Innovative Air: 2018

Thursday, November 15, 2018

A small word on contractor integrity

You know what makes me SICK, in Arizona with regard to the HVAC field? Greedy, sneaky, money grubbing, commissioned payed employee, HVAC contractors.

I've known and worked around this mentality for years on how the HVAC residential contractor industry runs itself.

The gimmick laden advertisements.....
The Cartoon animals......
The guy smiley technician......
The call for alarm and we are your hero types.....

Its all a facade...

These companies, get you with a $69 service fee, a $29 tune up, FREE this and Free that...
But, the entire objective is to get into your home, perform that cheap or free service and then... Surprise you with 1-5 items that you NEED. The techs they send your way are low hourly or low salary rate techs, these are salesmen in disguise in most cases.

They come to your house to install a free product, a free or cheap AC inspection and then throw a $200 capacitor BILL your way, a $500 service plan that offers repair or replacement discounts... Come on.... And the consumer falls for it!!!!

Truth be, the designers of these methods are advertising firms that over the years have passed down this in home sales routine to some really slick service managers that want to justify their jobs and their technicians jobs. All at your expense.. Its greed, plain and simple..

I'm all about people in my business making money, we should be making money for the services we provide, its a skill and a profession. That is why we are in the business, just like everyone else, to make money.

There comes a moral point in time when one must ask themselves " Is it worth my soul for greed?"
I'm not saying all HVAC companies are a rip off but, MOST are and I don't care for one second who disagrees with me on this or what they think of me. Call it exposure. I hope every single one of these greedy owners, partners and service managers get to READ this.

Be honest, you rotten pigs!!! GOD will punish you HARD when you die. Quit paying technicians $15 an hour and promising bonus's for items sold. We are a service industry, not sleazy car dealers. It's like dangling a carrot in front of a donkey. If you do a good job and your new or old customer likes you guess what? They'll call you back when they need you. Grow some morals and standards and quit STEALING from customers. That very well could be my mother or father, brother or sister out there. Better yet, its a fellow human being, one of gods creatures!! It's not nice and its morally wrong.

What can I tell a customer out there hiring an HVAC contractor or evaluating their current HVAC contractor?

-Ask for cost on a specific repair or request and see what they tell you. These dispatchers are taught to never give you a price on 99% of quote requests. If their honest, they let you know somehow a general idea of cost or that they just don't really know the answer.

A decent company will try and spend a few minutes with you on the phone trying to get an idea of your problem.

-Ask the tech who just came over if he works on commissions.
-Ask the tech what he makes an hour, be nosy, why not your paying for the service.
-Ask the tech what he is doing, what things mean, open your phone and do some research on what hes telling you.
-Ask for a second opinion on things your concerned with. Don't be in a rush, especially when everything is working fine.
-DON'T ever sign up for a service plan. Half these companies wont even hose off your AC coil. They are just there to get your money!!! You can get a service once a year at a decent cost, why pay some massive fee to be a "preferred customer". All customers are important.

All my employees are paid a nice fat Wage, they are vetted and loyal. They gain NOTHING financially from ME for recommending products or taking care of services. Maybe joe shmoe's ac company in phoenix will try to do the same, they'll get more honest techs.

What has driven me write this? I saw an estimate for two new heat pump systems last week... $31,000 regular price for two CRAPPY Goodman, 14 seer, 4 ton heat pumps. New air handlers, same crappy seer rating. with discounts, $20,000 something dollars was the final price. A nice long drawn out fakedown (Breakdown of costs) of estimate.

Here was a line item I saw... $750 for a secondary drain pan, to replace a 10 year old drain pan that had nothing but surface dust inside of it.

The Tech/sales guy told this customer, since his system went bad, he needs to replace the other because the bad one, has weakened the working one. Nice way to try and take advantage.

Thankfully, the laymen who showed me the estimate did so. I saved him more than $10,000 and have him with much upgraded Trane equipment. I'm actually going to follow up with the actual estimate next week on here.

Here is another, I was at a customers house last week providing some NEST services. I noticed a certain gimmick riddled slime ball AC company had installed their thermostats so, I inquired. I asked the customer who installed their NEST's They told me, and then I asked... " Did they happen to install them for free and sell you a capacitor? LOW and behold, they did install for free and sell them a capacitor as well as some crazy expensive service agreement.... That company will never get called again from this customer but, I sure will......

It's late..... Til net time folks. Don't fall for the gimmicks.

Trane install

Trane

Thursday, October 18, 2018

Nest hello installation

This is the easiest installation ever.
The nest app, walks you through the entire process.
But, there are a few factors that we want you to know......

Compatibility:
The nest hello is compatible with....

-One door chime, one door bell.
-Exceptions to the rules, two nest doorbells ONE chime.

-16-24 volt transformers needed. You install, get a yellow light, you'll need a new transformer.

-Nicor chimes, Nest doorbells do not work with all in one door bell chimes. Sure they sound great but they wont work. its an all in one transformer and chime recessed in the wall, wont work, need to convert to a new chime. See pic, you have this, it will need to be converted.

-No doorbell wires, no wall chime? You'll need a chime system and transformer installed or a 24 volt power source to the doorbell, can then use google home or hub for alerts as well as phones and tablets.

Last but not least.

Make sure you're standing close to the doorbell during install.
Make sure to swipe on show password while entering network info.
Make sure not to select electronic door chime unless you actually have a melodic digital chime.

Nest Thermostat installation

Thermostat installation guide:
As best we can explain for the non technical

Checking compatibility:

Remove current thermostat face. Normally these pull up and out or downward and out.

Once removed, take a picture of your wiring, take a picture of the backside of the thermostat.
Sometimes there are hidden jumpers and details on there that aid in knowing how your current thermostat and system are set up.

Whats compatible? These combos are not compatible, though not always is that the case. These combos would usually require Pro Installation at all costs.

-R,G,B terminals.
-R,G,D
-R,C,D
-R,B,D
-R,C,1,2
-R,C,-,+

There may very well be a bunch of other combinations that are similar to the above, so lets just move on to what is compatible with a standard AC, heating system.

Totally nest compatible thermostat wiring: Any combination of wires, minimum of 4 wires.

R, RC, Y, Y1, Y2, W, W1, W2, G, C, B, O.
C terminals are dangerous, B terminals on Trane systems and older thermostats are also many times a C terminal in disguise. We will discuss the C terminal later in more detail.

Typical AC with a Heat pump and AC with gas or electric heat strip heating wiring, is the most common wiring nationwide.

RC/R or RC/RH is your power wire.
Y or Y1 are your cooling Compressor wire.
G is your fan/Blower manual control wire.
O/B are your heat pump wires ( you should only be utilizing one or the other.
C is your common wire, this terminal/wire is a 24 volt power return/loop shall we say.

You may see other things such as U, U1, U2, S1, S2. This is a more complex situation and Innovative Air recommends you get a professional installation. There are a lot of complete idiots and brainless morons who install HVAC equipment (especially in Phoenix) and they also may have your wires mixed up, doubled up, wires in every single terminal and then some.

Lets install a nest thermostat, the right way:
-Once you know your system will be compatible with a Nest thermostat, you can proceed to these steps. Make sure you took pictures of the wiring, the back of the old thermostat and have some idea of what type of ac and heating system you have.

-SHUT OFF the circuit breakers and turn off any local switches near accessible ac equipment.

-Shut off any breaker labeled AC, Air, Air Handler, AH, A/H, Compressor, Rooftop, attic, furnace.
-Split systems normally have two sets of breakers, the AC outside and the blower inside.
-Rooftops have one breaker.
-Condo and apartment units sometimes only have one.

-Remove the old thermostat.
-Mount the Nest sub-base, Use the longer screws, not the metal plate with the tiny screws, that plate is for special installations such as thermostats that are recessed in the wall(wall box).
-Make sure there is free movement in your thermostat wire. Many customers screw the mounting hardware right into the thermostat wire.
-Clean up and re-strip your thermostat wires, so they aren't all old, crusty and bent.
-Make sure there is about a 1/4 inch or so of copper exposed. The wire needs to fit into the slot.
-Push in the corresponding terminal, slip that terminals wire into it and release.
-Once all done, make sure corresponding wires are in and the terminal tab is recessed.

If you are replacing a Honeywell and see a wire in W.

The W is a triple purpose terminal in most cases, it can be used for gas heating, electric heating or a heat pump O and heat pump. Which do you have?

If you have a gas furnace you use W1 or W(Nest E)
If you have a heat pump you need to know what brand you have. By default the Nest uses a heat pump setting of O. In other cases B is used with Hvac units such as Ruud, Rheem and come select others. You'll have to access the secret menu in the Honeywell thermostat. Look up the model of your thermostat on google and search for manual. Look for installer set up and it will explain how to get this O/B/W setting info.

Put the Nest Face on.
Turn on the breakers.
The nest should show a little house on the screen and boot up.

Lets get started with the Settings in the NEST:

-Choose language
-Connect your network.
-Confirm your equipment settings.
-Choose homeowner
-Choose heat pump setting for heat pump installation .
-Select O or B depending upon your type of HVAC.
-If you have a dual fuel system there will be some other choice that arise.
-Duel fuel means you have a heat pump with gas/oil heating. More common in colder winter states.
-Like mentioned before, some idiot installers may have ended up putting a wire in both heating type terminals. You may also see both used if you have a really old thermostat or if someone didn't know how to set your original thermostat up properly. These are very common installation problems.
-Eco mode, Only use this if you don't mind waiting for your house to cool or heat until you arrive home. Set eco mode for something practical, if you like 78 degrees cooling, don't let your house get hotter than 82 while you're gone. My suggestion is always comfort over savings. So, let the auto schedule feature do the work for you and leave the eco modes off.
-Test, you can skip the test if you want and move on.
-Sync to Nest APP.
-Get entry key.
-Open up the app, sign up if you already have not.
-Hit the plus sign after signing up and confirming email.
-Click continue without scanning.
-Choose your product.
-Click already installed.
-Enter key (It auto caps)
-Done!!!

Common WIRES: If your original thermostat has a ACTIVE C terminal. You're done.
If you have a situation where you DO NOT HAVE a C terminal active. From a professional standpoint, I'd suggest you get a NEST pro out to activate one. The NEST is the best thermostat and if having a C terminal just keeps things smooth.

Honeywell install manual

Honeywell 8000 series