The Article Below was published today by Fox News. Even in South Florida where you would not think of this "Carbon Monoxide Problem" there were 5 teenagers killed celebrating a birthday.
Please recognize the signs, make yourself familiar with them all. Teach your children, parents check on your elderly neighbors-if we are vigilant we can minimize this needless tragedy!
May your new year be a safe and prosperous one.
I will work to bring more frequent information, attempt to clarify some of the false information that is out there about Heating and Air Conditioning, I believe that a well informed consumer is the best type of potential client.
There are many snake oil salesmen in this industry, I want to make sure that they are less likely to fool the consumer because when they do it casts a bad light on all of us.
Understand as a Business person Profit is not a dirty word-Stealing from a consumer, lieing to a consumer, not providing what the consumer needs at a fair price is wrong.
Thanks for viewing
Kevin
5 Teens Found Dead in South Florida Motel Room
Published December 28, 2010
FoxNews.com
Print Email Share Comments (106) Text Size Five teenagers celebrating a friend's birthday inside a South Florida hotel room were accidentally killed by carbon monoxide from a running car, authorities said.
A spokesman with the Hialeah Fire Department said a hotel maid called 911 Monday after seeing people unconscious through a window at the Hotel Presidente near Miami International Airport.
The Miami Herald reports that the bodies of the teenagers -- Juchen Martial, 19, Evans Charles, 19, Jonas Antenor, 18, Peterson Nazon, 17, and Jean Pierre Ferdinand, 16 -- were found on or around their beds at approximately 2 p.m. Monday.
The friends, all from a small Haitian community in Miami, rented the motel room the day after Christmas to celebrate Martial's 19th birthday, according to the newspaper.
Police spokesman Carl Zogby said the teenagers' deaths were accidental.
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A car used by the group, a red Kia Optima, was found running in a closed garage underneath the room. Friends say the car had needed a jump-start earlier and could have been left running to preserve the battery's charge. A door leading to a staircase up to the room had been left slightly open, and high levels of carbon monoxide were found inside.
Officials found no alcohol, drugs or suspicious items in the room. Bags of McDonald's -- some of the food uneaten -- were found in the room, according to the Herald.
Authorities say the incident is still under investigation. Zogby told the newspaper that police are examining the hotel's inspection and fire records to determine whether it was required to install carbon monoxide detectors.
Click here to read more from the Miami Herald
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Maintenance is KEY to all HVACR Systems
I found an article this morning by a gentleman from Long Island by the name of Dan Holohan. He has long been considered as one of the leading authorities on Steam Heating Systems. Having attended one of his Dead Men Steam courses I can say that while in the class I got the answer to 2 problems we were having in seperate facilities and was then able to use my new found knowledge to demonstrate accurately to a client the problems that were in their system.
Having this confidence in Dan I subscribe to his weekly E-Zine. This article appeared in this issue and is shown below giving full credit to Dan.
The $37 million steam trap
Info
Author
Dan Holohan Published
August 25, 2010 Subscribe to RSS feed
Here’s to preventative maintenance, a practice often overlooked. When the laws of physics and the laws of economics collide, the laws of economics nearly always win in the short run, and especially in this slow economy. The laws of physics, however, don’t care about anyone’s budget, or anyone’s ignorance. The laws of physics just win in the end. Always.
So even if people are putting off preventative maintenance today to save a buck, they’ll pay tomorrow, and through the nose because there’s no escaping Mother Nature. She can be vicious and she’s forever relentless. And when things go wrong, we blame her instead of ourselves. But I think we’re to blame because we’re dopey enough to pretend that Mother Nature isn’t there. Here’s a higher-education example of just that:
Dartmouth College gets about $37,000 per undergraduate for yearly tuition. Not the most expensive school around, but still dear enough to get your attention.
James Wright, the current President of Dartmouth, lives in an 83-year-old house that has also been home to the past six Dartmouth presidents. It’s one of the nice things about being the boss. The place will get some long-overdue renovations this summer, and all to make it ready for President-elect, Jim Yong Kim and his family. They’re going to knock down most of the walls and spend six months and about $2.8 million to fix up the place.
Let that number sink in for a moment.
I read an interview where President Wright explained that when he and his wife, Susan, first moved into the house in 1998, he chose to delay renovations to the heating, water and plumbing systems because it would be “invasiveness.” I can understand that, but here we are 11 years later and you can imagine what’s gone on in that old house since the Wrights moved in. You don’t know “invasive” until you’ve ignored and upset Mother Nature. She never sleeps.
"We live in a wonderful, historic house,” says President Wright, “but it is an embarrassment for an institution like Dartmouth to have a house in this condition, so I am pleased the Board is more than willing to go ahead with some of these renovations."
Parents, grab your wallets.
The house is still using its original heating and plumbing systems, and they’re going to replace it all. They’re switching from steam to hot water because (are you ready?) “The steam system has resulted in significant heat loss, leaks and damage.”
Okay, I’ll go for the leaks and damage. Steam systems will do that if you ignore them for nearly a century, but I think the heat loss has more to do with the building envelope that it has to do with the system itself. But, hey, I’m no Ivy League graduate.
“The current system is not only uncomfortable, it's wasteful," President Wright said. "It's not efficient, and Dartmouth should do better. We're going to miss living in the house immensely, but we certainly won't miss the heating system in the house, and we won't miss the other problems. There is water in the basement oftentimes. There are issues of mold down there, which really can be a health issue, and there is seepage coming in from the foundation."
And he’s been living with this since 1988. Go figure.
Dartmouth offers degrees in engineering, up to the stratospheric Ph.D. level. Wouldn’t you think that, over all these years, at least one of those students would have checked out the heating system in the president’s house? Done a bit of preventative maintenance. Reached out and touched the real stuff. Or is it just me?
And that brings me to the $37 million steam trap.
On July 18, 2007, it rained here on the Isle of Long and in New York City. Now this wasn’t a normal summer rain. This rain would have gotten Noah’s attention. I stood at my backdoor and watched the water creep up our concrete patio and nearly enter the house without knocking, and that had never happened in the 30 years Marianne and I have lived here. It was impressive.
Later that day, after the rain had stopped, the corner of Lexington Avenue and 41st in Manhattan exploded in a plume of steam that rose higher than the 1,047-foot Chrysler Building. This happened when a 24-inch, high-pressure steam main, installed in 1924 (about the same time as the Dartmouth President’s house), let loose. It left a crater 15-feet deep and 35-feet wide. Asbestos coated everything. A 51-year-old New Jersey woman, who worked a block away, ran from it, had a heart attack and died. A 22-year-old, tow-truck driver was in the middle of the intersection when this ground exploded. It lifted his truck 12 feet in the air and dropped it back down onto the 400-degree steam. He lived, but spent months afterward in a medically induced coma because of his burns. It was horrible.
“The rain started that,” I said to Marianne when I saw it on the news that evening.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“The rain cooled the steam main and the steam inside the main condensed. When you suddenly have that much water moving at that speed, you’re going to get water hammer, and this is what water hammer can do.”
We watched the news together. I mumbled more about the power of steam, and about Mother Nature. Marianne puts up with me when I get like this. She’s good that way.
The steam mains under New York City streets share the space with a lot of other stuff. There are sewers, electrical cables, phone lines, water mains, subways, and more. I can’t walk by any New York City excavation site without stopping to stare for a good long while. It looks like a bowl of linguine down there. You have to see it to believe it.
There are manhole covers on just about every corner, and this is where you’ll find the steam traps. There’s often steam spewing from those manhole covers and we New Yorkers see this as perfectly normal. ConEd, the district steam company, used to have an advertising slogan: Dig We Must.
And they sure do.
The official report came out on December 27, 2007. A contractor had used sealant to repair a leak in a joint, and the excess sealant had gotten into two nearby steam traps and clogged them. No one noticed this. When the rain arrived and cooled the steam pipes, it created lots of condensate, which the traps couldn’t drain because they were clogged with sealant. The water gathered and launched itself at Lexington and 41st. It hit with an unbelievable amount of pressure, and that was that.
From a November 12, 2008, ConEd press release:
“The New York State Public Service Commission today approved a $37 million settlement with Con Edison to resolve the Commission's prudence investigation evaluating the company's actions and practices relating to the Lexington Avenue - East 41st Street steam event. Under the settlement, Con Edison will not seek to recover from customers some $37 million in costs related to the incident.
“The July 18, 2007 steam incident in midtown Manhattan was a difficult time for many of our customers. Con Edison sincerely regrets the incident and the substantial and profound impacts the incident had on our customers and the public. The company is committed to learning from this experience in order to strengthen the safety and reliability of the steam system and has implemented measures to enhance its system.
“Con Edison has implemented an action plan in conjunction with experts' findings that includes replacement of all 1,654 steam traps on the system with an improved design; enhanced rain response procedures to include physical inspection of manholes in flood or vapor-prone areas; new repair oversight protocols; remote monitoring; research and development on steam trap design, as well as new steam trap inspection and testing procedures.
“The environmentally friendly steam system serves major institutions in Manhattan below 96th Street, including museums, hospitals, government and commercial buildings, skyscrapers, as well as apartments and private residences. It supplies heat, air conditioning, humidification, and sterilization services. Con Edison's steam system is the largest in the United States, larger than the next nine steam systems combined.”
A steam incident. I like that.
And okay, there were two traps, so the actual cost per trap was only $18.5 million, not $37 million. A bargain!
While this points out the extreme in what can happen as a result of a lack of maintenance this brings home some serious issues.
A lack of maintenance appears to provide savings during the first few months as your noticable out of pocket expenses are less. What tends to go unnoticed is that with dirty filters equipment has to run longer to provide the same amount of heat to the space it services. This leads to increases in utility bills, uncomfortable employees and on and on-bringing about increases that over time far exceed the short term savings.
Until the next post-Let all those you love know it every moment of everyday!
Having this confidence in Dan I subscribe to his weekly E-Zine. This article appeared in this issue and is shown below giving full credit to Dan.
The $37 million steam trap
Info
Author
Dan Holohan Published
August 25, 2010 Subscribe to RSS feed
Here’s to preventative maintenance, a practice often overlooked. When the laws of physics and the laws of economics collide, the laws of economics nearly always win in the short run, and especially in this slow economy. The laws of physics, however, don’t care about anyone’s budget, or anyone’s ignorance. The laws of physics just win in the end. Always.
So even if people are putting off preventative maintenance today to save a buck, they’ll pay tomorrow, and through the nose because there’s no escaping Mother Nature. She can be vicious and she’s forever relentless. And when things go wrong, we blame her instead of ourselves. But I think we’re to blame because we’re dopey enough to pretend that Mother Nature isn’t there. Here’s a higher-education example of just that:
Dartmouth College gets about $37,000 per undergraduate for yearly tuition. Not the most expensive school around, but still dear enough to get your attention.
James Wright, the current President of Dartmouth, lives in an 83-year-old house that has also been home to the past six Dartmouth presidents. It’s one of the nice things about being the boss. The place will get some long-overdue renovations this summer, and all to make it ready for President-elect, Jim Yong Kim and his family. They’re going to knock down most of the walls and spend six months and about $2.8 million to fix up the place.
Let that number sink in for a moment.
I read an interview where President Wright explained that when he and his wife, Susan, first moved into the house in 1998, he chose to delay renovations to the heating, water and plumbing systems because it would be “invasiveness.” I can understand that, but here we are 11 years later and you can imagine what’s gone on in that old house since the Wrights moved in. You don’t know “invasive” until you’ve ignored and upset Mother Nature. She never sleeps.
"We live in a wonderful, historic house,” says President Wright, “but it is an embarrassment for an institution like Dartmouth to have a house in this condition, so I am pleased the Board is more than willing to go ahead with some of these renovations."
Parents, grab your wallets.
The house is still using its original heating and plumbing systems, and they’re going to replace it all. They’re switching from steam to hot water because (are you ready?) “The steam system has resulted in significant heat loss, leaks and damage.”
Okay, I’ll go for the leaks and damage. Steam systems will do that if you ignore them for nearly a century, but I think the heat loss has more to do with the building envelope that it has to do with the system itself. But, hey, I’m no Ivy League graduate.
“The current system is not only uncomfortable, it's wasteful," President Wright said. "It's not efficient, and Dartmouth should do better. We're going to miss living in the house immensely, but we certainly won't miss the heating system in the house, and we won't miss the other problems. There is water in the basement oftentimes. There are issues of mold down there, which really can be a health issue, and there is seepage coming in from the foundation."
And he’s been living with this since 1988. Go figure.
Dartmouth offers degrees in engineering, up to the stratospheric Ph.D. level. Wouldn’t you think that, over all these years, at least one of those students would have checked out the heating system in the president’s house? Done a bit of preventative maintenance. Reached out and touched the real stuff. Or is it just me?
And that brings me to the $37 million steam trap.
On July 18, 2007, it rained here on the Isle of Long and in New York City. Now this wasn’t a normal summer rain. This rain would have gotten Noah’s attention. I stood at my backdoor and watched the water creep up our concrete patio and nearly enter the house without knocking, and that had never happened in the 30 years Marianne and I have lived here. It was impressive.
Later that day, after the rain had stopped, the corner of Lexington Avenue and 41st in Manhattan exploded in a plume of steam that rose higher than the 1,047-foot Chrysler Building. This happened when a 24-inch, high-pressure steam main, installed in 1924 (about the same time as the Dartmouth President’s house), let loose. It left a crater 15-feet deep and 35-feet wide. Asbestos coated everything. A 51-year-old New Jersey woman, who worked a block away, ran from it, had a heart attack and died. A 22-year-old, tow-truck driver was in the middle of the intersection when this ground exploded. It lifted his truck 12 feet in the air and dropped it back down onto the 400-degree steam. He lived, but spent months afterward in a medically induced coma because of his burns. It was horrible.
“The rain started that,” I said to Marianne when I saw it on the news that evening.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“The rain cooled the steam main and the steam inside the main condensed. When you suddenly have that much water moving at that speed, you’re going to get water hammer, and this is what water hammer can do.”
We watched the news together. I mumbled more about the power of steam, and about Mother Nature. Marianne puts up with me when I get like this. She’s good that way.
The steam mains under New York City streets share the space with a lot of other stuff. There are sewers, electrical cables, phone lines, water mains, subways, and more. I can’t walk by any New York City excavation site without stopping to stare for a good long while. It looks like a bowl of linguine down there. You have to see it to believe it.
There are manhole covers on just about every corner, and this is where you’ll find the steam traps. There’s often steam spewing from those manhole covers and we New Yorkers see this as perfectly normal. ConEd, the district steam company, used to have an advertising slogan: Dig We Must.
And they sure do.
The official report came out on December 27, 2007. A contractor had used sealant to repair a leak in a joint, and the excess sealant had gotten into two nearby steam traps and clogged them. No one noticed this. When the rain arrived and cooled the steam pipes, it created lots of condensate, which the traps couldn’t drain because they were clogged with sealant. The water gathered and launched itself at Lexington and 41st. It hit with an unbelievable amount of pressure, and that was that.
From a November 12, 2008, ConEd press release:
“The New York State Public Service Commission today approved a $37 million settlement with Con Edison to resolve the Commission's prudence investigation evaluating the company's actions and practices relating to the Lexington Avenue - East 41st Street steam event. Under the settlement, Con Edison will not seek to recover from customers some $37 million in costs related to the incident.
“The July 18, 2007 steam incident in midtown Manhattan was a difficult time for many of our customers. Con Edison sincerely regrets the incident and the substantial and profound impacts the incident had on our customers and the public. The company is committed to learning from this experience in order to strengthen the safety and reliability of the steam system and has implemented measures to enhance its system.
“Con Edison has implemented an action plan in conjunction with experts' findings that includes replacement of all 1,654 steam traps on the system with an improved design; enhanced rain response procedures to include physical inspection of manholes in flood or vapor-prone areas; new repair oversight protocols; remote monitoring; research and development on steam trap design, as well as new steam trap inspection and testing procedures.
“The environmentally friendly steam system serves major institutions in Manhattan below 96th Street, including museums, hospitals, government and commercial buildings, skyscrapers, as well as apartments and private residences. It supplies heat, air conditioning, humidification, and sterilization services. Con Edison's steam system is the largest in the United States, larger than the next nine steam systems combined.”
A steam incident. I like that.
And okay, there were two traps, so the actual cost per trap was only $18.5 million, not $37 million. A bargain!
While this points out the extreme in what can happen as a result of a lack of maintenance this brings home some serious issues.
A lack of maintenance appears to provide savings during the first few months as your noticable out of pocket expenses are less. What tends to go unnoticed is that with dirty filters equipment has to run longer to provide the same amount of heat to the space it services. This leads to increases in utility bills, uncomfortable employees and on and on-bringing about increases that over time far exceed the short term savings.
Until the next post-Let all those you love know it every moment of everyday!
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Service is a legacy
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/obituaries/news/s_711645.html
This is a little different. The above link is to my own mothers obituary. In my loss and going thru many of her things-scrap books, articles, family memories and highlighted by her obituary I see where the strength of drive for service comes from in our company.
I watch thru the years as my mother worked so diligently with those who were, by the worlds standards, Handicapped. With her dedication to the Special Olympics, an annual fishing trip for her students, taking 3 years to teach one of her students to ride a tri-cycle, coming home exhausted from taking these students out of their wheel chairs and jumping all day on a trampoline while holding these precious kids in her arms. They were special to her just like us, her own children were. This level of commitment and service is rarely found in people in today's world. This day and age it is about ME! or as a former employer put it WIFM-What's in it for ME! with most people I meet.
With her passing I have begun to reexamine my own life. My accomplishments, My misdeeds, My life as a whole to see if I even was truly what I wanted to be.
You know what I have found-everything I am proud of and that means the most to me are the qualities I have been seeing in my MOTHER during all this time of reflection. I will rise in the middle of the night for a friend in need, I will miss an event that I really want to go to if a client has no heat or needs a part, I have been teaching Sunday school and driving the van to pick up people who have no means of attending church for a long time now-it adds another 8 hour work day for me on Sunday's. It does not matter though. It makes me happy, It makes others happy-It is service before self like my mother lived.
I wish you all could have met this wonderful mother, servant, friend, teacher, life coach......she was special to me and I hope to continue to be a testament to that legacy.
I want this testament to continue to be a part of what my company is. I want it to rub off on all around me-those I meet, those I have known for years and those I pass on the street.
It would be my wish, and I know my mothers as well, that everyone who reads this would go and call their parents, tell them how much they mean to you, get to them as fast as you can and as often as you can to hug them and share their company, never pass up an opportunity to see them, set a time each day as my mother and I had to call them just to say hello-or from a dear friend and his fiance shared with me(which is what I did for mom)-WAkey, WAkey, Eggs and Bakey.
May you always rise to meet the day with a smile, Love and prayer on your heart, and leave this world a better place than when you found it.
God Bless you all!
This is a little different. The above link is to my own mothers obituary. In my loss and going thru many of her things-scrap books, articles, family memories and highlighted by her obituary I see where the strength of drive for service comes from in our company.
I watch thru the years as my mother worked so diligently with those who were, by the worlds standards, Handicapped. With her dedication to the Special Olympics, an annual fishing trip for her students, taking 3 years to teach one of her students to ride a tri-cycle, coming home exhausted from taking these students out of their wheel chairs and jumping all day on a trampoline while holding these precious kids in her arms. They were special to her just like us, her own children were. This level of commitment and service is rarely found in people in today's world. This day and age it is about ME! or as a former employer put it WIFM-What's in it for ME! with most people I meet.
With her passing I have begun to reexamine my own life. My accomplishments, My misdeeds, My life as a whole to see if I even was truly what I wanted to be.
You know what I have found-everything I am proud of and that means the most to me are the qualities I have been seeing in my MOTHER during all this time of reflection. I will rise in the middle of the night for a friend in need, I will miss an event that I really want to go to if a client has no heat or needs a part, I have been teaching Sunday school and driving the van to pick up people who have no means of attending church for a long time now-it adds another 8 hour work day for me on Sunday's. It does not matter though. It makes me happy, It makes others happy-It is service before self like my mother lived.
I wish you all could have met this wonderful mother, servant, friend, teacher, life coach......she was special to me and I hope to continue to be a testament to that legacy.
I want this testament to continue to be a part of what my company is. I want it to rub off on all around me-those I meet, those I have known for years and those I pass on the street.
It would be my wish, and I know my mothers as well, that everyone who reads this would go and call their parents, tell them how much they mean to you, get to them as fast as you can and as often as you can to hug them and share their company, never pass up an opportunity to see them, set a time each day as my mother and I had to call them just to say hello-or from a dear friend and his fiance shared with me(which is what I did for mom)-WAkey, WAkey, Eggs and Bakey.
May you always rise to meet the day with a smile, Love and prayer on your heart, and leave this world a better place than when you found it.
God Bless you all!
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
Although this issue is a problem year round it seems to be highlighted most often at the beginning of the heating season. As a result of this I felt that some issues with and around it should be pointed out to everyone.
Carbon Monoxide is a colorless, Odorless, tasteless by product of incomplete combustion of fuel-wood, nat. gas, Propane and others. Hundreds of people die each year nationwide from accidental Carbon Monoxide Poisoning. I like to believe that the majority of these deaths could have been prevented with education and greater awareness.
In Allegheny county last year during the heating season, October 1-May 31 there were 31 accidental poisonings with 24 being attributed to faulty heating systems and automobiles running in the garage(Source Allegheny County Health Department). Preventing these problems are as simple as having your furnace and water heater professionally serviced every fall-an investment of around 90-110 dollars from a firm performing a complete inspection and cleaning. It is also wise to have your chimney for your wood burner, fireplace, etc inspected and serviced if required.
Install a carbon monoxide alarm on each floor of your house.
Symptoms of CO poisoning may include any of the following:headaches, dizziness,weakness, nausea, rapid heart beat, loss of hearing, blurry vision, vomiting, disorientation, seizures, loss of consciousness, coma, respiratory failure and cardiac arrest.
Everyone is at risk of carbon monoxide poisoning! However, those with heart or lung diseases, the elderly, infants, children and pregnant women are most vulnerable.
If you experience symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning leave the area, home or building, completely-get out of there to the outside and call 911.
Please feel free to pass this information on to whomever you feel needs it. Who knows perhaps it may save their life
Carbon Monoxide is a colorless, Odorless, tasteless by product of incomplete combustion of fuel-wood, nat. gas, Propane and others. Hundreds of people die each year nationwide from accidental Carbon Monoxide Poisoning. I like to believe that the majority of these deaths could have been prevented with education and greater awareness.
In Allegheny county last year during the heating season, October 1-May 31 there were 31 accidental poisonings with 24 being attributed to faulty heating systems and automobiles running in the garage(Source Allegheny County Health Department). Preventing these problems are as simple as having your furnace and water heater professionally serviced every fall-an investment of around 90-110 dollars from a firm performing a complete inspection and cleaning. It is also wise to have your chimney for your wood burner, fireplace, etc inspected and serviced if required.
Install a carbon monoxide alarm on each floor of your house.
Symptoms of CO poisoning may include any of the following:headaches, dizziness,weakness, nausea, rapid heart beat, loss of hearing, blurry vision, vomiting, disorientation, seizures, loss of consciousness, coma, respiratory failure and cardiac arrest.
Everyone is at risk of carbon monoxide poisoning! However, those with heart or lung diseases, the elderly, infants, children and pregnant women are most vulnerable.
If you experience symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning leave the area, home or building, completely-get out of there to the outside and call 911.
Please feel free to pass this information on to whomever you feel needs it. Who knows perhaps it may save their life
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Fall Furnace/Boiler Clean and Check
Wow, Can you believe it? Cold weather is just around the corner which means it is time for those fall heating system clean and checks. Whether it is a home furnace/boiler or a commercial rooftop unit/Boiler there are minimum things you should have your maintenance service company do. I will provide a brief outline below-please note this is not complete or exact by any stretch-It is meant to be an outline/minimum in the applicable situation.
1.) visually inspect the heat exchanger/burner chamber.
2.) Pull and clean burners, vacuum in, under and around equipment.
3.) Inspect the flue/vent pipe.
4.) Inspect and lubricate the draft inducer fan, the blower/supply fan, circulating pump.
5.) Check and clean fan wheels as necessary,
6.) Check pump coupling and mounts along with alignment.
7.) Clean and check the pilot ignition system.
8.) Perform combustion analysis and CO test.
9.) Inspect filter and Change as required.
10.) Check all safeties for proper operation./Clean all boiler water safeties and site glass.
11.) Check Thermostat-controls/Boiler water reset controls.
12.) Note any deficiencies and discuss with owner.
13.) Provide detailed service report noting all readings etc for owner signature.
This preseason work is very important. Not only for personal safety but also for operational efficiency. I have seen equipment that was so dirty that it could have never provided sufficient heat. At one site we found 20 units out of 21 inspected that posed severe Carbon Monoxide poisoning opportunities had they not been inspected.
The first operational inspection of each season is the most important. While it may not eliminate the need for service during the season-no heat calls, needing to change filters again etc. It will improve the equipments efficiency, reduce your utility bills and keep your home more comfortable.
Remember-The 19.99 blue light special does not get the job done-I even would venture that 100% of the time technicians from these companies "FIND" problems. Now there is no way to check this out because any one who is performing this "blue light special" service is stealing from their customers, so why would they be honest.
Keep warm and stay safe.
1.) visually inspect the heat exchanger/burner chamber.
2.) Pull and clean burners, vacuum in, under and around equipment.
3.) Inspect the flue/vent pipe.
4.) Inspect and lubricate the draft inducer fan, the blower/supply fan, circulating pump.
5.) Check and clean fan wheels as necessary,
6.) Check pump coupling and mounts along with alignment.
7.) Clean and check the pilot ignition system.
8.) Perform combustion analysis and CO test.
9.) Inspect filter and Change as required.
10.) Check all safeties for proper operation./Clean all boiler water safeties and site glass.
11.) Check Thermostat-controls/Boiler water reset controls.
12.) Note any deficiencies and discuss with owner.
13.) Provide detailed service report noting all readings etc for owner signature.
This preseason work is very important. Not only for personal safety but also for operational efficiency. I have seen equipment that was so dirty that it could have never provided sufficient heat. At one site we found 20 units out of 21 inspected that posed severe Carbon Monoxide poisoning opportunities had they not been inspected.
The first operational inspection of each season is the most important. While it may not eliminate the need for service during the season-no heat calls, needing to change filters again etc. It will improve the equipments efficiency, reduce your utility bills and keep your home more comfortable.
Remember-The 19.99 blue light special does not get the job done-I even would venture that 100% of the time technicians from these companies "FIND" problems. Now there is no way to check this out because any one who is performing this "blue light special" service is stealing from their customers, so why would they be honest.
Keep warm and stay safe.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Not Again!
Well just watched another commercial from one of our local large hvac contractors. They spewed about the 19.95 clean and check not being the way to go. That the companies get in and either do not do the job right or find a very expensive repair/your unit needs replaced! This was good so far-then they concluded the commercial with "We will match any competitors price!"?? What? You just lost on this one guys. Now you have made yourself a commodity/A BLUE LIGHT SPECIAL. You are no better than anyone else-It is about the dollar. Not that you can improve the operation of the system. Fix some duct leaks-maybe move more air to a room that is always the warmest in the summer and the coldest in the winter.
You have done nothing to deserve this business-even more so you have done nothing for the customer to improve their indoor environment. You have missed the opportunity to distinguish yourself from the low price leader.
One of the things you want to do is be different, be a better value-resolve problems beyond just installing new(industry buzz word) Green=Environmentally friendly=Energy Saving equipment. What is the use of putting a new engine in a car if the frame is rotted out? That is what you are doing-A Dis Service to the customer/Your Customer! Better yet maybe a Brain Transplant on someone who has been dead for a week.
People, If you hear those words-"We will match their price!" Run far and fast. You will not be getting what you deserve and many times what you need.
Be careful when selecting a service company to perform any work for you. There are a lot of good ones out there but an equal number of bad ones.
You have done nothing to deserve this business-even more so you have done nothing for the customer to improve their indoor environment. You have missed the opportunity to distinguish yourself from the low price leader.
One of the things you want to do is be different, be a better value-resolve problems beyond just installing new(industry buzz word) Green=Environmentally friendly=Energy Saving equipment. What is the use of putting a new engine in a car if the frame is rotted out? That is what you are doing-A Dis Service to the customer/Your Customer! Better yet maybe a Brain Transplant on someone who has been dead for a week.
People, If you hear those words-"We will match their price!" Run far and fast. You will not be getting what you deserve and many times what you need.
Be careful when selecting a service company to perform any work for you. There are a lot of good ones out there but an equal number of bad ones.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
On The Other Side
I have been trying for the past week to obtain contacts and proposals for an aquaintence of mine who has a facility in another state and would like a Maintenace program for his HVAC Equipment. I have gone to both the Air Conditioning Contractors of America site and The Mechanical Service Contractors of Americas site and selected a number of contractors with in a 25 mile radius of this building.
5 Service companies were contacted after I reviewed their websites(several were eliminated because they did not have a web site). So far 2 have responded they only due residential service in the area this building is located(within 15 miles of their offices)-although their websites indicate they due large commercial service. One has not responded as of now. It seems terribly confusing that service companies advertise things they do not do/or want to do and as well they take so long to return a phone call.
Prompt service means, at a minimum returning a call and acknowledging the request. Not doing anything sounds like someone that has more work than they can handle. In the current market place that is hardly the case.
There are many service companies out there that wait for the phone to ring. This type of response above may be an indication of this type of firm. Slow service/slow response. Confusing but maybe not someone you want in you facility.
5 Service companies were contacted after I reviewed their websites(several were eliminated because they did not have a web site). So far 2 have responded they only due residential service in the area this building is located(within 15 miles of their offices)-although their websites indicate they due large commercial service. One has not responded as of now. It seems terribly confusing that service companies advertise things they do not do/or want to do and as well they take so long to return a phone call.
Prompt service means, at a minimum returning a call and acknowledging the request. Not doing anything sounds like someone that has more work than they can handle. In the current market place that is hardly the case.
There are many service companies out there that wait for the phone to ring. This type of response above may be an indication of this type of firm. Slow service/slow response. Confusing but maybe not someone you want in you facility.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Beware of the Low Price Leader
I heard a television commercial in our area from a competitor #2-"We are not the ____ dollar blue light special"
I thought it was pretty clever to go in the opposite direction from the king of local television advertising/Blue light Pricing(competitor #1)-by a company that the last time I heard from someone who used them said"They were not worth the blue light special" Now in being fair to the company 2 I have not run across much of their work other than that comment listed above but for competitor #1 I have seen lots of work by them-$1600 dollar thermocouple replacement, $458 dollar capacitor replacement, $3500 dollar condensing unit replacement quote when all that was wrong was a broken electrical connection-and on and on.
There are a lot of companies out there that believe that PRICE is the only way to sell. I differ from that in I believe that integrity, Fair Value, and Exceptional service are more desirable.
Beware of these low price leaders-Spring clean and check of your a/c for 29.99(YOU CAN NOT GET A TRUCK TO THE SITE AND DO THE WORK FOR THAT MONEY EVEN IF THE TECHNICIAN LIVES NEXT DOOR) or the 39.99 fall start up inspection-again as above.
Realistically-79 to 89 dollars is what the reputable firms are asking for these above services. A company needs to make at least a 10% net profit to stay in business. That means that each of these calls is 8-9 dollars profit if there is nothing that needs done on your equipment, not alot of money to keep your doors open. However, firms that are charging in this range see every action an employee performs as a need to make money-not sucker them in with a really low offer then BANG!-You have a problem and it will be the cost of your entire months pay to fix it.
Remember what Grandpa used to say"IF it seems to good to be true there has to be a catch somewhere!" and this catch involves your wallet.
This type of approach to service lends itself to a company that may commission/incentivize their employees which can cause them to mislead/lie to the homeowner/business owner. Generally leading to work being performed that is unnecessary and Expensive.
Make sure to ask questions of the company coming to your home. Look in my two previous blogs for information on questioning.
I thought it was pretty clever to go in the opposite direction from the king of local television advertising/Blue light Pricing(competitor #1)-by a company that the last time I heard from someone who used them said"They were not worth the blue light special" Now in being fair to the company 2 I have not run across much of their work other than that comment listed above but for competitor #1 I have seen lots of work by them-$1600 dollar thermocouple replacement, $458 dollar capacitor replacement, $3500 dollar condensing unit replacement quote when all that was wrong was a broken electrical connection-and on and on.
There are a lot of companies out there that believe that PRICE is the only way to sell. I differ from that in I believe that integrity, Fair Value, and Exceptional service are more desirable.
Beware of these low price leaders-Spring clean and check of your a/c for 29.99(YOU CAN NOT GET A TRUCK TO THE SITE AND DO THE WORK FOR THAT MONEY EVEN IF THE TECHNICIAN LIVES NEXT DOOR) or the 39.99 fall start up inspection-again as above.
Realistically-79 to 89 dollars is what the reputable firms are asking for these above services. A company needs to make at least a 10% net profit to stay in business. That means that each of these calls is 8-9 dollars profit if there is nothing that needs done on your equipment, not alot of money to keep your doors open. However, firms that are charging in this range see every action an employee performs as a need to make money-not sucker them in with a really low offer then BANG!-You have a problem and it will be the cost of your entire months pay to fix it.
Remember what Grandpa used to say"IF it seems to good to be true there has to be a catch somewhere!" and this catch involves your wallet.
This type of approach to service lends itself to a company that may commission/incentivize their employees which can cause them to mislead/lie to the homeowner/business owner. Generally leading to work being performed that is unnecessary and Expensive.
Make sure to ask questions of the company coming to your home. Look in my two previous blogs for information on questioning.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Part 2-Choosing an HVACR Service Company
How do you compensate your technicians? This is an area that can lead to alot of discussion among Service companies. I believe you want to look for a company that pays their staff a livable hourly wage-this would be 20-35.00 dollars per hour plus benefits. I say this in that many companies incentivize their employees with bonuses and commissions to sell parts and equipment. This leads to often unscrupulous employees condeming equipment and parts that are not really bad.
There was one company in our area that as a condition of employment required their technicians to sell a set dollar volume of parts and equipment each month. If you did not meet your quota then the following month your benefits came from the hourly wage you were being paid.
As well, I came home one day to a frantic neighbor who had been quoted 3500 dollars for a new condensing unit. I offered to look at the equipment and found that all that was wrong was a broken wire on a capacitor-after stripping back the wire, installing a new terminal and reconnecting it to the capacitor the unit started and ran for an additional 2 years until they decided to upgrade. An approximately-15 minute repair which with the show up charge may have run 165 dollars vs. the obvously perpetuated attempt at meeting a quota or Baby needing new shoes.
Unfortunately, this is more often the case than company owners will admit. I do not believe in incentivizing your staff just for this reason. If you pay as you should, pursue all leads, and market there is no need to have your staff feel the need to lie to a valued client.
It is so bad at some companies that I have been in discussion with close friends who have relatives or friends who have left the industry-one because his boss told him over the phone to condemn a boiler by cracking a section on it-he even instructed him on how to do it.
How do you charge for your service call? This one that is tough to pin down. As a result of all the different options I will address this by itself in a later blog. Just be sure you understand completely how you will be invoiced!!
What brands do you represent? This is reasonably self explanitory. If they represent X brand they are more likely to have readily available parts on their service trucks for that brand. If you have y brand you may have to wait several hours or days for the repair to be accomplished. Now there are companies that carry alot of universal parts on their trucks so they can service many different brands. The choice is yours but I believe that the company that is independant of all manufacturers and installs multiple brands is your best call. They will generally be better equiped for anything they find.
There was one company in our area that as a condition of employment required their technicians to sell a set dollar volume of parts and equipment each month. If you did not meet your quota then the following month your benefits came from the hourly wage you were being paid.
As well, I came home one day to a frantic neighbor who had been quoted 3500 dollars for a new condensing unit. I offered to look at the equipment and found that all that was wrong was a broken wire on a capacitor-after stripping back the wire, installing a new terminal and reconnecting it to the capacitor the unit started and ran for an additional 2 years until they decided to upgrade. An approximately-15 minute repair which with the show up charge may have run 165 dollars vs. the obvously perpetuated attempt at meeting a quota or Baby needing new shoes.
Unfortunately, this is more often the case than company owners will admit. I do not believe in incentivizing your staff just for this reason. If you pay as you should, pursue all leads, and market there is no need to have your staff feel the need to lie to a valued client.
It is so bad at some companies that I have been in discussion with close friends who have relatives or friends who have left the industry-one because his boss told him over the phone to condemn a boiler by cracking a section on it-he even instructed him on how to do it.
How do you charge for your service call? This one that is tough to pin down. As a result of all the different options I will address this by itself in a later blog. Just be sure you understand completely how you will be invoiced!!
What brands do you represent? This is reasonably self explanitory. If they represent X brand they are more likely to have readily available parts on their service trucks for that brand. If you have y brand you may have to wait several hours or days for the repair to be accomplished. Now there are companies that carry alot of universal parts on their trucks so they can service many different brands. The choice is yours but I believe that the company that is independant of all manufacturers and installs multiple brands is your best call. They will generally be better equiped for anything they find.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Choosing an HVACR Service Company
What a tough subject. There have been alot of articles written on this and varying stands. I will look at this from the owners position with a Service Company insite.
At the beginning of any call to a service company you need to qualify their capability, so asking some background questions-How long has your company been in business? Can you provide me with 3 references that are not close friends or relatives?, Can I stop in and visit your office?, How many service technicians are on staff?, Part 2 will cover how are your technicians compensated? What brands do you represent? How do you charge for a typical service call?.
Each of these questions has a specific purpose. First by establishing the amount of time they have been in business allows you to gage the viability of them being around next year and the year after. I have seen many technicians, very accomplished technically, open a business with a sign on a truck and a couple of accounts from their previous employer come and go within several years of beginning. Many times these businesses do not understand overhead/Profit and will perform these jobs/services at less than true cost. Eventually this leads to someone getting stuck with used parts, an incomplete service call-having put 50% down at times, and no back up for warranty.(Some guys joke about this being a Tail Light Warranty-You have coverage only until you can no longer see their tail lights) While funny this is the case alot of times.
A newly established business in this industry generally begins with accounts taken from their previous employer, along with family and friends. When getting references make sure to call them. This will allow you to ask questions of these contacts-How do you know them?, How long have they been servicing your HVACR equipment?, Have you had previous work with "the business owner" at other companies?, How are they on warranty calls?, How do you feel about their technical competency?. It is very important that you follow up on references-I have provided many for our firm and in 20 plus years here only know of 3 that have followed up. I know many who have contacted us later and in speaking with them directly have regretted not getting more information before having chosen the company that performed their work.
Establishing if they have an office is important-that leads to the legitimacy of the business. If you can physically go to their place of business-even if it is small and out of the way it lets you know they take pride in themselves and their operation. There are many companies that go into business working out of their garage or a storage area and progress no further. They may tell you it is to keep their costs down but in reality it is because they do not understand overhead-If you have a home office you need to pay yourself rent, If you have a storage area you need to incorporate the costs into overhead. Many of these owners will invoice 55, 65 even 85 dollars an hour and yet when you ask them how much they are making they will tell you the same amount. There is no concept of overhead, taxes, etc. Which unfortunately leads them down the wrong path.
I had a conversation one night with a fellow who's business was in this same position. During our discussion he told me he was backlogged several years with installations-he was very proud of this. I asked him what he was charging per hour-$45.00. In pursueing this farther I asked him how many hours a week he worked-60 to 70 on average. I asked if he billed 45 an hour when he went to perform his bids-no he did not/this accounted for an additional 30 hours time a week. I asked who did his books and where was his office-His wife and at home, Do you pay your wife-no, how many hours is she working for you-About 40 a week-she answered the phone at home during the day along with watching their children, Do you pay yourself rent:-no.
By the end of our conversation it was established that he was actually earning about minimum wage for all his efforts. I do not know what became of him but I do know when we ended our conversation his final statement was that his rates were going up Monday morning. Now we also discussed taxes, vacation(he did not take any), materials mark ups etc., all things he was not aware of/or had not considered.
Last for this Blog is how many technicians do you have? This allows you to establish the level of service they will be able to provide on the 95 plus or below 0 days. Everyone can get to you quickly in April or September-but that first 95 degree day or that first 0 degree day is when you establish who is really geared to service and who is not. There are alot of companies that believe in service agreements-I am a strong believer in them. On most times that the weather turns hot or cold-I rarely get calls from agreement investors I normally get swamped by people who have chosen to not have predictive prescribed maintenance. I limit my service agreements to be sure that all of them can be properly covered when and if they need emergency service. I have found that you are better served by a company with 5-10 technicians vs those with more. This is because to the staff you are a person not an account number. When companies get too large you lose the personal touch of the owner and in many cases it becomes about money not service.
See you tomorrow with Part 2.
At the beginning of any call to a service company you need to qualify their capability, so asking some background questions-How long has your company been in business? Can you provide me with 3 references that are not close friends or relatives?, Can I stop in and visit your office?, How many service technicians are on staff?, Part 2 will cover how are your technicians compensated? What brands do you represent? How do you charge for a typical service call?.
Each of these questions has a specific purpose. First by establishing the amount of time they have been in business allows you to gage the viability of them being around next year and the year after. I have seen many technicians, very accomplished technically, open a business with a sign on a truck and a couple of accounts from their previous employer come and go within several years of beginning. Many times these businesses do not understand overhead/Profit and will perform these jobs/services at less than true cost. Eventually this leads to someone getting stuck with used parts, an incomplete service call-having put 50% down at times, and no back up for warranty.(Some guys joke about this being a Tail Light Warranty-You have coverage only until you can no longer see their tail lights) While funny this is the case alot of times.
A newly established business in this industry generally begins with accounts taken from their previous employer, along with family and friends. When getting references make sure to call them. This will allow you to ask questions of these contacts-How do you know them?, How long have they been servicing your HVACR equipment?, Have you had previous work with "the business owner" at other companies?, How are they on warranty calls?, How do you feel about their technical competency?. It is very important that you follow up on references-I have provided many for our firm and in 20 plus years here only know of 3 that have followed up. I know many who have contacted us later and in speaking with them directly have regretted not getting more information before having chosen the company that performed their work.
Establishing if they have an office is important-that leads to the legitimacy of the business. If you can physically go to their place of business-even if it is small and out of the way it lets you know they take pride in themselves and their operation. There are many companies that go into business working out of their garage or a storage area and progress no further. They may tell you it is to keep their costs down but in reality it is because they do not understand overhead-If you have a home office you need to pay yourself rent, If you have a storage area you need to incorporate the costs into overhead. Many of these owners will invoice 55, 65 even 85 dollars an hour and yet when you ask them how much they are making they will tell you the same amount. There is no concept of overhead, taxes, etc. Which unfortunately leads them down the wrong path.
I had a conversation one night with a fellow who's business was in this same position. During our discussion he told me he was backlogged several years with installations-he was very proud of this. I asked him what he was charging per hour-$45.00. In pursueing this farther I asked him how many hours a week he worked-60 to 70 on average. I asked if he billed 45 an hour when he went to perform his bids-no he did not/this accounted for an additional 30 hours time a week. I asked who did his books and where was his office-His wife and at home, Do you pay your wife-no, how many hours is she working for you-About 40 a week-she answered the phone at home during the day along with watching their children, Do you pay yourself rent:-no.
By the end of our conversation it was established that he was actually earning about minimum wage for all his efforts. I do not know what became of him but I do know when we ended our conversation his final statement was that his rates were going up Monday morning. Now we also discussed taxes, vacation(he did not take any), materials mark ups etc., all things he was not aware of/or had not considered.
Last for this Blog is how many technicians do you have? This allows you to establish the level of service they will be able to provide on the 95 plus or below 0 days. Everyone can get to you quickly in April or September-but that first 95 degree day or that first 0 degree day is when you establish who is really geared to service and who is not. There are alot of companies that believe in service agreements-I am a strong believer in them. On most times that the weather turns hot or cold-I rarely get calls from agreement investors I normally get swamped by people who have chosen to not have predictive prescribed maintenance. I limit my service agreements to be sure that all of them can be properly covered when and if they need emergency service. I have found that you are better served by a company with 5-10 technicians vs those with more. This is because to the staff you are a person not an account number. When companies get too large you lose the personal touch of the owner and in many cases it becomes about money not service.
See you tomorrow with Part 2.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Just A Beginning
Wow, first time blogger, long time in coming. I will use this blog to communicate some things that home owners, building owners and managers should be aware of when it comes to installing, servicing, and maintaining Heating, Cooling, Ventilation, Refrigeration and Control Systems.
I will attempt to point out industry wide practices that are harmful to the consumer and benefit the installer or servicer.
I will provide ideas, questions and additional information that I hope can help you in these, many times, costly decisions/repairs.
I will also provide you some insight into what it takes to have a company in this quickly changing, highly competitive industry. Hoping that you to can be fair to the company performing your work. As a Business person profit is not a dirty word but gouging should never be tolerated.
I have been far from ideal in my career in this industry but I hope to enlighten you so you can make better decisions by being better informed.
The HVACR industry has been good to me. I hope to be good for you.
I will attempt to point out industry wide practices that are harmful to the consumer and benefit the installer or servicer.
I will provide ideas, questions and additional information that I hope can help you in these, many times, costly decisions/repairs.
I will also provide you some insight into what it takes to have a company in this quickly changing, highly competitive industry. Hoping that you to can be fair to the company performing your work. As a Business person profit is not a dirty word but gouging should never be tolerated.
I have been far from ideal in my career in this industry but I hope to enlighten you so you can make better decisions by being better informed.
The HVACR industry has been good to me. I hope to be good for you.
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