What your HVAC installer should know & do (and how to pick the one that will steer you away from extra costs or high future energy bills)

Before you pick up the phone and ask anyone to install your heating and cooling system, read this page:

It will save you from having to live with a poorly installed system that will make you tear out your hair over excessive costs, unexpected additional bills, inefficient operation, or intolerable loudness

... a system that will be impossible to repair without dismantling it all, and redoing the whole thing again.

Why?

You have probably seen the same thing in your own line of work

… there are those, who do it poorly and quickly... just wanting to get paid.

And then there are those that you’d trust with your own life... because you know they will do a meticulous, thorough and careful job that you can rely on.

But: How can you tell one from the other?

How to spot the 7 common installation mistakes that will cost you extra money in the future due to poor or careless workmanship

Here’s a list of the most common mistakes many installers make (and how to spot the ones you don’t want to allow on your site)...

  1. Not sealing small gaps both inside the building and outside

    This is a common one… and an expensive one. It can be as simple as a small leak of air through an opening or around an air duct, which leads to inefficiency (and whistling noises). But ignored gaps can also lead to water ingress, meaning moisture problems and water damage. If only 5 minutes was devoted to sealing the gap, the problem would have been avoided.

  2. Not cleaning beforehand

    Whether it’s applying a sealant, or laying thermal insulation. It pays to be clean – making sure the surface doesn’t have dirt or grease on it. The dirst or grease lead to imperfections in seals and contacts, leading to leaks, ineffective adhesion, and even acoustic issues. The few minutes it takes to clean beforehand, saves hours of repairs in the future.

  3. Skimping on insulation for pipes and ducts

    Using thinner thermal insulation (than specified by the engineer or mandated by the building code) definitely saves a few dollars – but it costs the client more money every hour the system is on. But worse is when insulation is poorly installed. Yes it does take extra time to have the insulation neatly wrapped around all pipes and ducts, to make sure no pipe/duct is visible, and that there is no exposure to the unconditioned air or other building elements such as concrete and bricks. When this is skimped on, there is not only dramatic energy loss ($$$)… but also, in cooling applications, condensation forms on the exposed pipes or ducts, leading to potential water damage of building elements, or mould growth.

  4. Not installing equipment, pipes or ducts straight and level

    Not only does this look terrible (and potentially make you mad every time you look at the crooked thing on the wall)… but it can lead to future problems with your system: Air traps in pipes, bringing your system to a stand-still. Or bearings wearing out on one side of a machine quicker than the other, leading to early failure. Even installing a duct strangely, resulting in background noises. Using a spirit level or a laser is quite simple… and it pays off in the long run.

  5. Saving on using clamps, brackets and fixings

    A few dollars saved on materials and an hour of time saved… so what, right? Well you might find that due to changes in system operation, or with thermal expansion and contraction, things move! Things such as pipes and equipment. And this movement can cause banging noises, or clicking sounds (which can drive you absolutely crazy). Not only this, but it also looks unprofessional and messy. And can be a safety issue if something moves/falls over time, or ackid hangs off a part and it comes tumbling down.

  6. Not considering vibrations

    Most pieces of equipment vibrate when they’re on… and when they do, they transfer this into whatever they’re connected to…. The wall, the ground, the ducts, the pipes. And these vibrations travel 5, 10, sometimes even 20x times faster through pipes, walls and floors than they do through the air. So you can end up with these vibrations travelling to the other side of your building, and turning into annoying noises way over there. Taking the time to install vibration eliminators, dampeners, suspension systems, springs, or even just rubber mounts, can totally alleviate many vibration and noise issues.

  7. Cruising through commissioning

    Commissioning equipment is often seen as a boring and fruitless task. So many trades turn what they installed on, and that’s it. But the efficiency and performance of the installed equipment can be greatly increased if the system is analysed and fine-tuned. And this saves money in the form of running costs. Not only that, but it also allows the installer to eliminate or suppress any noises that air flows, running speeds, water velocities, or control equipment may contribute…. Saving headaches and call-outs in the future.

Here's how reliable & impeccable installers work to guarantee your heating/cooling installation will be a success

When you sit down on the plane, ready to take-off, you expect the pilot to have a plan...

To know what they’re doing, how they’re going to get you there, what they’ll need, and the skills to correct the course of the airplane if anything happens to go wrong.

And an essential part of this whole process is the pilot’s checklist:

The pilot goes over all of the equipment, making sure its functioning well. He checks that there’s enough fuel on board. All of the controls are gone through one by one, switch by switch, gauge by gauge. All according to the prepared checklist… so that nothing is forgotten… and every flight is a success.

And just like the pilot has a checklist, any good installer works with their own checklists:

Checklists for preparing jobs. For making sure the materials are ordered correctly. For installing each and every part. And also for testing, commissioning, and optimising.

The checklists mean that nothing is forgotten. Everything is thought of beforehand. And therefore, success of the project is guaranteed… just like the pilot flying you from one place in the world to another.

At Euroheat, we don't start any part of a project unless we have thought the process through. Unless we have created a checklist of all the things that need to be done (and that can go wrong). And don't consider anything done properly unless all the boxes on that checklist are marked "done/checked".

Some of our checklists include:

  • Hydronic Floor Heating/Cooling - Insulated Screed Type (34 steps).
  • Geothermal Heat Pump Installation – Internal Plant Room (17 steps).
  • Brewery heat/chill production – Commissioning (22 steps).

What should the installer do (and what you can expect from the individual trades)

When there are different companies supplying, installing and commissioning different parts of your project, it can be difficult to see where the responsibility starts and ends for each party.

From the trenches: How a proper and thoughtful installation can save you over $32,000 per year

If the systematic work and attention to detail seems right to you, but you still wonder, if it's really worth it, here is a from-the-trenches story from one of our projects...

“That’s. Not. How. We. Do it. Here.” was being angrily repeated by a tradesman in a commercial building.

It was late in September, 1992. And since this was a recently built building that had some issues, tensions were running high.

A couple of engineers from our company, a project manager and the owner of the commercial building were present too.

The issue was that a hot water ‘ring-main’ (a circuit where hot water is pumped around a building, meaning that there is near instant hot water from each tap) was costing a small fortune to operate. And we knew why.

You see, we had measured not only the flow water temperature of this circuit, but also the return water temperature. And from this we knew there was a 6ºC difference between the two.

This might not sound like much. But the building’s owner knew this was a lot. It was costing ~$91 every single day. (That’s $2,708 per month. And $32,503 per year.)

We also knew that the energy losses from this ring main should have been almost thirty times lower than this – only a few dollars a day.

(And we knew this because we had done the design of this hot water system and ring-main circuit. Not the installation on this project, just the design.)

What was supposed to stop the energy losses being so high was the thermal insulation that we specified the installer must install over every square centimetre of this piping circuit.

But did he?

The reason why the tradesman was becoming agitated was that our two engineers present had pointed out why there was so much energy leakage.

But - as he pointed out - the ring-main piping was neatly insulated. And showed us all the visible parts where the pipes were impeccably covered.

The energy wasn't, however, lost in these visible and insulated areas: The ring-main was leaking energy into the walls and floors wherever it was hidden in the walls and floor and uninsulated. (A problem that we pointed out on the site after removing part of a wall.)

The tradesmen vehemently disagreed: "This is the way we have always done it. This is the way we do it here..."

The fact of the matter was, however, that the work did not comply with our design specification. And so the insulation had to be fixed up and done properly

... just like it should have been done right from the beginning.

In-house installation to protect you from these "mistakes"

During the nineties, we battled (by explaining beforehand or by being tough when they didn’t do their job properly at the end) with a lot of the W.A. tradespeople about the right way to install, insulate and commission a truly efficient HVAC system.

And that is why we decided – over 20 years ago now - that we would no longer rely on outside trades and subcontractors

... to protect you.

By doing the design, the engineering and the installation, we can (and so can you) make sure that all is done the way it should be. That there are no hidden energy leakages that will come to (irreparably) haunt you for the lifetime of the building. And that we can truly guarantee our work.

To this day, at least 95% of what we provide comes from in-house. We do get some specific services (such as bore-hole drilling, etc.) from outside tested and proven specialists. But otherwise, from start to finish, we design, install, commission and maintain the entire project.

Why am I telling you all this?

The purpose of this true story is to not to point out the importance of thermal insulation (even if it is super important though).

The reason why I am telling you this story is the thought you are going to have, or what your partners or colleagues will say out aloud:

"But that is not the cheapest way to do it, right?"
“It’s cheaper if we do it the old way...”
“It’s easier and faster if we do it the way we’ve always done it...”

Sure, there are cheaper and easier ways to install heating and cooling into your building…

And for some projects, where the owner doesn’t care about hidden costs, whether it works well, or life-time energy bills, they are more appropriate.

So the questions is: Do you or don't you care?

What now?

If you’re looking for quality heating and cooling installation guaranteed, we at Euroheat would love to help. Specifically we provide the installation (including design, supply, and commissioning) of the following:

  • Radiant (hydronic)
    • Floor heating and cooling.
    • Wall heating and cooling.
    • Radiator central heating.
  • Geothermal
    • Integrated heating & cooling systems.
  • Energy Sources
    • Heat pumps (geothermal, air, water, hybrid).
    • Gas boilers.
    • Solar hot water.
    • Solar PV.
    • Bio-fuels.
    • Hybrid systems with multiple sources.
  • Ventilation and Air-Conditioning
    • Fan coils (aircon).
    • Heat recovery ventilation.
    • Fresh air supply.
  • Controls
    • Sensors (temperature, humidity, pressure, flow, etc.).
    • HVAC and building management systems.
    • Custom programming of control systems.
    • Thermostats and room controllers.
  • Plant Rooms
    • Expansion vessels.
    • Motorised zone valves.
    • Motorised mixing valves.
    • Variable speed drives.
  • Distribution Piping
    • Copper and plastic piping systems.
    • Piping thermal insulation.
    • Piping support systems.
  • Pool Heating
    • Pool heat exchangers.
  • Tap Hot Water
    • Watermarked storage tanks for tap hot water supply.
    • Circulation systems for ring-mains.
    • Highly insulated ring-mains.
  • Thermal Insulation
    • Building thermal insulation (floors, walls, roof, etc.).

If you’d like to create a totally natural feel and comfortable climate in your bulding, give us a call and we can have an introductory quick 15 min. consultation over the phone with you about your plans. To help you understand the process. To help you select the right building products or HVAC systems. And to answer any questions. We promise no salesy pitching, just info on physics, energy flows, thermal efficiencies and how to use it all in seamlessly heating/cooling your house... 08 6468 8895

If you´d like to get our detailed expert opinion and guidance, please see our expert consultation option here.

Get expert advice for your building

Describe your heating and cooling project and plans

Let us know what you are planning to build. The more you tell us, the better understanding we will have... and the more precise our advice and quote can be.

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Quick 15 minute phone consultation

We will go through your plans with you over the phone during a 15-minute quick consultation. (For consultations over 15 minutes, please see our expert consultation option here.)

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Get an honest quote

If you want to continue, we will then prepare a detailed quote with options and alternatives.

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