Going Green! I may be the only person who even occasionally writes for a national publication who has not yet written an article about green. Part of the reason is the fact that although I definitely believe in the concept of green, trying to understand exactly how it applies to us as HVAC contractors is not that easy to determine.

We recently made an installation on a new home, which was built as a green home. The builder held an open house for real estate people and asked the major subcontractors to each speak for a few minutes on the things that they do to be green.

As a result, it was necessary for us to actually put down in an organized form a list of the things that we are doing to be able to say that we are “going green.”

It turned out that the list we came up with was really longer than we anticipated. As HVAC contractors, we really are a very important part of the green concept. So here is the list we came up with:

Welsch Heating and Cooling Co. is “Going Green” and we want you to know the many things that we are doing to “Go Green.”

• Recommend high-efficient equipment, which reduces energy usage.

• Recommend units that utilize R-410A refrigerant which is not ozone depleting.

• Recover R-22 Freon from units we are repairing or replacing.

• Offer geothermal systems, which utilize constant in-ground temperatures to provide heating and cooling three times more efficiently than standard equipment.

• Provide many types of humidification systems that provide greater indoor air comfort as well as reduce furnace usage.

• Provide dehumidification systems, which provide greater indoor comfort and reduce air conditioner usage.

• Offer several Energy Star® thermostat types, which reduce unit operation and energy usage.

• Recommend various types of air cleaning systems to provide healthier indoor air.

• Recycle the equipment that we remove.

• Recycle waste products created during our manufacturing processes.

• Utilize the most up-to-date dispatching systems to reduce driving and gasoline usage.

I anticipate that you may be able to think of others that we have not included. However, we have attempted to make the list manageable in size as well as understandable for our employees as well as our customers.

WELSCH IS GREEN

We have put some green information and font colors on our Website, and have additionally printed some “Welsch is Going Green” decals for our trucks. These start with our company name starting in red on the left and transitioning to full green on the right. (If you would like to see what they look like just e-mail me).

Since we thought some of our technicians might be asked what we meant by going green, we printed up the list for all of our employees to carry so they can explain, truthfully, the things we are doing.

In all honesty, we don’t know if the green thing is a fad that will be around for just a year or two or a real conservation effort under which we will be operating for a long time into the future. Our feeling was that by making this effort in the green direction, we would attract the attention of those consumers who are into green. Also, we didn’t feel we would negatively affect our other customers by taking this position.

In any case, in the market and economy in which we are operating, anything that will help separate us from our competition we feel is a good idea.

Publication date: 11/03/2008