HVAC Contracting

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My favorite customer is not the new customer, as strange as that may sound, but I can’t have my favorite customer without first getting a new customer. So, let’s say I have a new customer, they called for service, and our technician did a jam-up job and really impressed them. They were also impressed with our company, and even signed up for a service agreement or maintenance plan. That’s the goal, right? Attract them, book them, impress them, sign them, and keep them. But wait, there’s more.

Hotel Milano Scala has recently installed a new Mitsubishi Electric filtration system. Fresh air entering the interior spaces is treated in four air handling units — three rated at 5,000 m³/h plus one at 10,000 m³/h for a total air treatment capacity of 25,000 m³/h — composed of a class G4 pre-filter and a class F9 final filter (the same ones used in hospitals to prevent contamination).

Thermostats have gotten seriously smart in the last decade. While they’re a great improvement over traditional thermostats, smart thermostats still cannot affect air distribution across a building to adjust for hot or cold spots, leaving a lot to be desired in terms of making the home a comfortable place.

One common customer complaint about their central HVAC systems is that the a/c system is running but not providing any cool air to the controlled space. One of the most common reasons for this situation is that the a/c condenser or evaporator coil has frozen over. This term or phrase literally means that ice has formed on the heat exchanger, preventing the transfer of heat since the ice is acting as an insulator.

In this troubleshooting situation we have a customer who reports that when they turned on their nine-year-old electric furnace at the beginning of the heating season, they considered that the run cycles may have been excessive.

Yesterday I walked up on one of our managers who was talking to a junior tech diagnosing an intermittent controls issue on a pool heat pump.
In the background, you could hear an extremely loud compressor.

There is no federal or state law, rule, or regulation that mandates job descriptions. However, well-written job descriptions that clearly set out the “essential functions” of each job can help avoid or at least help successfully defend some legal claims, as well as contribute to the operational success of the company.

How about you? Are you afraid of your customers? Or are you afraid that you will not look smart in front of your technician?

The first memory I have in the industry was working for my stepfather, a great man. I started at the bottom of his company and went down from there.

For many, being proactive with chiller maintenance in the early winter has led to better results in the spring, when it’s time to start the systems up again. Performing chiller maintenance as early in the winter as possible gives facility managers the benefit of finding major damage with plenty of time to fix the problems before the chiller needs to be back in operation.