Where did all the business go?

I have heard from many others that this economy has sucked the life out of small business. I am here to testify that this is what I have found to be true right now. But if we as small businesses are to survive we must continue to fight and cut our expenses and increase our productivity so that what we offer is the best product and/or service for the customer's money. I think that is really what we have always tried to do, but now it is critical that we do just that. My hope is that when we see the economy turning around we will be able to thrive because we will have a lean mean business machine. My customers have depended on my company for many years and I want them to be able to continue to depend on us for years into the future. I am not willing to roll over and play dead. Now is the time to fight for life. The lazy part of me wants to say, oh well I tried, but the other parts of me say, I'm not about to give up on so much hard work. If I am preaching to the choir just let me look like a fool here. I have the feeling, though, that there are many people out there who share my concerns as well as my hopes for the future. If you are a small businessman and are reading this, drop me a note and let me know your thoughts. For those of you who were hoping for mechanical solution, I am sorry but I took this opportunity to rant. Now that this is out of the way maybe I can clear my head and get back to writing about mechanical solutions. Thanks for taking the time to read this post.

www.mcconnellphac.com

Way more incentives available right now.

This is definitely the time to think about your heating and cooling systems. There are sooo many incentives to do an upgrade right now. If you are on Vectren for natural gas, they are offering a $200.00 rebate for the installation of a new 95% furnace. Here is the link to their
rebates. https://www.vectrenenergy.com/selectState.do;jsessionid=xnncLQ2KVf8J1QtJm5BrxJFLtfpNn6rH1p7fjTY12xbvDFRPq4yH!2127972626
The state of Indiana is offering a tax credit of $300.00 for the installation of a new 95% furnace. And the Federal tax credit for the installation of a new 95% gas furnace is 30% of installation up to $1,500.00. These are some very enticing incentives to install a new high efficiency furnace. Along with these incentives, you get to save on your energy bills from now on. That is the biggest savings since it keeps on coming. If you have an old inefficient furnace, now is definitely the time to think about an upgrade.
One of the systems that often gets overlooked is geothermal. Right now there is a big state tax credit of $1,000.00 for the installation of a geothermal system and a Federal tax credit uncapped of 30% and a huge energy savings once the system is installed. Now one of the incentives that often gets overlooked on geothermal is the property tax exemption that is available once you have a system installed. That is a huge advantage since it keeps paying you year after year. I will not kid around about the first cost of installing a geothermal system. It is quite costly but the long term return is just as sweet. We are your professionals for installing a geothermal system. We are IGSHPA certified and Water Furnace trained. We also have our own boring equipment to install the loops.
Don't forget about tankless water heaters. They are also on the list for rebates and incentives. The tankless water heater that we handle is 98% efficient and is not like most of the others. It stands head and shoulders above the rest. Again they are not cheap to have installed, but the long term payback is sweet.
If you have questions about any of these systems, we have the answers. Please do not hesitate to call us at 765-644-5290 or 317-773-8495.
Check out our website at: http://www.mcconnellphac.com

Where are the professionals?

The dictionary defines professional as "a person who is expert at his or her work." This would, i suppose be open to interpretation to what the definition of an expert is. In my mind, one who is an expert is a person who has had many years of experience in making mistakes and learning what to do and not to do. That is what makes someone an expert. So back to my question where are the professionals? I think as it has been easy to engage in something as a business and claim that you were a professional as whatever, that is exactly what many people have done. This seems especially true in the mechanical areas of expertise. I find many home owners who have moved into a "professionally built" home and the plumbing or heating and cooling system does not operate anywhere close to acceptable. It is my frustration to have to report to them that unless they want to tear out walls and sometimes ceilings, they are stuck with a system that simply will not do the job that it was supposed to do. On occasion I can salvage the system but the fact that the home is only a few years old and they are having to totally revamp the system is beyond frustrating both to me and to them. So again having a professional install your mechanicals in your house is to me of paramount importance. Often to a builder, however, only the cost is weighed and not whether the contractor is a true professional who knows what they are doing. We are professionals who come in many times and fix what has been inadequately installed. This is what we have done for many years. It is what sets us apart from the other contractors out there. It has long been my hope to find a builder that I could work with that cared more about the quality and professionalism of the mechanical contractor than about the cost. I am not saying they are not out there, I am just saying that I have not found one yet. If you are looking to build a custom home I would suggest that you as least meet with the mechanical contractor and discuss the systems with him before just allowing the builder to pick
the mechanical contractor for you. Professionals are out there but they do cost more to have them install a job. My opinion is that it is worth the cost to get a quality system that does what it is supposed to do.
One other point that I forgot to mention, often those "professionals" that leave a home with an inadequate system are often not in business a few years later when all of the problems begin to show up. So look for a contractor that is not just builder focused but is also service focused and has been in business for a number of years.

http://www.mcconnellphac.com/

There are few things more important than clean air and water to our health.

Often we don't think about the air we breathe and the water we drink when thinking about our health. But we deal with both of these things in our business on a daily basis. Having clean water, especially when its well water, can be acheived by the use of proper filtration. This does not happen by adding a simple water softener. We have systems that filter iron, sulfer, and many other water pollutants out. When coupled with a water softener this system can provide much cleaner and more healthy water for your family. If you want to go a step further, you can add a system for drinking water called an Reverse Osmosis Purification System. This system can make the water up to 99% pure. This water is fairly tasteless since nearly all of the minerals have been removed and it is simply water left.
On the clean air side of things, as an American Standard dealer, we have a whole house system that purifies the air. This system is slightly better than a HEPA filter but purifies the air for the entire house as the furnace or air conditioner is running. One of the challenges of air filtration is that the filters air restrictive to the air flow causing the air delivery system to work harder to deliver the same amout of air to the space. Often a really good filter becomes a really bad air restriction. This is not the case with an American Standard Accu-Clean whole house air purifier.
One other side benefit is that the system is totally cleanable and does not need parts or filters replaced periodically, only regular cleaning schedules should be followed. This saves the homeowner money as a good filter is expensive to replace again and again over many years.
Having clean air inside your house is very important as much of the contaminants that we breathe come from air that is stagnant such as that which is inside your home. Most systems are not very difficult to install and provide years of protection. I have many home owners that will testify that they love their Accu-Clean whole house system.

Questions?

765-617-4206

www.mcconnellphac.com

Common leak spots for air conditioners.

One of my most common spots that I find leaking is the indoor evaporator coil. If you find that you are having to add refrigerant every year and that addition is more than a pound, you might want to have a professional check the system. As stated above the indoor coil is a common spot, however, sometimes we find that the systems are left without caps at the condenser too. This is also a likely spot to have refrigerant leaking.
If your system takes R-22 refrigerant, you may want to consider that this refrigerant is only going to be manufactured until the end of this year and this means that it will become very expensive because the only refrigerant that will be available will be recovered from old systems and returned to like new condition. Leaks on R-22 systems will likely cost a lot more next year.
Sorry for the bad news, but knowing about this now may help to avoid a more costly repair in the future.


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Just What Do I Need a Home Warranty For?

I am a contractor that does a lot of home warranty service calls. I have many people ask me this question. Since I am a service provider for a home warranty company, I could be considered biased. I don't think that I am but that is not what this article is about. Home Warranties, at least the company that I work for cover all of the home's mechanical devices. Obviously this is a long list of things that could and likely will fail in any given time. Your responsibility is to pay the premium which can be aout $500.00 to $1,000.00 annually and each service call placed you must pay a service fee of about $55.00 to $100.00. I have had many customers tell me that they have had two or three service calls a year and some have been substantially expensive repairs. As a rule, I think they are a very good deal. I know from my end most of my sevice calls range from $150.00 to $350.00. But let's say that your furnace goes out and needs to be replaced. They will replace it for just your service fee. This saves your budget. You will have to assess this for yourself, however, I can't see how this doesn't work in the homeowner's favor. On the other hand, the home warranty company has to make money so it must work out for their benefit as well. Let me end this article by saying that all home warranty companies are not as good as the one that I work for. In fact I deny taking calls for most of the others since they are too much trouble to deal with and they seem to want to deny as many calls as possible. This is not the case with the one I deal with. There you have it. My very opinionated opinion.

www.mcconnellphac.com

Clear the air about the tax credit

First let me state the obvious. This tax credit should not be so ambiguous, but it is so I will attempt to set the record straight. A furnace must be 95% efficient or better and an air conditioner must be 16 SEER or better. A heat pump must meet 15 SEER or better. Now I realize that these terms are not familiar to most people so I will attempt to explain them. Seasonal energy efficiency rating or SEER. This is the rating of energy that is used in order to cool or heat depending on whether you have an air conditioner or heat pump. Note here that just because a piece of equipment has a particular SEER rating, does not mean that it makes the rating by itself. What I mean is that each piece of equipment must be referenced through the ARI.org site to find out which pieces coupled with others meet that rating. Saying this another way by giving an example: I can take a 16 SEER condenser and pair it with a perfectly matched cased coil made by the same company but it will not reach 16 SEER unless it is paired with a variable speed blower unit. Therefore, even if I sell you a "16 SSER" system it will not reach 16 SEER unless I install a variable speed blower unit as well. These things have to be approved through the ARI website and matched up. Don't try to do this yourself. It is hard enough for us professionals. Call a pro and they should be happy to pair up a system for you or better yet, call me and I can help.

http://www.mcconnellphac.com/