Environmental Heating & Air of Cary NC Gain the eye of the industry in Green Tech

April 1, 2010 - PRLog -- Ryan Profitt  and Christopher Montana,

of Environmental Heating & Air of North Carolina Inc.

(EHA-NC), Cary, N.C., parlayed green HVACR

certification into a cohesive marketing effort.

Some contractors are going deep into the green market, and it’s serving them well. It’s not just following a trend; it’s offering real value to customers. That’s why it works.

For instance, alternative energy retailing, green-oriented HVAC service contracting, and developing and marketing its own solar-assisted heat pump are just a few of the things that helped form Environmental Heating & Air of North Carolina Inc. (EHA-NC), Cary, N.C., last year.

Vice president Ryan Profitt’s green HVACR certification tied those building block philosophies into a cohesive marketing effort. “We already had great ideas, knowledge, and products, but the certification really gave us the credibility and the marketing tools needed to market ourselves as green,” explained company president Christopher Montana.

Profitt earned his “Green HVACR Certification” by downloading an 85-page desktop manual, Green HVACR Technician Certification: A Desktop Reference & Training Guide for Implementing Green Practices in Building Thermal Control in Residential/Commercial/Industrial Refrigeration, from www.epatest.com. The manual was written by Robert P. Scaringe, P.E., Ph.D., and president of Mainstream Engineering. The manual was free, although Profitt paid $24.95 for the subsequent online testing and certification.



Montana, a commercial real estate investor, and Profitt, a 10-year commercial-residential HVACR service tech veteran, said they formed EHA-NC because few contractors were advocating and promoting green HVAC system installation, retrofit, and service work within a targeted 100-mile geographical radius of their headquarters.

HVACR contractors offering solar heating-power, wind power, LED lighting, grid-tie inverters, and other alternative energy technologies are still relatively uncommon. Through research, the duo also learned that many of the Raleigh, N.C., suburb’s 132,000 residents are receptive to green technology because they’re employed at nearby Research Triangle Park.

“Many HVACR contractor services are already green,” said Profitt, “such as cleaning coils, changing filters, and making efficiency improvements, but contractors don’t realize the potential in promoting these services as green.” Profitt will also be mandating the green training-certification for EHC’s six service techs and installers. “The certification provided us with truck decals, arm patches, and other ideas on promoting green.”

The contractor promotes its green message in weekly 60-second radio advertisements, monthly magazines such as Cary Monthly, weekly newspapers such as the Coffee News, and direct mail. The contractor also takes advantage of other green opportunities such as the local utility, Progress Energy’s “Home Energy Improvement Program” (HEIP), which requires an educational class for participation. “HEIP and our Green HVACR Certification complement each other nicely,” said Profitt.

RETAIL TOO
A truck for Environmental Heating & Air of North Carolina Inc. The company offers environmentally conscientious products and services to customers who can’t get them locally.

The contractor also has opened Alt Energy Country, a 1,400-square-foot retail store adjacent to its office and contracting headquarters. This highly visible cornerstone showcases the company’s green mission.

Displays of Carrier and York high-SEER HVAC equipment offer visual demonstrations of potential energy savings. Other equipment demonstrations include solar panels, photovoltaic cells, LED tube lighting retrofit kits for fluorescent fixtures, cyclonic-evacuated tube manifolds for domestic hot water heating, wind generators, voltage regulators, water boost heat systems, controller panels, transfer tanks, heat exchange manifolds, grid-tie inverters, etc.

A majority of the SKUs carried in the store are private labeled under the Alt Energy Country brand. One of the store’s main goals will be promoting the solar-assisted, split system heat pump Profitt and Montana designed to sell to their customer base, as well as to HVAC contractors around the nation. The patent-pending, self-contained, 2-ton model marketed and distributed under the Alt Energy Country brand is unique for the U.S. market; it uses cyclonic evacuated-tube technology to provide an approximate 10 percent energy boost.

The system currently heats and cools the EHA-NC offices for a monthly average of $99 (versus a conventional heat pump in a next-door office with identical square footages and similar heat loads, operating at $150/month). The solar-assisted heat pump costs approximately 40 percent more than a mini-split, but the payback in energy savings is less than two years, according to Montana.

“The solar-assisted heat pump puts out much hotter and cooler temperatures while using considerably less energy,” he said, “and the payback is very short because cyclonic-evacuated tube technology has become very affordable.”

While the solar-assisted heat pump is only available as a 2-ton model, Alt Energy Country also has a retrofit model for heating only and an upcoming heating-cooling retrofit model that will be compatible with most sizes of conventional residential heat pumps, the company said. “People shouldn’t have to change out perfectly fine equipment before its lifecycle ends,” Montana said; “therefore we’re strong believers in retrofit products.”

The success of Alt Energy Country and the firm’s existing and future product developments depends on the public’s continued progression toward energy and environmental consciousness. “The behavior of people here in America is becoming more value oriented and long-term minded,” said Montana. “I think offering people a product that is affordable upfront, that saves a significant amount of energy versus conventional equipment, and that can help make the world a cleaner place for their children will encourage them to buy into it.”



GREEN COMMERCIAL
The consumer-friendly front for EHA-NC’s Alt Energy Country, a 1,400-square-foot retail store adjacent to its office and contracting headquarters. Displays of high-SEER HVAC equipment offer visual demonstrations of potential energy savings.

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