop going through the modules. When I followed up the self-paced online class with the live webinar, I found myself more prepared and bet- ter able to interact with the trainer and other participants in the class. That provides reinforcement of the concepts and brings even more value. ALWAYS BE TRAINING Someone once told me that success- ful contractors should always be train- ing and I agree. In that light, I like to use training to fill in a day when things are slow. It’s hard to predict slow days, so pre-recorded training is a resource I can go to instan- taneously. I can have the techs sit at various com- puters so they can catch up on train- ing they are be- hind in or can start new training. When you plan to send someone to classes in per- son or attend a live webinar, they must go at that specific time. In fact, it seems to never fail, when I schedule a techni- cian to be out for training that is EX- ACTLY the time we will have plenty of work to do! We not only use virtual training on the technical side of the business, but also for non-technical staff. There are many online options for customer ser- With virtual training, those and oth- er negatives go away. I watch the qual- ity of online live and virtual classes and assess the quality of in-person training because I don’t like sending my tech- nicians to something I haven’t been to myself. This goes back to knowing it will be worth the dollar and time in- vestment, and that the syllabus aligns with our way of doing business. Because virtual is much less of an investment, I’m more apt to try some- thing and then look over their shoul- ders occasionally to make sure it aligns with our greater mission and direction. NCI does a great job. Their virtual classroom technology works, the quiz- zes work, and so on. It’s always dis- heartening when it sounds like a great idea, and nothing works. This can frequently happen, espe- cially when organizations first adopt the technology, and it doesn’t work. It makes me wonder whether they prac- ticed or tried to work out the kinks BE- FORE training started. Those things concern me, but again, I’m much more apt to rip the Band- Aid off because the investment of time and money is usually quite a bit less. PRE-RECORDED AS-YOU-GO ONLINE TRAINING I also find value in using pre-recorded self-paced training and live webinars. The NCI airflow pre-recorded module is one we use most often lately, but I find value in having self-paced courses in general. Frankly, these courses are how I keep myself up to speed. The first time I studied how to mea- sure static pressure and airflow test- ing, pre-recorded training was a great first step. It was comfortable. I could MAY 2023 13HVACTODAY.COM TRAINING I guess we’re all students and should be all our lives. The day I walked across the stage to receive my college degree, there was a lady in her 80s who was also getting a degree. It was like her 7th one. She never stopped learning. There’s a les- son in that. last line of defense when no one else can fix it, Ed is close. We shortened the learning curve from 11 years to five years. That is what we’re trying to do. I recently onboarded a maintenance technician with nine months of new construction installation experience. But in around 60 days, we got him in a truck, and he’s running maintenance independently. Talk about shortening the learning curve!!! And he is doing a good job. We’re trying to shorten the curve by doubling down on training, mastering skills, and setting up the next gener- ation of technicians for success and growth as they join the industry. In the end, for me personally, I’m still a work in progress 22 years later. For me, that is the most essential point of this entire article. Shortening the learning curve is so important for the success and growth of any HVAC business. SHORTENING THE LEARNING CURVE For example, my senior technician Jesse has been with Baggett for 12 years. Jesse had a lot of electronics and construction experience when he joined Baggett, but he had no heating and air conditioning experience. We have been on an 11-year journey to- gether to where he is today. My next most senior technician is Ed. He has been with Baggett for around five years, and even though Jesse is still the most senior tech, our Alana Ward is the sec- ond-generation owner of Baggett Heating in Clarksville, TN. The $1.6 million residential replace- ment and service business opened in 1974, and Alana took over in 2006. She is a member of NCI and was named Woman of the Year by Contracting Business magazine in 2012. In 2021 the Ser- vice Roundtable named Baggett Heating one of the top 10 companies in the U.S. providing customer satisfaction. She can be reached at ncilink.com/ContactMe .14 MAY 2023HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYTo understand what this means, it makes sense to know the differences between terms like Smart Technology and The Internet of Things (IoT). IOT VERSUS SMART TECH There is a loose connection between IoT ver- sus smart tech. Interestingly, IoT is a spectrum, an umbrella term that can mean many things. IoT is about a lot of home products that are en- abled through Alexa, Siri, and other similar arti- ficial interfaces. For example, I have deck lights controlled and scheduled through Alexa. But the lights aren’t connected to a security system. These products aren’t often integrated, so they don’t “talk” to each other. In other words, IoT is more about individual products that we can con- trol using different mobile phone apps. With smart technology, on the other hand, ev- erything is integrated. The products speak to each other and can make decisions where homeown- ers and contractors can know what is happening throughout a home. We’ll see High-Performance HVAC becoming critical for things like load shedding as the U.S. in- frastructure ages. smart home tech will allow us to seamlessly ex- perience our homes in today’s en- vironment. High-Performance HVAC is all about testing, diagnosing, and fix- ing invisible issues that plague homeowner comfort and energy efficiency. Smart Tech makes it possible for contractors to mon- itor and control home systems. Technology similar to Emerson’s Sensi Predict or other OEMs’ I n the HVAC Industry during the late 1990s, Smart Technology may have made its initial inroads through thermostat and comfort con- trol advancements being installed into high- er-end homes. Today with integration, the Inter- net of Things, artificial intelligence, Smart Ther- mostats, and a drop in the cost to buy and install these things, Smart Technology is more the norm than ever. Plus, most HVAC equipment manufacturers have been baking smart tech, in the form of sen- sors, into their products for years. The stage is undoubtedly set for next-level opportunities for High-Performance HVAC contractors. If you think about current industry changes like new refrigerant development, higher minimum SEER requirements, more demanding energy mandates, they all lead to smart technology. In my opinion this plays right into the high-perfor- mance side of things. With that in mind, I think the days of the HVAC contractor sitting on the sidelines are ending. Smart Technology and the High-Performance HVAC Professional By Eddie McFarlane MANAGEMENT MAY 2023 15HVACTODAY.COMwith your OEM or a training organi- zation such as National Comfort Insti- tute is the gateway to understanding the difference between rated and de- livered performance. You must under- stand that difference. THE NEXT STEP IS TO GET TRAINED Training looks different to a lot of people. Some prefer in-person class- es, whereas others want digital access. You can access much of the Smart Tech training via video libraries, on- line refresher courses, and informa- tion available for people to pull up in the field. As a result of this wide-open ap- proach, training has improved. How- ever, it’s essential to pick the proper training for the right group of people. Some technicians want to get their hands on Smart Tech and learn about it that way. Others wish to have class- room time. Some want both. Besides technical training, commu- nication training is also necessary be- cause it will determine how your team talks about Smart Tech, answer con- sumer questions, and think about it. The last thing you want is for your field technicians to think that Smart Tech is the boogie man coming to take their jobs. Instead, they should think about how this technology helps them take better care of customers. Because, at the end of the day, ev- ery tech worth their salt wants the best thing for their customer. Communication training is vital to help techs think this way. It helps them explain what Smart Tech is, why they should consider offering it, what it does for the homeowner, and how they should talk or not talk about it. To be involved with Smart Tech, you must embrace the training. We truly live in the information age, and I think there’s an opportunity today to deliver higher service levels than we ever had before. THE POWER OF DATA The key to smart tech AND high- performance contracting is the pow- er of data. It provides tremendous op- portunities. What if you could monitor static pressures, airflow, and more re- motely? What if we could fine-tune de- livered Btus into the home where we can prevent discomfort, get ahead of potential carbon monoxide issues, and ensure that customers’ homes are both comfortable and energy efficient with- out having to send technicians out? One technology that has been around for a while and will come more into play over the next five years is smart monitoring. As I mentioned ear- lier, I have experience with Emerson’s interfaces can put the high-perfor- mance contractor in a position that was only a dream 20 years ago. This tech can tell contractors in real time what potential issues will hap- pen. It can help contractors and home- owners to make choices in a world rife with finite labor, escalating costs, and a need for skill allocation — getting the right person to the right job. In other words, it allows us to man- age our businesses in ways we never could. For me, the goal is to under- stand Smart Tech possibilities and how to leverage them to benefit the customer and the HVAC company. THE SECRET SAUCE Having worked for an HVAC com- pany for many years, we jumped in early with the Sensi product and smart monitoring. Emerson’s predic- tive maintenance solution helped the company I worked for to analyze cus- tomer HVAC systems and know how it was performing BEFORE problems popped up. But this wasn’t something we could just jump into. It required a partner- ship, training, and understanding of getting equipment to perform how it’s designed to perform. These three in- gredients were part of the secret sauce that led to my company’s success. As an HVAC company, connecting 16 MAY 2023HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYMAY 2023 17HVACTODAY.COM MANAGEMENT adopting Smart Tech. I have friends in the information technology sector who always discuss the difference be- tween the leading and bleeding edg- es. They say it’s OK to be on the lead- ing edge, but you don’t want to be on the bleeding edge. The bleeding edge is where all the lessons are learned at your expense. Another hurdle is training. Train- ing is required, and quite often, it can evolve quickly. You may need to up- date your training from time to time. Then there is a hurdle that I call consumer mindshare. If consumers aren’t thinking about it and other con- tractors aren’t talking about it, smart tech can be harder to sell. That’s where I think timing is key. If you have the right technician talking to customers and connecting with them, educating them about Smart Tech is worth it. Don’t tie smart tech success to la- bor in a world where you want to grow your maintenance base. Use smart tech to give you insight into a call or to see something before that critical time of year when you need to make hay while the sun shines. Smart tech is a game changer; of- fering smart services like predictive maintenance can make all the differ- ence in your business. ment, third-party vendors will likely begin developing workarounds. But that won’t be easy to deal with from a contractor’s perspective. Fragmentation was a massive issue in the commercial marketplace for years before the advent of BacNet/ Lonmark open protocols, and even those had problems. Then there is the issue of HVAC system integrations with other resi- dential systems like lighting, alarms, smoke detection, and more. Is such integration necessary? Right now, I don’t think so. How- ever, as utilities seek ways to work around aging infrastructure, we may find them developing rebates and other programs which will go be- yond the traditional focus on upgrad- ing to high-efficiency equipment. As I said earlier, smart tech is pushing things toward high performance, and I see utilities starting to see the power in that. In states like California, some util- ities offer consumers an option to let the utility monitor energy use for lower energy prices to try and control demand. If that approach spreads across the U.S., we may see a push for more integration between HVAC and other residential systems. The HVAC industry, which con- sumes around 40 to 60% of a home’s energy, is responsible for under- standing our part in it and what that consumption does to the consumer’s energy bill. That’s when the impor- tance of integrating HVAC into the Smart Tech system will happen. FINAL THOUGHTS Smart tech is here. Timing is some- thing to look at when considering Sensi Predict. Their data is tremen- dous; they can interpret readings from 12 different sensors to predict faults with coil leaks, capacitor issues, and much more. It can also lead to helping contrac- tors with things like price transparen- cy, labor management, and more. Such predictive monitoring may an- swer HVAC seasonality issues, cash flow, and help with smarter workforce use. Add IAQ sensors, and contractors can monitor comfort at the register in the future. POTENTIAL ISSUES The smart home technology indus- try is still beginning to realize all its possibilities. From my perspective as a contractor, the most significant danger is OEMs’ tendency to create proprietary software and communi- cations protocols that may not play nicely with each other. I’ve spoken to some equipment and component manufacturer lead- ers who have talked about onboard sensor technology being part of their products for a long time. Many of these sensors are air-gapped, mean- ing they’re physically segregated and can’t connect wirelessly or physical- ly with other computers or network devices. They do this because they believe having proprietary data streams is their opportunity. Frankly, I think it’s their obstacle. They need to flip that view and allow for true smart home integration. If they don’t, this could contribute to a fragmented approach to HVAC sys- tem smart tech, leading to the need for gateway technology. Because of the air gap between sensors in HVAC equip- Eddie McFarlane most recently served as presi- dent at Haller Enterprises, Inc., Lititz, PA. He has been in the HVAC trades for 19 years serving in various roles in commercial and residential sales, market- ing, and management. He recently left Haller to seek other opportunities but plans on remaining involved in the HVAC Industry. You can reach him at ncilink.com/ ContactMe .By Steve Rogers TECHNICAL MAY 2023 19HVACTODAY.COM z Errors that are a fixed percentage across the measuring range. THREE COMMON MEASUREMENTS To unravel the meaning of these specifications, let’s use them to estimate the accuracy of three common measurements (see Figure 2) an HVAC technician should take. zA gas manifold pressure of 3.5-in. W.C. zA supply duct plenum pressure of 0.1-in. W.C. z A bedroom pressure of 0.01-in. W.C. (Room pressures are more commonly measured in Pascals (Pa), but we’ll do everything in inches of water column (in W.C.) to keep it consistent. 0.01 in W.C. is about 2.5 Pa, a common pres- sure for a bedroom in a house). FIGURE 2 – COMMON PRESSURE MEASUREMENTS THE MATH FOR ACCURACY Let’s have a look at the chart on the next page (Figure 3). If you study this chart, you will see the three manometers applied to our three use cases. Green indicates that the manometer’s mea- surement accuracy is good enough to be useful. H ave you ever read through the manu- facturer’s accuracy specifications for a manometer? Did you understand them well enough to know if the accu- racy was good enough for the measurements you needed? Are you aware that even though you can see a stable number on the screen that looks like any other good measurement, it could be so inac- curate that you might as well be looking at a ran- dom number generator? Every HVAC technician’s tool bag should have a manometer in it. Techs need to measure stat- ic pressure in ducts, gas valves, rooms, and the combustion appliance zone (CAZ), to name a few. For each of those measurements, a certain accuracy is required to be sure you have a useful measurement. Manufacturers have different ways of specify- ing the accuracy of their instruments (see Figure 1). They are not easy to compare just by reading them! It looks like “Manometer A” might be the most accurate because it says 0.5%, and the other two say 1% and 0.9%, which are larger percentag- es. But that does not tell the whole story. FIGURE 1 - MANOMETER SPECIFICATIONS Confusing right? If we break down those spec- ifications, they consist of just two types of errors or uncertainties: zErrors that are a fixed pressure across the mea- suring range Manometers: Picking the Right Accuracy for the JobNext >