One might assume that a small operation can't provide the level of service that a big shop can. But when it comes to what really matters, the exact opposite is true. I don't have underemployed early twenty-somethings to answer the phone during the day (and an underpaid on-call technician to return the call at night), but once we talk you'll get real answers over the phone, not a script. Trust develops from the first time we talk. When it comes to the work I do you don't have to concern yourself with getting an inexperienced entry level technician. I'm one of the most competent HVAC technicians you'll ever meet. And when it comes to equipment and tools I'm nothing but first class. I've personally never seen a van better equipped with parts and tools than my own.

History

I graduated at the top of my class from the Climate Control and Refrigeration Technology program at Sequoia Institute (now WyoTech) on June 24, 1994. For the nine years that followed I worked for several reputable contractors in central Contra Costa County primarily as a "tech". That's the commonly used term for a service man in this trade. The service man's counterpart is the installer, who typically focuses on installation and does very little troubleshooting.

The last couple years of that nine I grew increasingly disillusioned by my employment options. The industry has and continues to go through the effects of consolidation, which has largely been a negative. The effect on me personally was that I seemed to have two employment options. I could work for a well run business that would do anything for a buck. With them I could get paid and equipped well while at the same time selling my soul. Or I could work for a ma and pa operation that was lousy at running a good business. In that case I could make an honest but very poor living. Neither option appealed to me.

To escape all that I started my own company, originally named On Time HVAC, in the latter half of 2003. (I shudder to think about that original website! J) As you might imagine the first few months were pretty slow as I built my customer base. To say that I'm not a marketing genius is an understatement. I rejected the advice of real marketing geniuses because I'm unwilling to use their half truths. Despite that business really picked up by the time the weather turned warm in 2004. It hasn't slowed down since.

The only real chink in the armor was the realization that another company started up with a similar name to On Time HVAC just a few months before I did. Unfortunately my research efforts didn't turn this fact up until a couple of suppliers confused my company for the other one. I don't want any association with that other company, so in early 2005 I changed the business name to High Performance Heating & Air.

Education

As mentioned above, I graduated from trade school at the top of my class. During my nine years working for others ongoing education was always a personal priority. It had to be a personal priority because most residential and light commercial HVAC companies give lip service to the idea of ongoing education. I often had to demand time off to go to classes, many of which I paid for myself. The education that many local shops do provide has become almost entirely sales oriented. Since the onset of consolidation the effort to turn tradesmen into professional salesmen has become monumental. Their efforts to manipulate you have followed suit. I always rebuffed their efforts to turn me into something I'm not. I'm a technical geek at heart and want it to stay that way.

Since starting my own company my ongoing education has increased exponentially. The only man I have to argue with to take a class is looking at me in the mirror.  ;^)  I went through NCI's Air Balancing course and passed NATE's core tests. You can read more about that on the certifications page. All told I went through nearly 300 hours of training in the first few years of being in business. Some of that was through the PG&E's ETC in Stockton. I've also been through the home performance course put on by the CBPCA. And of course there are numerous local training seminars put on by distributors that I have and will continue to attend. That's in addition to all the education one gets from reading trade magazines, online forums, etc.

Philosophy

My philosophy is summed up best by my personal goal. I want to provide the most technically competent and ethically distinguished service in the whole of the trade. The distinction being that my company's ethic is based on traditional values and not the almighty dollar.

Such a statement may seem rather bland and obvious. If it does that's only because you don't know this trade as I do. In the past it was more the case that the professional tradesman had the biggest influence on HVAC business decisions. Now this trade, like so many others, is utterly dominated by marketers and accountants. It bugs me to no end. Indoor air quality, or IAQ, has become the industry focus. Duct cleaning, so called ultraviolet sterilizers and the like are all very profitable and all very dubious. The lies and half truths have spread to other sectors of the trade as well. There's literally no part of the service call experience that hasn't been scripted by someone to optimize the manipulation. All too many shops, especially those taken over by consolidators, read from that script.

Of course there are a few companies that have rejected the current trends. My company is one of them. But it's not enough to reject current trends, especially when some of the old trends were different but still bad. The typical homeowner is woefully educated about their HVAC system. Because of that the "old timers' way to stiff you" is take as many shortcuts as possible. They get away with it because the average homeowner doesn't know enough to call them on it. The homeowner's lack of knowledge is one of the reasons for my insufferably long bloviating on this site.  ;^)  The more you know the more likely it is you'll call on my company.

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