One of the biggest trend we’ve seen at Mingledorff’s lately is going retro.

Not that Bud Mingledorff is hustling ’round the office in bellbottoms and a “Have a Nice Day” t-shirt.  Maybe that’s more my speed.  But I digress. 

In talking “retro”, I mean retrofitting applications in churches, military installations, schools, and housing authorities with highly efficient, VRFZ (variable refrigerant flow zoning…read more about it HERE) Mitsubishi City-Multi systems.

Sure, there are significant cost savings and beneficial maintenance capabilities to these systems, but this video is a ringing endorsement (as in “ringing ears”)!

watch?v=Qi0Z9vspolk

image courtesy of mashable.com

Over the past week, Facebook exceeded 500 million members. 

If Facebook were a country, it would easily be the 3^rd most populous, behind only China and India.

In the United States, almost one out of every two people have a Facebook profile (125,881,220 in the States out of a total estimated population in 2010 of 309,884,000, or 41%).

Sure, there have been legitimate squabbles and concerns about privacy, use of content, etc., but how would you not consider having a presence where at perhaps 40% of your target market is active and engaged?  Besides, social media marketing is about connection, transparency, and building relationships with your clients, not selling product.  Eventually, if a relationship is built, trust follows.  Call me old school, but I’ve seen again and again that people buy from people they like and trust.  Remember:  we may be dealing in a whole different realm of marketing, but some of the rules stay the same.

How can Facebook be an effective tool for your company?  Creating a page for your business (see the Mingledorff’s page HERE), allows a landing spot for friends, clients, and prospects to gather and absorb information from you.  The content you post can come in myriad forms:  simple text updates, pictures, videos, event invitations, links to other sites (including your own), links to other Facebook pages, Twitter updates, music, etc., etc., etc.

Furthermore, the people who join (or “like”) your page can recommend it to their network of friends.  So, let’s say you have a company that offers a valuable service to potential buyers (hmm…maybe HVAC maintenance contracts?).  If you have some existing clients or friends who are part of your Facebook company page, then all their friends will see that.  Rather than you placing an expensive ad in the Yellow Pages, you have a company profile attached to people who trust you, and who can give a credible, virtual “word-of-mouth” endorsement to new leads.  All for the cost of…nothing (well, except a good bit of time; I’ll get into that down the road).

This is a very simplistic way of looking at Facebook.  Much like Twitter, I’ll dig into the meat n’ potatoes in later posts.  In the meantime, I’d like you to at least consider having a presence online, especially on Facebook.  If you have any questions or thoughts, please drop them in the comment field.  Thanks!

We’ve been through a lot of stuff on Twitter.  Like a tidal wave of information.  Ironic, because that’s really what Twitter is.  If you’re following thousands of people, they’re updates are coming streaming down one window on the web version, and you are inevitably going to miss quite a bit of information; perhaps vital information as it pertains to generating leads.

This is where specialization comes in.  First off, you can create “lists” in Twitter.  Simply by creating a list name, then assigning the people you follow to those lists, you can seperate out more specific information.

Secondly, there are tools such as Tweetdeck, Twitterfall, and Seesmic Desktop that can help sort through the clutter.  By allowing the user to create as many custom columns as needed, a “tweeter” can seek out relevant and interesting people and searches.

For example, let’s say you are a mechanical contractor who follows homeowners, churches, facility management companies, architects, engineers, and builders.  However, things are getting pretty crazy in your feed, and new updates are coming every second.  You want to only see what is going on with builders.  The simplest solution is to build a list for “builders”. Simply go to “lists”, create a name, and save. Then, go through your contacts and click the list icon to select them.  Now, you can access that list and only see updates of those you’ve designated.

If you have a bit more of an organizational brain (unlike me), you can employ a “tweetdeck” to manage different lists and searches. The free, downloadable software (Tweetdeck, Seesmic, etc.) allows you to create unlimited columns specific to particular parameters. So, you could have a column for your whole feed, one for mentions of you, one for your list, “builders”, and one for the search “air conditioning”. It’s a great way to see more of what’s going on in your sphere of interest.

Finally, if you want to very simply see what’s out there (whether you follow tweeters or not), go to http://search.twitter.com. Here, you can type in search criteria and see all the updates including that criteria. It’s a great way to find people to follow, mentions of your industry, or even mentions of your company.

How do you think these tools could benefit your company? Feel free to drop any questions in the comment field.

In some past posts, I’d covered the basics of using Twitter:  a brief overview, and how to converse with others.

Why am I hung up on all this Twitter mess?  It was frankly the stupidest thing I’d ever seen when I first happened upon the site about 2 1/2 years ago.  As if Hollywood didn’t have a big-enough collective ego…now the “look at me!” complex extended into essentially texts of everything going on in that person’s life…

…however, as the layers are peeled away from Twitter’s simplistic exterior, one realizes the power of connection that it can generate.  Connection creates relationships, relationships foster referrals, referrals turn to leads, and leads are potential sales.

So, let’s say you know how to follow people, you know how to get a tweet out there as well.  How can you build on the conversation?

When you follow someone and they follow you back, you have the option to DM (direct message) them.  From here, you still only have 140 characters to get your message across, but you’ve worked your way into a 1-to-1 conversation, allowing a more-tailored message.

For example (and I’m stealing an example for Gary Vaynerchuk’s book, Crush It! ).  Let’s say you work for an Aspirin company.  You notice in a Twitter Search for #headache (more on searching and hashtags in ”Twitter 104″) that someone says “man, I have a terrible headache today.”  So, you follow.  If you profile is interesting and honest enough, that person might follow back.  Once that happens, you can send a DM.  You send a message that says, “hey, can I send a sample of my product to you?  Might help the headaches.”  If they agree, you’ve generated a lead; you’ve put your product in front of a consumer; you’ve perhaps created a customer for life.

How could you use this strategy in the HVAC service industry?  Who knows the next time this tweet will come across your feed:

Once again, here’s another edition of “One Engineer’s Opinion”, written by our own Lead Engineer, Bruce Longino.  Bruce can be reached at blongino@mingledorffs.com.

ASHRAE Standard 62 is the Ventilation standard that mandates what is required in a commercial building to ensure good Indoor Air Quality [IAQ] for the occupants. Part of what is required by the standard is acceptable Outside Air or Ventilation Air Cubic Feet per Minute[CFM].

There are two ways to determine this Ventilation CFM. The first is Ventilation Rate Procedure [VRP]. The second is IAQ Procedure. The VRP is straight forward.  ASHRAE 62 has tables with CFM per square foot and CFM per person for various applications. For example in an average size classroom the resulting  CFM per student is 15. If the Engineer uses the IAQ Procedure, he/she must prove a method is provided that will sufficiently clean the air of Contaminates of Concern [COC] to allow a ventilation air rate as low as 5 CFM per student.

Concentrating on IAQ Procedure for classrooms, the COC is body odor. This is where the bi-polar ionization- also called Cold Plasma- comes in.  There are devices called Bi-Polar ionization Generators that split water molecules in the air into positive and negative ions. These ions attach the components of body odor and break them down into harmless odor free compounds. This allows the Engineer to reduce the ventilation air while being assured that there will not be a body odor build-up.

There are huge other benefits to this technology. The ions that are generated also attack and kill many of the viruses, bacteria, allergens and mold spores in the building. This will help reduce illnesses that harm productivity.

Bi-polar ionization also helps remove particles from the air. The ions cause the small particles to amalgamate. This means they clump together into large particles that fall to the floor or are picked up in the HVAC filters.

To re-cap the benefits of bi-polar ionization:

[1]Reduces odors by turning an odiferous compound- such as ammonia- into its base elements that do not smell. Therefore OA CFM can be reduced to 5 CFM / person

[2]May kill viruses such as H1N1 swine flu (documentation pending).

[3]Attacks bacteria such as E coli.

[4]Reduces the number of active mold colonies.

[5]Attacks and eliminates some allergens.

[6]Reduces the indoor dust count by causing small dust particles to amalgamate into large particles so  they can be filtered out of the air.

I- for one- think this is an amazing technology to do all these things and save the building Owner first cost as well as operating costs. This is possible because the ventilation air can be reduced by 2/3. This reduces the HVAC tonnage up front and operating cost for the life of the building.

The potential to reduce illnesses being transmitted between occupants reduces absenteeism. For a school system, this increases government funding bases on daily average attendance. For a business owner this increases productivity.

There are two basic technologies used to generate ions. The oldest technology uses glass tubes with stainless steel mesh. The newest technology employs stainless steel needles. The needlepoint method eliminates the need for expensive tube replacements. Another benefit of the needle technology is that it can be mounted in the return air duct before the filter. This way the positive and negative ions sanitize the filter and keep the cooling coil clean. This is especially important with MERV 13+ filters, because 46% of the circulating viruses are captured by the filter.  Otherwise, the person changing filter can get sick when doing his job.

Bi-polar ionization has been around since the 1960s. However it is just started in conventional HVAC systems. This Engineer’s opinion is that it is one of the best technologies to come along in many years.

Got more questions about bi-polar ionization?  Contact me at blongino@mingledorffs.com!

Last week, I made an introduction to the social media platform, Twitter.  Twitter (in my mind, and hopefully yours) has made a paradigm shift from time-waster to powerful marketing tool.  In the next few posts, I want to elaborate on a few of the basic functions of Twitter, and how you can use them to your advantage:

Creating conversation:  many will simply go out on Twitter and write what’s going on.  “I’m writing a post about Twitter” might be my tweet.  However, sometimes information grabs you, or someone who you’re following may ask a question or solicit a response.  In order to respond to someone, just start your tweet with @[twitter name].  For example, let’s say I see this in my feed:

CleanAirGA Fast Fact: In #Atlanta, HALF of all smog-forming emissions come from the tailpipes of cars. Clean your commute, clean the air

I think it’s something interesting, so I would write this:

mingledorffs @CleanAirGA makes me curious how much tele-commuting is on the rise…

It’s nothing profound, but I’m making an attempt to interact with someone else on Twitter.  I would hope to get a response, so a conversation has been created.  I can check to see all tweets mentioning me by clicking on the “@mingledorffs” menu selection, as circled below:

Once clicked, a list of only the tweets mentioning me appears.  No, I haven’t gotten a response yet, but I can keep checking:

So, I hope this example takes the first step in showing how Twitter is more than just a place to send texts about yourself.  It’s an (almost) infinite online community where you can interact with anyone…including potential customers.

Check back soon, as I’ll be digging into more ways to interact on Twitter.  These posts should (hopefully) unfold to create a vision of how these social medium can benefit you.

No doubt you’ve heard of it.  Thrown out in the news and other popular media along with overused terms like “going green”, “healthcare reform”, and “another Tiger Woods mistress has stepped forward”…

I’m talking about Twitter.  It’s the brutally simple social media tool that features users communicating in short, 140 character messages, or “tweets”.  Originally very popular among the Hollywood set, Twitter has hit the mainstream, now with around 100 million users.

When I first saw Twitter, I wrote it off as “a bunch of self-absorbed jerks sending text messages out to the world in the hopes of fishing for a response to feed their egos.”  Yes, that does exist, but the more I used Twitter, I was fascinated by the relationship and business-building power of this free social media platform.

Essentially, the concept is based on following people and companies, and having individuals and companies follow you.  You read all the updates of the people you follow, and all of your followers see your updates.  Let’s say, for example, that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is on Twitter (which they are: @ajc).  When I follow the AJC, then every update that they put out (referred to as “tweets”), I will see on my homepage feed (along with anyone else I’m following).

On the surface, the easiest advantage to identify is a quickness and brevity of information.  When folks are put into a 140-character box, they are forced to get to the point quickly (unlike some HVAC distribution bloggers).  This allows the reader to pick and choose the bits of info that are most relevant or interesting.  Furthermore, many tweeters will write a teaser, then have a link to a full article.  To fit the link in, they’ll often employ a free link-compression services (more on that in another post).  Now, businesses and individuals are not only forced by Twitter to be brief, but also to be interesting.  And interesting is how you get noticed.

I’ll be covering some of the more in-depth aspects of Twitter in a future post.  For now, go to http://twitter.com, set your user up, and start interacting.  And don’t forget to follow us at http://twitter.com/mingledorffs.

Below is a post written by Bruce Longino, head of Engineering at Mingledorff’s.  The virtues of ductless HVAC systems have been touted recently, and especially those of VRFZ (Variable Refrigerant Flow Zoning).  Here, Bruce elaborates on these systems, and how they can benefit in design.      

“Why are Variable Refrigerant Flow Zoning [VRFZ] Systems so popular?”

by W. Bruce Longino, P.E., LEED AP

Worldwide, Variable Refrigerant Flow Zoning systems have been the dominate design templates for commercial HVAC systems. For some reason, this has not been the case in the United States of America.

Fortunately, this trend is shifting in the States, as there’s been a huge movement toward VRFZ as a common method of design. There are many reasons for this shift, particularly in the New Construction and the Retrofit & Replacement market segments. Perhaps the most significant influence in these sectors is the incredible variety of air handling equipment.

New Construction

If an Architect is aware of the advantages of the VRFZ system, he/she can save building costs. First, because the duct size is generally much smaller than that of standard systems, the building can be shortened due to reduced required plenum height. Secondly, there is no longer a need for Mechanical Rooms.

Furthermore, VRFZ systems are as efficient as water cooled systems, but without the cost of water treatment, not to mention the cost of the water itself. Inverter Driven Compressors, diversity, and heat reclaim allow such efficiencies.

To elaborate, as the load decreases, the Inverter Drive Compressor reduces speed. This increases efficiency because the compressor- at, say 50% RPM- is using less than half of the full load energy, yet the condenser and evaporator service areas are still 100%. With the compressor able to match the load requirements, it no longer needs to cycle on and off. This consistency allows more effective humidity control.

In most cases, the VRFZ systems operate with a significant amount of diversity. The combined tonnage of the fan coils may be as much as 50% more than the outdoor heat pump. Additionally, the number of indoor fan coils-per-outdoor heat pump can be as many as fifty. With multiple fan coils serving multiple exposures, as well as varying levels of human load, this system can simulaneously operate in a variety of ways.

Heat reclaim occurs when some zones are cooling while others are heating. When this occurs, the VRFZ system uses the heat removed by zones in cooling to provide that heat where needed elsewhere.

In addition to all these advantages of the VRFZ, the indoor and outdoor units are very quiet. A thirty ton VRFZ outdoor heat pump can make less noise than a builder grade three ton heat pump. The indoor fan coils operate as low as 22 dB(A).

VRFZ systems are also available with Direct Digital Controls, so the Owner can monitor the HVAC system in his/her building. As these controls come standard with the systems, there is no additional cost associated.

Here’s the bottom line in New Construction: a building designed with VRFZ systems can be cost-competitive with more traditional systems. Once the building owner factors in all the additional benefits (without additional up-front cost), VRFZ can be a very attractive and beneficial solution.

Retrofit & Replacement

In the Retrofit & Replacement market, all the benefits of the New Construction installation are realized, but this is just the beginning.

The refrigerant lines for a VRFZ system can be routed into an existing house or commercial building through three-inch-diameter holes. Often in the case of more traditional retrofits, major demolition would have to occur to do this.

Another big advantage of the VRFZ system is that it can be installed without the removal of the existing system. Then, when the VRFZ system installation is complete, it can be activated and the existing system can then be abandoned in place.  In addition, the outdoor heat pumps are modular. They can be seperated for easy maneuvering (i.e. brought up in a freight elevator), then later assembled together to operate as single outdoor units.

I hope this article has helped to highlight the significant advantages of the Variable Refrigerant Flow Zoning System. There are a lot of opportunities out there to design and install them.  Keep an eye out!  If you have any further questions on VRFZ, feel free to contact me at blongino@mingledorffs.com.

While there is evidence supporting the argument that America is pulling out of the economic doldrums, the fact of the matter is that things are still pretty tough out there.  When money is tight, one of the last things you may want to do for your business is spend more money.

While I certainly agree that every dollar counts, and that funds need to be spent as shrewdly as ever, they still need to be spent.  It’s shocking to some, but in a growth mode, conventional marketing wisdom suggests 5-10% of a company’s TOTAL revenue be reinvested in marketing efforts (the fluctuation depending on whether the company is in a “growth mode” or not).

So, it’s important to keep your brand out there, no matter the economic landscape.  And let me offer an encouraging piece of info to those wary about advertising in a down market:  when your competition is spending less on ads, your ads have more impact.  Furthermore (since- really- EVERY ad out there is in competition with yours), when total advertising spend is down, there’s less “noise” in the marketplace.  Less ads out there mean that your message has a better probability of being seen by a consumer, thus increasing the value.

So always look at the cup as half-full.  In a good market, there are more potential buyers out there, but a smaller chance of them seeing the message.  In a down market, buyers are less plentiful, but messaging is more powerful.  As you all know, though:  no matter the market, there are ALWAYS buyers.  So go get ‘em!

If you want to learn more about marketing, I highly recommend the iconic book by Al Ries and Jack Trout:  Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.

Well, Chris beat me to the punch, but I did want to get on here and just welcome everyone who may be stopping by!

For those who don’t know me, my name is Joe Herrig, and I’m the Marketing Manager for Mingledorff’s Inc.  I’ve been with the company since 1998, so there’s a good chance you’ve met me.  Not familiar?  Here’s a picture:

Anyway, Chris Weaver did a fine job introducing the concept of a “blog”.  We essentially want to offer another forum for you to not only get information, but also hopefully pick up some tips to help your business.  At the very least, maybe we can entertain you.