Running a family heating and cooling business

Running a family business is a tricky business.  Especially an HVAC business with a bunch of very strong personalities involved.  My dad, my mom, and their business partner started David White Services in 1977.  Now almost 35 years later it is a thriving business with two offices, in Athens and Lancaster, serving the majority of southeastern Ohio and parts of West Virginia.  So many counties, so many towns like Logan, Jackson, Gallipolis, and Canal Winchester to name just a few of the seemingly hundreds of great communities that we love.

I was only 3 years old when the business began and some of my earliest memories are sitting at a little desk with my own adding machine, crayons, and paper above C&E hardware on Richland Avenue in Athens.  And now my husband works here, my sister and her husband both work here and our eldest children, 13 & 10, both think they'd love to stay in the family business.  And my three year old is currently sitting at a computer watching cartoons on Netflix coloring with her own crayons & paper at the desk next to me.

The best part of working with my family is I have a real feeling of belonging and community.  I used to hate, when I was younger and searching for my own identity, being "David White's daughter."  But now I love it.  My parents are cool and well respected and I am Ohio all the way through.  A Buckeye, a Bobcat, a small town, midwest girl.

The decisions they made when I was too young to know what was happening, I'm proud to be now carrying on to the next generation.  Long ago they decided to work mainly with residential service, not with new construction and commercial.  This suits my personality perfectly.  Instead of working with big companies and bureaucracies, we work with our neighbors, our community, our friends.  We take care of their furnaces and air conditioners and heat pumps.  Their stoves and their fireplaces.  We truly are hearth and home.  And having done so for so many years, we are now taking care of second generation and third generations, both their homes and their small businesses.

When I'm at my house, with my own kids, I really do ponder all the other people in the surrounding counties, that are also snowed & snuggled in, in front of their fireplaces and with their heat pumps and furnaces chugging away, and I'm happy to have played a part, even a tiny part, in their comfort.

And I won't dwell on the bad parts of a family business.  I'll just say my parents raised my sister and I to be honest in our opinions, and as long as we said it respectfully we were allowed to say whatever we wanted.  So you can imagine that we grew up with very strong opinions that we aren't afraid to share.  Good thing they raised us with great senses of humor and the knowledge of the power of an apology.

The whole brood: courtesy of Morristowne Photography

Ask Dave: Heating Oil is so expensive, what can I do?

Dear Dave:

We are in the country and have always heated with oil. We like the heat but now the price per gallon has gone up dramatically.  What can we do?

 Dear Customer:


Nationally, heating oil has gone up about 40 cents a gallon in the last few weeks. Propane (made from oil) will also skyrocket. With the world economic recovery, they probably will not go down. It might be time to look at other options. If you add to your oil or propane furnace an Energy Star Heat Pump, you can have the best of both worlds. Most of the time, the heat pump will be heating you for HALF the cost of oil products but in very cold weather the furnace will automatically come on and comfortably heat your home. There are still some tax credits available for an add on heat pump. Remember, upgrading equipment is done once but your oil or LP bill is every month. We have low interest financing and our estimates are free. 

Sincerely,
David White

Ask Dave: What is the cheapest fuel to heat my home?

There is a wide range of products and prices for fuel to heat your home.  And it can be confusing to compare such a wide variety of products.  It often feels like comparing apples to oranges.  Different, but both fruity.

To take the guess work out we break it down into how much it costs for a Million BTU's.  BTU is a measure of heat.  So in 2010, and into the winter of 2011, in our area of Ohio the prices broke down like this:

Fuel Oil                    $20.17
LP gas (Propane)     $26.00
Electric Furnace       $20.51
Electric Heat Pump  $10.26
Natural Gas furnace $10.76
Corn                        $ 9.00
Hardwood               $ 3.30

Obviously, these prices are conditional and always changing.  But it gives you at least an idea and a beginning point on which to capare.

It's pretty obvious that oil, propane, and electric furnaces are the most expensive ways to heat your home by far.

Welcome 2011!

It's the beginning of a new year, with all the challenges winter and a new year bring.  Here in the offices of David White Services, both in Lancaster & Athens, we've been working hard taking inventory, balancing our books, and making plans for the coming year.

In addition to this we've been excited to start working even more closely with the electric company and their wonderful gridSMART program.  We are hoping this truly benefits our customers both with information and rebates are meeting with them next week to get the big scoop.

Our connection with our amazing vendors, like Lennox, Maytag, and Waterfurnace, will continue this year and we are, of course, making sure we are up to date with all of their new products and information.

We also renewed our contract as official sponsors of Ohio University Bobcats.  We have loved supporting such a wonderful college and their inspiring athletic departments and know that this year will not disappoint.  Look for us at the games!  We're hoping to get a halftime game going at the men's basketball games and hope you will all join us in cheering them on as divisional games begin.

It may still be dark and bleak outside on this January evening but inside our homes and our customer's homes it is nice and toasty warm.  And in our offices there is much excitement as we look forward to another year serving our wonderful communities.

Ask Dave: What to do about crazy energy bills?

Dear Dave,

I just got my electric bill.  I was away for the holidays and it was still $300.00!!!  What can I do?

Dear Customer,

I have a hunch this is only the beginning.  $3.10 gasoline tells the story of the rising cost of energy.  One solution is to add a wood stove to your family or living room.  There are beautiful, very efficient wood stoves that not only give a lot of heat but have glass doors and provide wonderful ambiance while burning.  Many still have tax credits available on them.

If you can't cut wood (I can't since I live in town) you can buy it and have it delivered.  It costs some but far less than electricity.

We have a number of wood stoves in our showrooms in Athens and Lancaster and provide certified installation that your home insurance company will like.  I personally don't think there is anything better on a winter night than our family gathered around a wood fire in our family room.  And if I'm saving a bunch on my electric bill, all the better!

David

Tips for Winter Savings

Here in southeastern Ohio we have our first true winter storm blowing in.  So I thought it was time for some winter energy saving tips.

1) Check for drafts around windows and doors.  Purchase door sweeps for the bottom of the doors to seal out air leaks and install new weatherstripping if you feel cold air around your door or window seams. Window sealing kits are available too for those cold, cold windows.  All of these are simple tasks that anyone can do with kits from the hardware store.

2) Have your furnace tuned up.  I know, I know this makes me money.  So it seems like I might have ulterior motives to suggest it.  But seriously, all furnaces and should be serviced annually to increase efficiency and ensure the furnace is safe to operate.  For just a few extra dollars you can purchase one of our maintenance plans which includes the tune up, a filter, AND we'll pay for most parts and labor if you need a repair the rest of the year.  Not a bad deal for something you ought to be doing anyway.  Click here for the Energy Star check-list.  See?  Even the officials on saving energy agree with me on this one.
 
3) Which, by the way, if you don't have a high efficiency furnace, you should look into buying one.  Ask one of our specialists about the savings you can get from replacing a 20 year old (or older!) furnace with a newer efficient one and I think you'll be very surprised by how much money you are literally burning each month.
Check and replace furnace filters on a regular basis-we suggest checking the filter every 30-45 days.  If you have one of our super media filters, check it every 6 months at the very least.  They sometimes can last a year but it's best to check them monthly after the 6 month mark.
 
4) A programmable thermostat makes it easy to keep your house cool when you aren't home (or are asleep) and warm by the time you are home.  No sense wasting money heating your house to a comfortable temperature when it is empty.

5) Make sure fireplace dampers are fully closed when not in use.  Traditional fireplaces can suck warm air up them and right outside, wasting your precious energy dollars.  Personally, we installed a gas fireplace insert in ours several years ago.  This makes it a true source of heat for us, even when the power is out, and no warm air is ever sucked up the chimney.  Plus, I don't have to mess with wood.  If you truly want to heat with wood, for example if you can cut it yourself so it's a cheap heat source, then I recommend a wood stove or insert.

6) Finally, this isn't necessarily an energy saving tip, but heating your house dries your house up.  Meaning your sinus cavities are all dried up.  Meaning you can catch a cold more easily or have a cold turn into a sinus infection because everything is so stuffed up.  Installing a whole house humidifier (or buying a cool mist humidifier for each bedroom from a drug store or retail store) can stop these issues.  It can actually save you energy as well as a moist house feels warmer meaning you might be willing to keep the actual temperature on your thermostat lower.  Saving energy and money.
 
I'm all about saving money, a known deal grabber, coupon clipper, penny pincher.  But truth be told, no matter how many coupons you are clipping winter heating costs can suck all the money out of your banking account.  Take the time, and possibly the initial investment, and stop sending your money right out the chimney, windows, and doors. 

Women are breaking into all parts of the HVAC world!

This year marks the first year in 116 years of ASHRAE (The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers) history that a woman is president.  Lynn G Bellenger was installed as president of the society this summer.

As a woman in a mostly male dominated industry I was obviously excited to hear this.  I was even more excited to hear her ideas of making sure that HVAC industrial experts be inserted in the architect/engineer part of building.  She said this was especially important if the heating and cooling industry is to continue it's quest of making a sustainable world, saying, "It is going to require a real cultural shift in our industry to transform the design process, and it's a shift that has to occur if we are going to reach our goal of net-zero-energy buildings."

I found her presidential address (at http://www.ashrae.org) both eloquent and practical.  She said, "Our challenge is to approach every project with innovation, not repetition, and to challenge ourselves to find the elegant solutions that will minimize energy use and provide exceptional indoor environmental quality. People will judge us on our performance, not our promises."

Who of us in this industry has not been frustrated with HVAC being such an after thought to the overall building plan?  When it is clearly one of the most important parts of a comfortable building.  Add with that the modern desire to stop polluting our earth and we are clearly in a time of change.

I'm so proud to be part of David White Services, bringing well designed, efficient heating and cooling (both traditional and geo-thermal) to the Athens and Lancaster markets.  And glad to have so many women in our organization as well.  Women are so good at practical application that it just makes sense to have us in an industry that deeply effects the daily comfort of both us our families.