PART 1, Lesson Learned.
When I got into selling and fabricating Thermaduct and Koolduct, I forgot an important business principle.
It’s a bad idea to turn a customer into a competitor.
I thought, for starters, that contractors don’t like the responsibility of outdoor duct. Turns out that isn’t such a big problem after all.
Also, the effort and testing for duct leakage isn’t as robust as it could be. In other words, the problem that requires a low leak solution doesn’t exist. If contractor ductwork was failing regularly, there would be a problem that requires a solution. Could be that it leaks, but if testing isn’t going on, there isn’t a problem.
Still, SODI’s shop and a metal shop don’t look anything alike, and the skill set to assemble the product is different.
And in my opinion, the product is completely different.
Still, it’s ductwork. It’s ductwork a contractor’s metal shop could make, and an insulator could wrap.
OK, fine. The customer/competitor problem I did not foresee, and I acknowledge my confirmation bias, and understand why contractors offer up metal alternatives to Thermaduct specs.
No hard feelings, contractor.
Part 2, New Lessons Coming.
This is our 4th year in business; and as always, things change.
The EPA is making a push to address embodied greenhouse gas emissions.
If you don’t read the article, simply put, it’s how much greenhouse gas it takes to get a product into use.
A sheet of 18 gauge galvanized looks innocent enough, but it takes a lot of fossil fuel to mine the ore out of the ground, melt it with a furnace, form it into shapes, and then heat up the zinc into which it gets dipped. Then of course, pack it, ship it, turn it into duct, ship it again, and install it, and sometimes weld it as necessary.
Kingspan, earlier this spring, released their first Embodied Carbon comparison of phenolic duct and sheet metal duct. This linked example demonstrates a carbon impact that is roughly 1/3 that of galvanized sheet metal. If insulation were added (phenolic ductwork is duct and insulation in one), the impact would be greater still.
In 2020 I had never heard of beneficial electrification, and now I have a heat pump installed at home. Maybe this will be on all of our radar before you know it.
Embodied Carbon isn’t going to drive a lot of Wisconsin behavior right now, but it will in the future.
Part 3, Someday Soon.
Someday, contractor, you may be building your ducts out of phenolic too. Just remember, you heard it here first.
In case you aren’t familiar with phenolic duct, here’s a great video.
Tom Gelin
Air Flow Inc.
8355 West Bradley Road
Milwaukee, WI 53223
414-351-1999
