Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning

They're the ones that have taken charge of their future, and they decided, you know what? I may have a, a, a really keen interest in, I don't know, whatever it might be, basket weaving or humanities, but I realize that I need to support my family, and I need to be able to make a car payment, and I need to be able to raise my children.

So I'm gonna go to HVAC school, for example.

And I'm gonna go into HVAC school, and I'm gonna make 60, 70, 80, 90, whatever thousand dollars I can make, which with my humanities degree, there is no way in heck I could do that.

No, I do understand there's some people that work in IT, and they went and they got, uh, themselves like a STEM degree, and then they got that degree, and then they realized that, again, and this is true, that there are policies that allow companies to bring in foreign workers to take on those roles and work cheaper than Americans would.

That's number one.

And instead of wallowing in his demoralization, if that's even a word, you know what he did? He says, "Screw it.

I'm gonna go back to school.

I'm gonna go get a, a certification or whatever it is in HVAC work." Dude is now making $80,000 a year.

Okay.

Rainie in Virginia says, "My power company sends me frequent messages offering different sorts of supplemental insurance for my home, such as the HVAC system, electrical system, or the plumbing.

The prices are pretty low, like 15 or $20 a month, but I've been reading the fine print and I'm wondering if these things are even worth it.

I know they don't cover things like frozen pipes.

It only covers my HVAC system if it's under warranty.

The policies cover only things that aren't covered by my homeowner's insurance."

Wait, wait, wait, go back.

It only covers the HVAC when it's under warranty?

But, uh, is it fair to compare a MRCOOL to a Mitsubishi or a Fujitsu, which are described as top of the line equipment, as, as I've heard? Uh, do you think that's a fair comparison?

I don't think it is, and we got into that a little bit on the forum, uh, where one of the people who had written in mentioned that they purchased one through one of the online places, did almost all of the install themselves, and then paid a buddy who was an HVAC guy to come over and make the couple of, uh, connections and charge it and test it.

Not everybody's gonna have that, uh, that friend who can come and do that for them.

So that's, that was why I went with the, the MRCOOL, and I'm somewhere between $2,500 and $3,000 all in on it.

Uh, and our HVAC contractors that we use at TDS, they're anywhere from 9 to 11,000 for a, a single-head unit install.

Randy, briefly, is there any talk about MRCOOL or, you know, DIY mini splits on GBA that you're aware of?

I haven't seen much.

Roughly, it takes almost t- a thousand times the energy to move water to a vapor as it does to move its temperature by one degree.

Yeah

... of the, uh, HVAC equipment so that it can get, um, if there was any loose particles, that it would get cleaned up with the filter system.

And our main trunk lines are all, uh, sheet metal that's insulated on the outside.

Right.

Hello and welcome back to the Building HVAC Science Podcast.

Our show premise is simple.

HVAC systems don't operate in isolation.

They operate inside buildings.

So we bring together HVAC, building science, measurement, and real-world experience to better understand how the whole system works.

Our goal is to help create better, more knowledgeable, and informed HVAC and building performance pros.

People who understand not just what they do, but why it works and how to verify results.

This is a big part of the podcast, learning.

I need to make the swings in the backyard higher because my five-year-old grandson, they're too low for him to swing.

I need to change the filter in our HVAC unit, which also reminds me that I need to schedule a fall tune-up for the HVAC unit.

I need to return a baby stroller, check my passport expiration date.

I know it expires in 2027, but I'm not sure when.

The infotainment screen is tablet style, kind of small actually in comparison to some of the ones that we see today.

Simple conservative controls for the HVAC.

And as far as cargo and trunk room is concerned, it is smallish with the second row up.

Again, this is a midsize.

Today I'm talking with Christy Carter, the founder of Workwife.

Christy built an HVAC company from the kitchen table to more than $5 million in revenue, and then she sold it.

Along the way, she experienced one of the hardest stages of business growth, the messy middle between a few hundred dollars and $5 million.

That's where the phone keeps ringing, the teams keep growing, the systems keep breaking, and every unfinished task somehow lands back onto the owner's plate.

Excellent.

Well, maybe as we get going, you can talk a little bit more about call center operations.

I think maybe a good place to start would just be before I ask you specific questions, maybe just tell us a little bit about your history and how you got into the HVAC business.

Yeah, so I actually grew up HVAC.

So like the roof is all icy and stuff because it's commercial.

Commercial HVAC.

And I'm like guiding it into place.

And he let it down before I was ready and I caught all the weight of it.