< Previous10 AUGUST 2024HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY recommend targeted repairs to address issues. These repairs focus on the most accessible and impactful opportunities to streamline the job for relatively minimal material and labor costs. You can also demonstrate the value of these re- pairs to your customers through measurement before and after the job is complete. This com- bination allows you to charge a fair price for the value you’re providing at a profit margin that will help your company survive and thrive. The NCI (National Comfort Institute) Air Upgrade™ process does just this. It provides additional revenue on a typical job ranging from $2000 to $3000 at a gross profit margin in the 60% to 70% range. The best part is static pres- sure and airflow issues are so prevalent that you could be adding this high-profit reve- nue stream to most of your equipment repair and replacement jobs. You’ll serve your customers well and give them the comfort and peace of mind that has eluded them for years. Plus, you will simul- taneously strengthen your business and give your technicians and salespeople a source of pride in their work. It’s a win-win-win, and those types of op- portunities don’t come I f you’re a regular reader of High-Perfor- mance HVAC Today, you know most HVAC systems suffer from poor airflow along with high static pressure. Many contractors panic when they first learn about this widespread issue and what it would mean to rip out every duct system and start over. How many of your customers will want to in- vest in an upgraded duct system when they’re also likely facing an expensive equipment repair or replacement? Fortunately, there’s another solution that lets you easily identify the primary causes of high static pressure and low airflow. Then, you can The Next-Generation Approach to Air Upgrades ™ By Ben Lipscomb, P.E. TECHNICAL NCI AirMaxx™ Workflows in the mQ® (right) and TrueFlow® (left) apps.AUGUST 2024 11HVACTODAY.COM While these options won’t be as ac- curate as TEC’s instruments, they are valid for initial screening or if you’re just getting started with static pres- sure and airflow diagnostics. With these new tools, Air Upgrades™ are more within reach for your business than ever before. In case you’re not fa- miliar with what a typical air upgrade looks like, here’s an example: 1. Generate Leads: On every ser- vice call or comfort consultation, a technician will perform either a ba- sic static pressure screening, an Air- Maxx™ with Fan Table test, or an Air- Maxx™ with TrueFlow ® test using either the TEC or mQ apps. If they start with one of the more ba- sic tests and find that static pressure is high or estimated airflow is low, it’s time for a selling technician or com- fort advisor to come in with a True- Flow Grid. This is a potential qualified lead in every home that you visit. along often. Because Air Upgrades™ reduce expensive callbacks and com- plaints, your customers actually re- ceive what they were promised! NEW TOOLS TO HELP YOU NCI has taught this approach for years in its Airflow Testing and Diagnostics class, but now there’s a brand new set of tools to help you complete the measurements and pin- point problem areas more easily and accurately than ever before. They have partnered with The En- ergy Conservatory (TEC) and measureQuick ® (mQ) to offer NCI AirMaxx™ testing within each part- ner’s app. Both apps wirelessly connect with The Energy Conservatory’s high- ly accurate Digital TrueFlow ® and DG-8 pressure gauge. These rev- olutionary tools move beyond airflow estimates with manufacturer blower tables to a true measured flow, that helps customers understand why they need an Air Upgrade™. A direct airflow measurement is a powerful sales tool and proof your work achieved the objectives. Don’t have a TrueFlow ® Grid? No worries. The measureQuick app sup- ports other wireless digital manom- eters, and both apps support manual data entry if you want to try them out and don’t have a compatible tool. Measuring static pressure with the mQ (left) and TrueFlow (right) apps. 12 AUGUST 2024HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY TECHNICAL the customer they received what they paid for. Based on the work you’ve per- formed it’s very likely they’ll expe- rience immediate improvements in comfort along with reductions in their utility bills. You can bet they’ll tell their friends and colleagues how it happened. REAP THE REWARDS To start reaping the rewards of Air Upgrades™ in your company, visit NCI’s website and sign up for the next Airflow Testing and Diagnostic class coming to your area or being held live online today. You can also download the TEC and mQ apps to try out and see what you might be missing. I believe investing in tools and train- ing for static pressure and airflow-fo- cused diagnostics is the key to solving many of the issues plaguing the HVAC industry today. This new partnership with TEC and mQ brings together the best in tools, training, and software to make Air Upgrades not just a viable, but a crit- ical step for all HVAC companies who want to succeed. Is it better to move the highest num- ber of boxes or to have the highest number of satisfied customers? Drop me an email or leave a comment to let me know what you think. zReplace three or more six-inch supply ducts with eight inch- es, or add new supply ducts with balancing dampers as needed z Seal duct leakage to reduce air- flow loss z Add required strapping to sup- port the duct system zReplace restrictive duct fittings and transitions. Using the Air Upgrade™ Price Cal- culator that NCI provides in its Air- flow Testing and Diagnostics class, technicians or comfort advisors can quickly price the job using customized inputs for material, labor costs, and desired profit margins. The AirMaxx™ report, the scope of work, and the pricing provide all that’s needed for what may be the most pro- fessional and informed bid the custom- er has ever seen for HVAC work. 3. Execute and Verify: Your instal- lation and renovation techs perform the work and test out the system with either the TEC or mQ apps, proving performance on the spot and ensuring 2. Bid and Sell: Armed with the TrueFlow ® and either the TEC or mQ apps, a selling tech or comfort advi- sor can show the customer that their equipment has airflow problems and what some of the issues may be. Based on the in-app diagnostics and on-the-ground visual observations, the tech can then draft a scope of work which may look something like this: The TrueFlow grid is inserted into the filter slot to prepare for an airflow measurement (See picture above). Equipment Improvements: z Rework filter system to reduce filter pressure drop z Provide basic system cleaning – blower and coil (coil in place) zTest, adjust, and set fan speed z Re-adjust refrigerant charge zVerify test-out static pressures and fan airflow. Duct System Improvements: zAdd one oversized return duct and grille from the return side of the equipment into a large open area of the home Ben Lipscomb, P.E. has more than 16 years of experience in the HVAC industry, including labo- ratory and field research, Design/Build contracting, and utility energy effi- ciency program design. He is National Comfort Institute’s director of engineering and utility programs and may be contacted at ncilink. com/ContactMe .AUGUST 2024 13HVACTODAY.COM When it comes to High-Performance HVAC™, measureQuick is among the top performance and diagnostic software apps available. Contractors benefit from its efficiency, process standardization, and improved business performance. The app now integrates with National Comfort Institute’s (NCI) quick tests. It also integrates with popular CRMs, sim- plifying customer management. Join us at NCI’s High-Performance HVAC Summit 2024, September 10-13 . Discover how measureQuick works with live equipment and helps you demon- strate to customers your commitment to quality and professionalism. Service managers can use mea- sureQuick to monitor team performance and ensure high service quality. It’s re- mote diagnostics and monitoring capa- bilities provide real-time support, while Smart Maintenance and Continuous Mon- itoring capabilities facilitate proactive, da- ta-driven maintenance programs. MeasureQuick also streamlines tech- nicians’ workflows by interfacing with Bluetooth-enabled HVAC tools. It boosts productivity with guided diagnostics, comprehensive reports, and remote mon- itoring, reducing callbacks and increasing job satisfaction. Explore the unique advantage of mea- sureQuick, seamlessly compatible with leading Bluetooth-enabled tools from manufacturers like Testo, Fieldpiece, and Sauermann. It offers a unified interface to gather crucial data and streamline your diagnostic processes. Harness cutting-edge technology with measureQuick to elevate your team’s ca- pabilities and deliver exceptional cus- tomer service. Visit our booth at Summit in Asheville to experience firsthand the unmatched convenience and efficiency of integrat- ing your favorite tools in one platform. We look forward to meeting you there. For more information on Summit, click this gotosummit.com link. — by Jim Bergman, president of measureQuick measureQuick™ App Adds to Your High-Performance Approach SUMMIT SPONSOR HIGHLIGHTS14 AUGUST 2024HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYIs the entire duct system undersized or is there just a poor fitting or restriction? This is where duct pressure profiling comes in handy to help you locate the cause of those high pressures. To perform this test, you’ll use the same ma- nometer and accessories you used to measure static pressure. You also need a drill or impact driver to install test ports in the duct system (assuming the duct is accessible). Start on the side of the duct system with the highest pressure. It’s the one most restrictive to airflow. If you’re testing the supply side of the duct system, start at the supply plenum and work down the supply trunk duct, towards the end. If you’re on the return side, start at the return drop or plenum, and work down the return trunk to- wards the return grille(s). Install a test port every four feet downstream from your first test locations and then measure before proceeding. Look for suspect duct fittings like sharp transitions and turns. Drastic chang- es in duct pressure indicate excessive resistance to airflow. Once you see a large pressure change, identify E very High-Performance HVAC™ pro- fessional has been there: You’re trou- bleshooting an uncomfortable room and aren’t sure what to do next. You’ve mea- sured and diagnosed static pressure, fan airflow, refrigerant charge, and equipment temperatures. But now what? Nothing obvious stands out. It’s clear you need to move past the air moving equip- ment, but which direction should you go? You have a wide variety of tests to choose from, so it’s easy to get lost in the options. Unless you know what you’re looking for and why, you could end up looking for answers to the wrong questions. Let’s look at four air diagnostic tests that might get you out of a jam when trying to pinpoint the cause of a comfort problem. DUCT PRESSURE PROFILING Filter and coil testing results are often straight- forward. They will let you know if a coil or filter is dirty or restricted. However, when you dis- cover high static pressure readings on either or both sides of the duct system, it may leave you confused. Four Air Diagnostic Tests to Help You Pinpoint Comfort Problems By David Richardson TECHNICAL AUGUST 2024 15HVACTODAY.COMThe room pressure test helps you see if these airflow and pressure relation- ships are off. Start by turning on the HVAC sys- tem to the mode of operation you’re having problems with. Close the prob- lematic room’s door and attach a hose to the micromanometer. Attach a thin probe to the other end of the tubing (so it won’t kink) and slide it under- neath the door. If you see a pressure change more than ±3 pascals (Pa) there is an air- flow imbalance, or the interior door is acting like a damper — cutting off re- turn airflow to a central return grille. Inspect the duct system and its lay- out to see if the problem room has a supply register and return grille. If it has both, you’re dealing with an airflow imbalance. If the room only has a sup- ply and no return, you’re likely deal- ing with a situation where the door be- comes a damper. Comfort problems as- sociated with this instal- lation can be tricky be- cause they are often sit- uational and only appear when the door is closed. The system often works fine when the door is open. Unfortunately, most door undercuts won’t provide enough free area for ad- equate airflow circulation back to a central return. So, if you’re dealing with a system using a central return, you will proba- bly need a jumper duct to relieve room pressure. To estimate the duct size needed, you can crack the room door open until you see less than three pas- cals (3 Pa) on the micromanometer display. TEC’s Roomulator™ can help you identify options to relieve the pressure in the room. The addition of a jumper duct may be all you need to solve this problem on a central return system. But what if the problem room has both a supply and return in it and the room pressure test is inconclusive? This situation leads us to the third air diagnostic test. DELIVERED ROOM AIRFLOW Unless you measure airflow, you’re assuming an important piece of HVAC system performance. Many problematic rooms suffer from low airflow. So, to eliminate it as a poten- tial suspect, the third air diagnostic test involves measuring airflow into and out of the problem room. You’ll need a high-quality airflow hood to measure supply register and return grille airflow in the room. Some airflow hoods are designed for com- mercial and residential applications. what’s inside the duct and causing the problem, then repair it. This may be the only correction you need to make to fix a comfort problem. However, sometimes you won’t find any duct pressure problems, but there’s still an unresolved comfort is- sue in a room. This brings us to our next air diagnostic test. ROOM STATIC PRESSURE It’s possible you’ll need to look closer at the room you’re having issues with. One of the simplest tests is a room static pressure test. Just like you use a static pressure test for an HVAC sys- tem, you can also use one for a room. You might wonder why? Well, the room is part of the HVAC system. It’s what connects airflow from the sup- ply registers back to the return grilles. And unless you account for this con- nection, you could overlook a common source of comfort problems. To perform this test, you’ll need a high-precision manometer (microma- nometer) like a DG-8 from The En- ergy Conservatory (TEC). While a standard manometer is fine for mea- suring HVAC system pressures, it doesn’t have a low enough range to measure room pressure. During this test, look for how the room influences the HVAC system while it’s running. A properly bal- anced system will have equal airflow and pressures into and out of a room. TECHNICAL 16 AUGUST 2024HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYTECHNICAL and minimal leakage, the equipment and room temperature change should be very close. There will be some dif- ferences, but duct system temperature loss to a room shouldn’t exceed more than a 10% of the equipment’s tem- perature change. Let’s say you measure a heat pump operating in heating mode on a 30°F winter day. You measure tempera- tures at the air handler and find your supply air temperature is 88.9°F and return air temperature is 70.7°F. This equals an 18.2° temperature rise (88.9 – 70.7 = 18.2) across the air handler. Next, you measure temperatures in the supply register and return grille in the problematic room. You find that the supply register temperature read- ing is 80.6°F and the return grille tem- perature is 71.5°F. This equals a 9.1° temperature rise (80.6 – 71.5 = 9.1) across the room. To determine the percentage of duct temperature loss to the room, divide the 9.1° duct system temperature rise by the 18.2° air handler temperature rise (9.1 ÷ 18.2 = .5). After you move the decimal point two places to the right, you have a duct system tempera- ture loss of 50%! The most applicable repairs for duct temperature loss are adding duct insu- lation and duct sealing. Choose wise- ly from the various insulation options available. Some insulation types offer high promises but fail in extreme con- ditions. Repeating the temperature test can also help verify insulation ef- fectiveness once repairs are complete. AN AIR DIAGNOSTIC PROGRESSION Troubleshooting comfort problems will correct many comfort issues you encounter. However, there are some tougher ones that require looking be- yond airflow. This leads to our fourth air diagnostic test. DUCT SYSTEM TEMPERATURE LOSS Temperature is another ingredient needed for comfort. When combined with airflow, you get Sensible Btus, or heat that you feel. Unfortunately, duct system temperature loss prevents comfort in many rooms. Don’t assume a duct system located inside the condi- tioned space is safe from this problem. An easy way to check duct system temperature loss is to measure air temperatures from the supply regis- ter and return grille in the problem- atic room and compare them to the temperature change across the HVAC equipment. Using four wireless temperature probes lets you see live equipment and system temperatures and reduces the time involved. If a duct system has great insulation Make sure you choose one based on the type of work you do most and re- search options before investing. You can always contact NCI with questions and our recommendations. One principle we teach in NCI’s Duct System Optimization course is how to estimate room airflow. Use the following simple test to quickly troubleshoot a single room to see if it has enough airflow. To perform the test, measure sup- ply airflow into the problem room with the airflow hood. Then compare your measurements to the room air- flow estimate and see how close you are. If supply and return airflow are with- in ± 10% of estimated airflow, then the ducts are in good shape. However, if airflow on either the supply or return is less than ± 10%, you’ll want to look for duct restrictions. Common duct restrictions include kinks, excess flex duct core, too many elbows, under- sized ducting, and improper support. Getting the proper amount of air- flow in and out of a problematic room AUGUST 2024 17HVACTODAY.COMTECHNICAL situation and customer relationship. If it’s a new installation or long-time customer, you might choose to offer the testing as a goodwill offering and relationship builder. However you choose to progress, re- member to keep things simple and ed- ucate your customers in a way that’s easy to understand. This requires an air diagnostic pro- gression and understanding of build- ing science principles. While this isn’t something many HVAC professionals will do daily, the knowledge is critical to understand how an HVAC system keeps your customers comfortable. Your HVAC airflow diagnostics may need to shift to building airflow di- agnostics. The room pressure test we covered in this article is the first step towards this progression. It causes you to look at the HVAC system from another perspective. Blower door test- ing is another natural progression. Depending on the situation, you may need to be paid an additional fee for these tests. After all, they are special- ized. You’ll have to decide how much you give away or charge based on the can be tough. I hope these air diagnos- tic tests help you eliminate potential suspects and pinpoint overlooked causes. While I used examples of single sit- uations in this article, you can apply them to much more than one instal- lation scenario or mode of operation. You’ll notice the tests started with pres- sure, moved to airflow, and finished with temperature. These are all tests you can learn with a little practice on your own home or office systems. We have a responsibility to make sure a comfort problem isn’t the result of an HVAC issue and if it is to test, di- agnose, and repair it. However, some- times the problem is outside the scope of an HVAC system, so you need to know where to look. David Richardson serves the HVAC industry as Vice President of Training for National Comfort Institute, Inc. (NCI). NCI specializes in training focused on improving, measuring, and verifying HVAC and Building Performance. If you’re an HVAC contractor or technician interested in making sure your HVAC systems grow up healthy and strong, contact David at ncilink.com/ContactMe. 18 AUGUST 2024HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYAUGUST 2024 19HVACTODAY.COM to make sure we deliver the results we want. But what does that have to do with business strategic planning? It actually has a lot to do with it! It’s still strate- gic planning, no matter how you slice it. It’s difficult to tell how well an HVAC business is doing and what its team can do better if we don’t use numbers to define our goals and track our progress. These numbers aren’t just financial, either; in many cases, businesses tend to bring in more money in the summer due to the increased de- mand for cooling, not due to any meaningful im- provements in operation. Finances alone typical- ly don’t provide key insights into your business’s performance. Numbers are important when it comes to cre- ating and managing a business strategy. To be ef- fective, these strategies need to have measurable goals, and we need to be able to track them with relevant numbers. Just as we take measurements and use them to develop a plan to upgrade a customer’s HVAC system, HVAC business owners gather key data about their organization to make business plans, track progress, and take action to address poten- tial obstacles. OBJECTIVES & KEY RESULTS (OKRS) Kalos Services has an internal leadership pro- gram, and the very first lesson the students re- ceive is about OKRs and how to create them. The OKR framework allows a person to make plans based on two items: objectives (goals) and key re- sults (the metrics they use to indicate progress to- ward those goals). Objectives and the SMART Framework: When we think about business objectives or goals S trategic planning and management are a healthy part of any HVAC business. The HVAC trade has so many variables that affect a business’s ability to be profitable, grow, and build a good reputation in the commu- nity; it’s hard to manage that by just taking calls as you receive them and going with the flow. Let’s say a customer asks you to replace their ductwork. Do you just discuss pricing, tear out the old ductwork, replace it with new ductwork, collect payment, and call it a day? Of course not; High-Performance HVAC™ contractors don’t take a “throw-things-at-a-wall-and-see-what- sticks” approach to serious comfort decisions for their customers. COLLECTING DATA We can’t know how well an HVAC system de- livers capacity if we don’t take the system’s vitals, like Total External Static Pressure (TESP) in the air handler and in the ductwork. At Kalos Services, we don’t take action until we can create a plan that addresses those read- ings — and then we test in and test out at the end Strategic Planning for HVAC: From Measuring TESP to OKRs & KPIs By Emily Gutowski MANAGEMENTNext >