NCI Article Library

High-Performance HVAC Resources

Questions to Ask BEFORE Adding Services

Questions to Ask BEFORE Adding Services by Rob Falke I recently enjoyed a conversation with a longtime successful contractor from California who told me he was considering adding duct cleaning to his company’s services. I found it interesting that he described the...

Home Performance Belongs to the HVAC Industry

There’s more hype and misleading information than ever out there with regards to what constitutes “home performance.” Today, you are faced with several important issues, including what role you should play with regard to home performance. Outside of some basic...

HSER™ Season is Upon Us

HSER™ Season is Upon Us by Rob "Doc" Falke In May of 2004 we released the CSER ™ and HSER ™ procedures to NCI Members. With the success many members have enjoyed with CSER this summer, several members requested that we address HSER again this fall with additional...

How to Plot Fan Airflow

How to Plot Fan Airflow by Rob Falke To be well prepared for this new level of diagnostics, begin collecting copies of the fan data found in most installation instructions for the equipment your company installs and services. The most important diagnostic truth about...

How to Measure Commercial System Efficiency

How to Measure Commercial System Efficiency by Rob "Doc" Falke, President, National Comfort Institute It’s just not fair. Some contractors have a distinct advantage in the marketplace over their competitors; they ruthlessly and knowingly measure the live operating...

How Does Air Balancing Save Energy?

How Does Air Balancing Save Energy? by Rob "Doc" Falke, President, NCI Air balancing is a relatively small specialty profession with less than 3,000 commercial supervisors certified by four major organizations. There are fewer than 7,000 residential balancing...

Home Performance Belongs to the HVAC Industry

There’s more hype and misleading information than ever out there with regards to what constitutes “home performance.” Today, you are faced with several important issues, including what role you should play with regard to home performance. Outside of some basic...

Heat Strip BTU and Performance

Since the cold has set in we have received many calls and e-mails on PerformanceTalk from contractors and technicians wresting with electric heat systems. The two main topics discussed are: How to determine and rate electric heater performance and how to figure the...