Before we get into the installation process and see the guys in action and talk about the importance of design because long before you get to this stage of the construction process where we're starting the install, it has to be designed who's in charge of designing the h VAC system can be a couple of options. One, the heating contractor can do it or in many cases we'll go back to distribution like what we do. We will do the design work on behalf of the dealers and then the dealers obviously have the correspondence or discussions with the homeowners. So all of that information is critical for the proper design, proper components selection. This in particular is in 95 af you furnace. That is what was specified for this particular project. Okay, so when you talk about design and you assisting the contractor, you said the homeowners also involved with providing information. Is that pretty important? I mean, to me it would seem like as a homeowner, I know my lifestyle more and those type of factors should come into play, right? Absolutely. Those are very important factors to have in place so that you understand the homeowners input is critical. How are we going to use the space? How are we going to maybe design or finish the basement off two years from now? Those types of information pieces are necessary so that we can incorporate upfront where it's much more cost effective to do it right away. Adding in the options that we're going to possibly need in the future. we may want zoning in this particular home, we're not zoning, but in the other ones we'll look at later, we are okay. And so as a homeowner I should probably set up a time to spend an hour or two on the design front with my heating contractor. So talk to my builder. If I'm building a new home and say, Hey, I want to talk to my heating professional and design a system around my wants, needs, desires around my family's lifestyle, and not only the furnace and air conditioner, but also all the add ons that affect indoor air quality. Exactly, exactly. To these are prime day, it's going to be hot, humid, and the pollen count's high. Do the homeowners have allergy? Should we be putting in a good filtration system to eliminate or reduce the tendencies for indoor air quality issues? The homeowner needs to be involved. What do I need? Where do I want comfort? Obviously the entire space needs to be comfortable and so that's where it's critical to talk to them on what we're going to do in this space as well and what their individual lifestyles are. And I think about how many people have a mother in law suite or a bonus bedroom in the back that maybe we're their children who've gone off to college. we come back once in a while. You don't need to condition that space all the time. Correct. Exactly. So you could have that in in an uncomfortable temperature, saving energy, but while somebody is occupying it now we condition it to where we're comfortable
Don't just think of a furnace as a box. Think about furnace, air conditioning, indoor air quality, all the different factors. Is it fair to say you get your best value and you get one chance to do it when you do it right from the get go? Absolutely to your quickest and cheapest time to do what is right upfront because that's when the folks are there. we're not having to make a second trip. We don't have to come in and do a retrofit. You can see all the duct work we've already created now that you would have come back in and modify that duct work to be able to accommodate those add ons after the fact, which adds labor and cost of the job.
Sure. Okay, well let's get into the duct work. How important is the duct work that it's going to connect to this unit? The duct work is kind of the lifeblood are the circulatory system of the home. So if you think about it that way, the duct has to be sized correctly for the load. We need to be able to get the air from here to heat or cool the far end of the buildings. So we have to have that. The proper size, you size it too small, we're going to have you an adequate heating and cooling. If you size it too large, you're not going to have enough volume when you get to the other end where you get the velocities coming out of the duct work. So it's a critical measurement and calculation that's done on every home to be able to ensure that you have the right size duct work in each location. So at the end of the day, as a homeowner, make sure that you spend time designing your system with your heating contractor and make sure your contractor is experience so that we can install it properly and you're going to end enjoy a nice, comfortable home for as long as you live it. Yes. Okay, well let's get out of their way. we can get started on the duct work and we'll pick it up a little further along. Right. [inaudible]
What to consider when selecting a new furnace. while Larry, that's a beautiful installation job and I can see what you mean now by prefabbing and how it increases the efficiency of the installation. Yeah, it really shortens the time that the installers have to be on the job site, which is critical for the construction process. As a builder, we want to get the mechanicals in and out of here as quick as possible so we can get the next step of construction handled it those times. Yeah, and I'd venture to guess that it maintains the quality if not raises it because you're building that offsite in a controlled environment. You simply bring it out here and like pieces to a puzzle, you put it together, right? It's all tied together. It's all measured. It's already prefabbed you're not doing anything here on site to tie up other mechanicals and slowing them down. Sure. And you know, I just love seeing a Hollis at this stage of the construction process. And would you recommend a homeowner going through it, actually visit the site, talk to their builder, come out here and we talked about the importance of having a good design. Can things change if we see something that you know that we want to move? Sure. In a case here or the heating contractor typically is going to put in the venting, whether it be for the bath fans and or in this case for the kitchen. And we can see here we weren't a hundred percent sure where the range is going to go. So we've accommodated the flexibility with this installation for them to come in and make those changes accordingly. This is already known, installed for them. When the appliances come, we'll connect into this. It'll be vented outside, but this has done but he didn't contract. Wow. we did such a beautiful job there like looking at nice work. Now you said this is for the kitchen range. What about the bath fans and say a dryer vent? Yup. we do the same things there. we've pre heights or prevented for the bath fans that are being put in typically by the electrician and we've already put the venting in for the dryer as well. Okay. Now over here here the supply registers. Actually I really like what we did here covering it with netting, but is it possible to move these if something changed that you've got different cabinetry than you originally thought of? Yeah. That's the important part of having some time spent with a heating contractor ahead of time so that we know what is going to be the layout and the nice touch. You pointed out here very nicely. we put screening over at once it's installed. As you can see, there's dust, dirt and debris. It keeps that from going back down into your supply ducks. We want to have a clean installation. That's what we're doing by providing that very, very simple time. Yeah. Nice attention to detail. Con Chances, contractor. I analogize it to stepping into the homeowner shoes. If this were my home, I'd want it clean from the get go. Right, right from the start. Okay. Let's spend just a few minutes here on the furnace or heating system selection process and do you have any advice for a homeowner? Yeah. You've got choices today. Basically you're going to be in an upper 90% af you, so that portion hasn't changed, but do I want a single stage two stage or modulating? That's why it's important for the end user to meet with a heating contractor ahead of time. we can make those decisions. The variable speed that we have today in the blower motors, we can save a lot of money in operational costs for the consumer. we can add good humidification, good filtration, and the consumer can then run the fan. All of the times we're cleaning the air 24 seven at a very economical costs. Oh, so if I have an old, say 85 or 90% efficient furnace on the gas side, but I don't have one of these uh, DC drive, ECM motors and I want good indoor air quality, I'm going to have to run that, which I can do, but it's going to cost me a lot more than if I just paid a little bit more for a higher end furnace. Absolutely, and with today's electrical rates, if you go to a DC drive motor, much like we go to a led light bulb today, saves a ton of money and really when we want to clean the air with good filtration, you want to move the airflow all of the time, we need that higher efficiency motor to do it cost effectively. You'll save between three and $400 a year annually by running that fan continuously with that high end motor and you're going to have good, clean, fresh air all of the time you're in the home. Well, if you're saving that much money annually, that probably more than offsets the additional costs to select an upgraded model. Absolutely. There's a great return on investment for that. It's a small cost up front, but you're going to have a savings over the next 15 to 18 years. You have that for now. Okay. And then what about add ons? Were talking about moving the air continuously through the Hollis for indoor air quality and comfort that centers all around better filtration, right? Absolutely. You've got choices in filtration, you know from the standard one inch disposable all the way up through the four inch electronic, which is going to go ahead and do capture and kill, which is great for anybody that has allergies. The other thing we should consider right away, humidification so we can add humidity in the wintertime. Also a fresh year, an ERV or an energy recovery ventilator for proper ventilation to introduce cooler dryer air and we can at that point be able to control humidity summer and winter. Okay. Let's take the situation that I'm buying a Spec home and I show up and there's already a furnace in place. Can I still add some of these add ons to my system to enjoy all the benefits that we provide? Yeah, you can definitely do the add ons. The catches is if you can get them while we're doing the installations, it's going to be much cheaper to put it in right at the front end versus after the fact it can be done, but your best bet is to meet with that contractor up front and get the accessories added in at the time of installation. It's going to save them money. It's going to give him a much better system right out of the gate. Sure. Well, it really seems to me that in this home building process you want to set aside some time early on, like we alluded to, meet with your heating contractor, understand all your options. Don't be afraid to spend a little bit more at the beginning to reap the rewards down the road. It's much cheaper to do it upfront than to have him come back and do addition sleep. Stick around. Next, we'll learn health preventative maintenance. Keep keep your home's HVC system running at its peak efficiency. Earlier in today's show, we learned why when building a new home homeowners should have input in the design of their h vac system. And we also discussed what you should consider when selecting a new furnace for your home. Now let's finish up with Larry Hacker from temperature systems. Who explains the benefits to preventative maintenance on a home's heating and cooling system. While Larry, what a beautiful looking furnace. This home is a little further along in the construction process, almost ready for moving. And as I look at it, it looks great to me. But what can a homeowner look at Penn north? It's a quality job. Well, some of the things that you take a look at, you knew the installers took pride in their work. If you take a look, this is a long run. It is perfectly straight going all the way down the length of the house. So a general appearance is what you're saying. You can tell if it looks good on the outside, chances are it's a good install on the inside. Absolutely. we did a quality job here and you can tell by how it's installed. Okay, so obviously it's nearing the end of the construction process. A homeowner moves into a new house. What do we need to know as far as startup and operation? Yeah, those are the key things. The start up an operation of it. You need to understand how to run the thermostat in order to be able to properly control and condition. I would strongly recommend a couple of weeks after you in the home when your mind is clear from the big move. Take some time to have the contractor come back out and explain the systems to you. we will go through checking your filter, how to clean it, how to change it, those types of things. What typical operation is. The other thing that we will go through is what is the preventative maintenance that we would like to do professionally? Cleaning the coil, cleaning the outdoor unit, ensuring that the blower and the firing and radius taking proper operation each time. Is that where those ongoing maintenance plans come into play and you know those are good value generally for what? Yeah, we're very good. You think of your car and the amount of maintenance. That's done. This product is going to sit down here and work for usually 1518 years. It needs to be taken care of much like any other mechanical piece of equipment. Having that service on an annualized basis, and there's a lot of the companies today, we'll have maintenance agreements. It's an agreement that you're already going to set up ahead of time, so we'll come out and do the proper settings and checking to make sure that you're not going to have the type of potential outages that you could have. Yeah, no, that makes sense to me. And what a great analogy. You brought up with your vehicle and look to the future with your car. You're not going to let it go 20,000 miles without an oil change. So is it a good idea to look at your heating system the same way, do a little preventative maintenance and professional maintenance and you're going to get your best longevity out of the system, right? You're going to get extra years of service and higher efficiency through that preventative maintenance process. You're paying for a high efficiency. That way you're going to sustain the efficiency throughout the life of the equipment. And another thing just popped into my mind. If you can develop that relationship with the heating contractor when your need arises. Let's say that something does happen right around Christmas time or Thanksgiving and you have a party going on, you can bet if you have a good relationship with your heating contractor, we're going to serve. Absolutely. That definitely would put you at the top of the list to getting the service. And we all know today the treads are suffering for people into the industry. Okay, so keep a good relationship not only with your heating and cooling contractor, but any of the trades that work on your home, that's for sure. Okay, well let's wrap up with any words of advice to avoid an unnecessary service call. It's happened to all of us that are homeowners and it usually turns out to be something simple and you go, oh, why didn't I think of that? But could you shed some light on some of the basics? We have sidewall vented equipment today, which means the exhaust and intake go to the outside along the sidewall. If the snow is blowing and there's drifts up against the house, there is a chance that that vent could get covered up with snow. So if we have a no heat situation, take a look at that. Another one is filter maintenance. If we haven't changed the filter in a while or looked at it, if that is clogging up, you're going to have an issue there. The other thing is real simple as make sure that the thermostats, which is to the on position for cooling or heating, depending on the situation, there's endless amounts of opportunities there as well as circuit breakers to look at too. Sure. I've even heard were condensate lines have gotten plugged up in a furnace is smart enough to know that it can't run if it's being plugged up right, and so it shuts itself down. Yeah. With today's condensing furnaces, you're going to have to have a drain. we've done a great job here of hard piping it, so chances of this getting kinked isn't there. However, there are some installations where we use hose and those hoses could get kinked. Again, giving you that condensate back up, creating a problem that is unnecessary. Well, you know, Larry, it's been very enjoyable on today's show. I love being at construction sites and walking through the building process and just seeing behind all the walls, and it's very educational. And what I learned on today's show is that when it comes to selecting a heating and cooling system with your home, it's not just going and buying a furnace. It starts much earlier than that. Get intimately involved with the heating contractor on the design process, and you're going to end up with your best value, and if you invest early on, you're going to reap those benefits of a quality heating. Cooling says, I appreciate you coming on. Thank you.