RESSAC Climate Control

Spring Cleaning

2010-05-14T11:01:00.000-07:00

Where does the time go! It's been a few months since I've posted because we've been busy here working away on our Spring projects. It's been a good mixture of big and small endeavors:

1. We've implemented a new system for tracking HVAC equipment info in our database. This should greatly improve the level of information we can provide our customers. This is the first step towards an integrated web based information system which we hope to implement by the end of the year

2. We have a new phone system coming in a month. This will greatly improve the productivity of our office staff and keep us all a little more organized.

3. We upgraded our computers. How much faster they run! Excel is sizzling now and our customer database flies through the job history.

4. We've created a new system for managing our communications with all the malls in the state. Over the past 10 years the malls have become a major stakeholder in the job process. Insurance has to be on file and properly worded, special fees & licenses have to be paid, and mall staff often require 24-48 hours notice before we arrive. All the requirements demanded a better system so that we could maintain our responsiveness to the customer.

To some it may seem like minutia but to us continuous improvement of office and service procedures like these is how we maintain our edge in a competitive marketplace. More projects to come this fall but for now we have to turn our focus to the busy summer months. It's still pleasant weather along the California coast but it will be 98 degrees by the weekend in Palm Springs. I can hear those air conditioners humming.....

Melting Walls to Reduce Air Conditioning

2010-02-15T09:58:00.000-08:00

We at RESSAC are always on the lookout for new an upcoming technologies which will change our industry. Some make our work easier, some make equipment more efficient, and some change the face of our business all together. It is this last type of change which I have been pondering more frequently lately. The pace of technological discovery is accelerating and with each new invention I see the need for refrigeration and air conditioning as we currently know it to be obsolete for many regions of California within the next 30 years. Here's just one example from MIT technology review last week:

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/24476/

Smart. Now I don't know how hard it's going to be to produce these walls but basically one of the main issues in California, especially along the coastal towns like Santa Monica, Marina Del Rey, and Manhattan Beach is not the unbearable heat but the unbearable construction practices which make a few weeks of hot weather a major annoyance for residential and commerical occupants alike. This is because buildings of 50 years ago used to be constructed with much more mass. Mass absorbes heat and serves as a buffer for swings in temperature. It may get up to 90 degrees occassionally in Palos Verdes but every night that nice cool sebreeze comes in and you are bound to get the temperature back down to at least 65 degrees. The buildings of old would take advantage of this temperature swing by letting the cool air in at night. All the mass in the building would absorb and store that cool air. When the day came you would close the building up and let that mass keep you cool all day even when the air outside was hot.

Unfortunately, technology sometimes makes us lazy. The advent of the air conditioner allowed contractors to skimp on all that mass. Now our houses and offices are paper thin. There's no mass to even out the temperature swings and so we become even more dependent upon air conditioners and heaters.

Of course I'd hate to see us lose all that business but with the cost of energy rising and the price we are paying in environmental degradation becoming more evident, these changes are happening whether or not we like it. We for one say embrace the change, let the walls melt! And throw whatever technology you can at us. Of course RESSAC will have to recreate itself over time but that is life in an age of incredible technological and economic progress.

Don't Forget the Return Air Grills!

2010-02-03T10:21:00.000-08:00

Before and After Cleaning of a Return Air Grill in a Newport Beach, CA Retail Store

A picture certainly does say a thousand words. Dirt is the death of HVAC equipment. That's because dirt restricts air flow and restricted air flow makes fans work harder to push air through the system. If less air is being pushed than specified by the manufactured specifications, compressors also have to work doubly hard to cool the air passing across the evaporator coil. Any component that is overworked like this requires extra electricity to run. The extra amperage heats up components, sometimes to the point of failure.

That's all it takes is a little dirt and the two major components of your air conditioner are put in jeoporday of failing. And even if they don't fail you are going to pay a lot more in electrical bills.

This points to the extreme importance of regular maintenance of commercial air conditioners and heaters. You will pay so much more in repairs and utility bills than you will in regularly maintaining your equipment. And ask your contractor if they are cleaning the return air grills. It is a frequently overlooked item. In our regular maintenance schedule for commercial building we recommend quarterly filter changing and annual cleaning of the return air grills.

Now That's Experience

2010-01-22T10:10:00.000-08:00

One of the strengths of our company which I often like to tout is the depth of experience both in management and in our service technicians. Both our owners began working in the industry right out of high school. Bob Rohan, President, is now in his late 70s and still coming to the office every day. With 60 years of experience not much gets by him! And then there are our service technicians; many have been with us for over 20 years, some even longer.

All this was highlighted recently by a morning huddle of the service technicians in our corporate office in Glendale, CA. One of our technicians was discussing a service call he had responded to for a house in Pasadena, CA. “The furnace looks really old but it’s still in great condition.” he said. He mentioned the customer’s name and our technician Steve perked up. “Hey I installed that heater. Let’s see I believe it was around 1967!” “Sounds about right”, responded the other technician. Then they proceeded to exchange technical notes on the system.

Thirty-five plus years of experience in the industry and specifically with our clients; now that’s experience you can rely on.

'Tis The Season For Unit Changeouts

2009-12-01T15:06:00.000-08:00

Early morning change-out in Huntington Beach, CA

At RESSAC most of our daily work involves the maintenance and repair of existing HVACR equipment. Probably only 20% of our work involves new installations. That's partly because when you do proper maintenance on equipment it can last a good 20-30 years but it's also because corporate budgets loathe the cost of unit change outs. Well for all those corporate finance execs out there, if you didn't already know, 'Tis the season for unit changeouts! Why? Well because work is slow for us of course! It sounds a bit self-serving but in reality there are real cost savings for customers when they schedule all their unit changeouts for the winter months. Air conditioning contractors are all looking for work and so typically deep discounts are seen on the labor portion of quoted work. Here at RESSAC we typically discount our labor by 10-20% on installations during the winter months.

But inevitably we will get one of those desperate calls next summer; a unit is down, and they need it changed ASAP. Some emergencies can't be avoided but if you know a unit is reaching the end of it's life why wait? Acting now could save you significant money...and headaches.

Really, Really, Dirty Filters

2009-11-30T16:02:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder what we mean when we say a unit is "iced up due to poor maintenance"? Well here is a picture perfect example. These filters were dated 7/1/08 when our technician removed them 11/27/09. Needless to say this customer was not on a regular maintenance program with us. Too bad they weren't, now they have to pay for an emergency service call on Black Friday. We spent 4 hours defrosting the coil, vacuuming the duct work (yes that is all dirt you see on the side walls), going to a parts house to get non-standard filters, and a washing of the coils. They were lucky a condenser fan motor or compressor didn't burnout from the increased load on the system!

California Unemployment Hits 12.5%

2009-11-25T11:52:00.000-08:00

The San Francisco Chronicle published an article Saturday stating that October unemployment has hit 12.5%, the largest number since 1940. Even more striking was that the underemployment rate has reached 22.5%.

We’ve taken a number of steps to survive this current economic client; we’ve slowed our hiring, frozen our wages for all service technicians, paid down short term debts (we don’t carry any significant long term debt), and vigorously cut expenses and capital spending. But we plan to avoid layoffs at all costs. To accomplish that end management has taken significant pay cuts over the last year and when necessary we’ve asked employees to use their paid vacation and sick time. Other businesses should be doing the same. Employees are a key form of business capital; if you destroy your capital it is not easily rebuilt. Short term cost cutting through across the board layoffs will only insure that future productivity and profitability will be impaired.

More importantly, at RESSAC, our history has shown that employees aren’t just capital, in our business they are family. How do you tell someone who has worked for you for 30 years that you have to let them go? In large bureaucracies perhaps it’s easier because the edict comes from a level of management that has no real connection to their workers. They don’t actually know the employees, their spouses, their kids. I guess in some sense all small businesses are in part family businesses.

So for now we all have to slog along with our "underemployment". This underemployment affects us all and it has to subside before we can even begin to decrease the unemployment rate. This is what makes me believe our nation is in for a long haul. Paul Krugman recently speculated that we will be lucky if we can bring the unemployment rate down by just half a percentage point per year. That’s 12 years to get back to anywhere near where we were before this crisis.

Expanding Our Web Presence

2009-09-22T14:35:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been four months since we launched our new website http://www.ressacclimatecontrol.com/ and I thought it was time to add a personal voice to our web presence. RESSAC has never been very active or very savy with our marketing communications. Luckily there has never been much of a need. Over our 80 years of serving the California market most of our new customers have come through word of mouth. After trying our services many have stayed with us faithfully over the years. Jenny Craig Weightloss Centers, Dunn Edwards Paints, Vans Shoes to name just a few. They have all been long and loyal customers.

But of course we have all been experiencing the tough economic climate. Put a cool California summer on top of that and you have a recipe for disaster in the air conditioning industry. Thankfully RESSAC has never taken on significant debt. We can ride this out, but it would sure help to have a few new customers! So this blog quiet frankly is a chance for those who don't know us to get to know us a little better. A chance for others to see how we think and how we work. Even those who do know us might be interested in listening in. We'll try to keep it interesting.

All the best,
Nick Rohan
VP Operations
RESSAC Climate Control
http://www.ressacclimatecontrol.com/