Breakout Sessions

Novice: Use AirMaxx Lite™ to Educate Your Customer

David Holt

How a Simple App Can Help Customers Understand Static Pressure and Airflow

Properly measuring and understanding Total External Static Pressure (TESP), provides clues as to why your customer’s heating and cooling system is not operating as well as it should. Poor airflow resulting from excessive static pressure at the fan can result in uncomfortable rooms and inefficient operation. Identifying and solving static pressure issues leads to happier customers and profitable sales.

Join David in this workshop on AirMaxx Lite. This simple smart device app allows you to quickly calculate TESP and interpret approximate airflow at the equipment. It also provides a very simple visual way to get this information across to your customer.

Practitioner: Airflow Hoods: The Go-To Test Instrument for Air Upgrades

Rob Falke

Get the Most From Your Airflow Hood Investment!

One of the key factors in designing an Air Upgrade is knowing delivered airflows at the registers and grilles. A flow hood or air capture hood is an essential tool for quickly identifying poor airflow. In this workshop NCI’s own “Doc” Falke will show you the different types of hoods, and what works best for residential diagnostics.

In addition, you’ll learn the common causes of incorrect readings, and how to overcome them, dealing with different style registers, how to engage your customers with a flow hood, and so much more. Be sure to attend this informative session and learn how to make an airflow hood your go-to tool to increase your testing accuracy and selling success!

Mastery: Identify Duct Insulation Defects in Three Easy Steps

David Richardson

Sharpen Your Duct System Diagnostic Skills

When ducts aren’t properly sized, sealed and insulated, they can cause long runtimes, discomfort, and wasted energy use. Learn how to quickly identify duct insulation defects in three simple steps. You will also learn how system temperatures are so important to overall comfort and system performance.

In this highly interactive workshop David will show you how to use a simple dry bulb thermometer to quickly perform basic temperature diagnostics. These readings can help your customers understand the need for Air Upgrades. He will also share the most common solutions to duct temperature losses, and common problems that are easy to overlook.

Novice: Generate Leads for Profitable Air Upgrades

John Puryear

Help Your Customers Understand What an Air Upgrade Can Do for Them

It’s not enough to measure static pressure on your service and sales calls. To convince your customer to take action, you need to be able to communicate your findings and what the readings mean in terms they can understand.

In this session, you’ll learn how to use non-technical language to describe why you are testing, the instruments you’re using, and your test results, as well as the effects of improper fan airflow on your customers’ HVAC systems. Once your customer understands why you tested and what the results mean, you can prescribe the right Air Upgrade to improve their system’s performance and help make their home safer, healthier, more comfortable, and energy efficient.

Practitioner: So You Have A Diagnostics-Generated Lead.  Now What?

Rob Falke

How To Build An Air Upgrade & Renovation Sales Machine

Each of your company’s customers is already an Air Upgrade lead.  In fact, they already want it, but don’t know what it is, what it can do for them, or where to get it.  When you perform static pressure testing on every service call, your company already has what it takes to generate these valuable leads.

The next step is to turn your diagnostics-generated lead into a sale. Whether you have selling techs, comfort advisors, or both, there is a simple process to get your customer to ask for an Air Upgrade, system renovation, and more. In this session, Rob will walk you through a step-by-step diagnostic selling process that will improve your closing rate and sell highly profitable Upgrades, renovations, and replacement systems.

Mastery: How to Price Profitable Air Upgrades & Renovations

David Holt

Price Air Upgrades and Duct System Renovations Based on Their Worth

When pricing high-performance system upgrades and renovations, you must focus more on the lifetime value delivered, and less on the estimated job cost. When you only consider raw costs, you minimize the craftsmanship involved in creating the high-performance results associated with your customer-built solutions.

In this detailed session, David will share insights into pricing methods designed to win more customers and improve average sale prices. You will also receive a simple Air Upgrade pricing calculator and more!

Novice: Build Craftsmen, Not Laborers

Jeff Sturgeon

How To Overcome Flawed Perceptions With Your Installers

Craftmanship is no easy task. It’s not something you’re born with, it develops over time with mentorship. The truth is to make a great system design work, it takes a craftsman to install it correctly. Unfortunately, most installers don’t understand the important role they play in delivering high-performance systems.

As a leader, it’s your job to guide your team members to understand the roles they play, why they are critical to the company’s success, and what you expect from them. Jeff will be covering these important principles and more in this highly interactive workshop. You just may end up developing some of your best craftsmen ever!

Practitioner: How to Create Custom Air Upgrades

David Richardson

Make Air Upgrades the Center of Your High-Performance Strategy

Air Upgrades are the perfect starting point for improving equipment performance as well as improved comfort and energy efficiency. In this session you will learn how to assemble customized Air Upgrade kits based on the install conditions you see most.

David will review the components of an Air Upgrade kit, how to decide which components to use based on your measurements, and how to confidently deliver the right solutions. Finally, you will learn a six-step approach to gauge your progress and make SMART adjustments to assure your success.

Mastery: Are You Losing Money Due to Poor Inventory Management?

David Holt

Minimize Job Cost with Better Inventory Management

Your sales team can make a profitable sale on paper, only to have the profits evaporate due to ineffective inventory management processes. From truck stock to installation and Air Upgrade kits, this workshop will help you learn ways to be more profitable through a well-designed and executed inventory management plan.

David will also show you how to better stage your installations and engage with your local suppliers to develop a plan to manage your inventory more effectively. The session will have a special focus on Air Upgrades and duct renovation materials.

Novice: Use ComfortMaxx Air™ on Every System You Test!

John Puryear

How to Make ComfortMaxx Air the Most Valuable Tool in your Arsenal

Discover how NCI’s ComfortMaxx Air™ software can help you win over more customers and sell more Air Upgrades by demonstrating third party validation of your findings.

This session includes role-playing on the right way to communicate the need for testing to your customer. Next, you’ll learn how to record and enter the four needed pressure measurements required for the software. Once you collect the right data, you can display a customer-friendly report on your tablet and discuss the results with the homeowner.  John will also share the mindset needed to use this process every day – on every call.

Practitioner: ComfortMaxx Pulse™ System Performance Testing

Jeff Sturgeon

Help Turn Your Techs Into Diagnostic Machines

In this session, you will learn how NCI’s ComfortMaxx Pulse™ software can aid you in your diagnostics and customer participation. This tool will help make your technicians diagnostic “machines.” The workshop will cover each of the steps needed to collect the right pressures and temperatures, and generate a Pulse report you can review with your customer.

Jeff will show you the tools and the right language to help your customers see why they need system improvements, and most important, why they need to work with your company. Learn how this approach can help build a strong, loyal customer base.

Mastery: Total HVAC System Rating with ComfortMaxx Verify™

David Richardson

The Ultimate System Performance Verification Tool

Learn how to prove the performance of your field-installed systems with NCI’s ComfortMaxx Verify Software. In this ground-breaking session, you’ll discover how system verification can provide your customers with the ultimate peace-of-mind – and how it sets you apart from your competition.

David will take you through the system verification process from start to finish as you discover what it takes to assure HVAC system performance. Plus, we will have a special secret bonus session where you will learn about the next level of verification!

Novice: Develop Good Static Pressure Habits

John Puryear

Static pressure testing quickly opens the door to airflow diagnostics. This simple test can uncover unseen opportunities for technicians and salespeople, and help installers provide higher quality installations.

Participants will learn through hands-on testing how to select test locations, install test ports, and accurately measure static pressures to estimate airflow. Learn when to use an Magnehelic™ gauge versus a digital gauge to add the wow factor and better engage your customers.

Practitioner: Master True Airflow Diagnostics

Jeff Sturgeon

When it comes to HVAC system diagnostics, our industry has been using rules of thumb for far too long. These practices continue to cause misleading diagnosis and improper repairs – not to mention occupant discomfort, unhealthy homes, safety issues, and needless energy waste.

Proper equipment and system diagnostics are only achieved through airflow testing. In this hands-on Airflow Mastery workshop you’ll see how we’ve been lead in the wrong direction. Jeff will help you see why you should forget much of what’s been taught, and he will show you what it takes to properly diagnose common HVAC system issues.

Mastery: Avoid the Top 10 Btu Measurement Mistakes

Rob Falke

Btu measurement is a critical and exacting practice. Errors of just a few tenths of a degree can result in a major misdiagnosis and improper repairs. Discover Btu measurement mistakes that can easily be avoided in the field so you can accurately provide correct equipment and system diagnostics.

Typical mistakes include three common calculation errors, five very common temperature testing blunders, and two inaccurate supply register testing practices.  In this hands-on session Rob Falke will guide you through each of these “malpractices.” Then he will show you the right way as you test a live system together.

Novice: Two Must-Do Combustion Safety Tests

Tom Johnson

Keep Your Customers Safe!

Ambient CO and building pressure testing are critical to help assure both technician and customer safety. In this workshop you’ll learn how to measure ambient CO, what test equipment you need, the action levels your team needs to know, and how to discuss your findings with your customers.

We will also discuss the sources and causes of building pressure problems and visual clues that often accompany them. Finally, you’ll learn how to use a simple draft gauge to check for building pressure interference, and how to move forward once these issues are uncovered.

Practitioner: Vision Beyond Sight with Combustion Testing

Jeff Sturgeon

Give Your Customers the Value They Deserve

The right knowledge and test instruments can help give you X-ray vision when it comes to combustion testing. There are a lot of myths out there that can lead you astray. We will expose the most common ones and debunk many of these misconceptions.

You’ll learn the right testing and diagnostic methods to identify poor performance issues with your customer’s heating systems. Jeff will walk you through step-by-step on how to take the right measurements so you can identify the causes of comfort, efficiency health, and safety issues.

Mastery: Advanced Venting and Combustion Air Solutions

David Richardson

Solve Even the Toughest Combustion Issues

In this session, David will focus on why proper combustion testing is crucial to identify the right repairs and how to determine the most effective solutions. You will discover why venting and combustion air repairs are important, and ways to help your team understand and explain them.

Next, we’ll explore both basic and advanced venting and combustion air solutions, how to apply them, and how to test-out to assure your repairs did the job.