Podcasts: Dec. 15, 2014

A: Duct renovation is going in and surgically repairing duct systems. The defects are found through persistent performance measurements using instruments such as an air-balancing hood, anemometer, etc., to measure the live-operating performance of the HVAC system. This allows customers to see they have problems they may not have been aware of, it allows you to teach them about the problems, and it makes them detectives in their own homes. Duct renovation is hidden until you discover it through system performance testing. Contractors can custom manufacture these tests. You can determine the value as there is no published price and how much to charge based upon the amount the customer is willing to pay.

Q: How did you first become interested in duct renovation?

A: When I was in the contracting world, we always felt we were doing good work. One of the things that frustrated us was that we didn’t have any way to prove how well we were doing. It ultimately ended up being a competition between price, equipment, and character. So, when I found out about the principles of system performance testing and air balancing from Rob Falke in the mid-1990s, it opened up a whole new door to the industry that I’d never seen before. It became more than just high-efficiency equipment and tight ducts. Now, I knew there was a method to find these problems that were plaguing our customers. This gave us a way to make systems do what they were supposed to.

David Richardson
Curriculum director/trainer, National Comfort Institute, Sheffield
Lake, Ohio
https://www.nationalcomfortinstitute.com/

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Publication date: 12/15/2014    

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