starting new company

[theruudguy]

I'm 21 years old and I just passed my texas hvac license exam this past summer. I'm a senior in college, and I started my own a/c company on the side to help pay my way through the remainder of school.

I got my first call today to give someone a bid for a new system. There seems to be alot of controversy on this board over the effectiveness of manual j's/heat load calculations. I'm really nervous about how I should approach this because I don't want to screw up the first job I do. I'm scared that by doing a heat load I will undersize the unit, leaving a very unsatisfied customer. My boss is from the old school and sizes alot of jobs by "sq ft/ton". Any recommendations?

It's 2300 square ft house that is about 20 years old, with 7 kids and 2 adults.

[2hot2coolme]

You have a long way to go before you decide to go on your own.
Best thing for you to do is work a little longer with a good company and get to know the ins & outs.
Are you insured?

[theruudguy]

yeah, in texas you have to insurance before you can get your license issued to you.

[hvac hero]

Good Luck with your new business. I really do hope its a success. I was in business for quite a while before I ever did a load calc. (sad to say) We mainly were doing change outs & would go back in with the same size as they had if they were satisfied with how it cooled. If they said it never cooled great in the summer we'd always bump em up a half ton or sometimes maybe a ton. I'm now doing the hvac load calcs & am feeling a lot more legit. I will say this though. Everybody on here knows their region. I do know in Memphis a 2300 sq ft house if it has 1 system, it would always be a 5 ton. I see posts on here sometimes from people up north that are talking about putting in a 2 ton system on a 2000 sq ft house & it damn near blows my mind. I've learned so much from the posts on here. The main thing is every region is different. There is no universal rule of thumb (like the 500 sq ft per ton) That might work where I am & actually it usually is about the same. But up north they can throw that rule right out the window. lol Good Luck on the first job.

[Edmund Forsthe]

well somebody has to have cajones hope you hang in there and give wiggi a run for him money

[jmb]

theruudguy,
Where are you at in Texas? Thanks, jmb

[Christheheatingdude]

Do a proper Heat load and set yourself apart from the competition. You could go in there and just use rule of thumb and be like the other contractors there. But then you are letting the customer shop price.

Ask the customer questions. You are the solution to their problem. Be the expert that they are looking for. The beginning of that is a load calc.

If you do not do this, what happens if you oversize the unit. Same problem you are nervous about. A unhappy customer.

[theruudguy]

hey jmb,

I go to tex a&m right now, so I'm in College station, but I still go back and forth to my parent's house in southwest houston/sugarland.

[jmb]

Darn, I hoped you were around the Dallas area. Thank you for the reply. jmb

[udarrell]

Originally posted by theruudguy

I'm 21 years old and I just passed my texas hvac license exam this past summer. I'm a senior in college, and I started my own a/c company on the side to help pay my way through the remainder of school.

I got my first call today to give someone a bid for a new system. There seems to be alot of controversy on this board over the effectiveness of manual j's/heat load calculations. I'm really nervous about how I should approach this because I don't want to screw up the first job I do. I'm scared that by doing a heat load I will undersize the unit, leaving a very unsatisfied customer. My boss is from the old school and sizes alot of jobs by "sq ft/ton". Any recommendations?

It's 2300 square ft house that is about 20 years old, with 7 kids and 2 adults.

Do a lot of reading and studing before you tackle a job of that nature.

Be a real pro and start at the very beginning; the Power Company might do a heat-gain heat-loss audit along with an energy conservation audit so that things could be done to reduce the equipment size required to heat and cool the home. Here are some A/C pages to read:

http://www.udarrell.com/air-conditioner-capacity-seer.html