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HVAC-ology
Welcome to "HVAC-ology," your podcast for all things related to commercial HVAC systems! Whether you're an experienced technician, an HVAC engineer, a curious business owner, or simply someone interested in understanding the parts and pieces of HVAC systems, this podcast is perfect for you.
In each episode, our expert hosts and enthusiasts delve into the complex world of commercial heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC). We cover everything from the latest equipment technology advancements to practical tips.
Music credits: "Bring Me Back" by Deleveled (instrumental for intro and with lyrics for outtro).
HVAC-ology
HVAC-ology Episode 14: SafTDek and the Future of Workplace Safety
What if the next innovation in workplace safety could save lives and reduce costs? That's exactly what Nathan Sollenberger, our special guest from SafTDek, is here to discuss. Join us for the season finale of HVACology as we explore Nathan's journey from Pennsylvania to the forefront of HVAC innovation. He'll share the story behind SafTDek, a groundbreaking safety product designed to address the challenges of mechanical equipment positioned high off the ground. Learn how SafTDek has transformed some job sites for HVAC technicians, making them safer and more efficient.
Discover how mechanical systems for lifting heavy motors can streamline operations and enhance safety, and hear about the importance of custom solutions for unique project needs.
Be sure to visit www.saftdek.com for more information about SafTDek.
This is the final episode in the first season of HVAC-ology. Thank you for tuning in...and we look forward to seeing you again in season 2, launching in 2025!
Please be sure to subscribe to our podcast and share with anyone who might be interested!
Welcome to the HVACology experience, where we talk about all things HVAC industry topics that are so hot, they are cool.
Speaker 2:All right Ready. We are in episode 14 of HVACology, and I would like to first introduce my lovely co-host, kelly Patterson.
Speaker 3:I always need the drum roll, ryan, where's my drum roll?
Speaker 2:Well, I think that's for you to put in, maybe a little bit later.
Speaker 3:All right, I'll do it. I'll do it. Thanks for the intro. Appreciate it yes.
Speaker 2:Yes, you're welcome and I am Kelly's co-host, Ryan Hudson. And you know what today marks, Kelly? Tell me what it marks. It marks the season finale of season one of HVACology.
Speaker 3:Yay, insert wild applause there.
Speaker 2:I can't believe we've made 14 episodes, or this will be their 14th episode yes, and I feel like we need to come up with some kind of cliffhanger, because you always want people to come back for more, right?
Speaker 3:Like who shot JR?
Speaker 2:Who shot JR?
Speaker 3:I don't want you to get shot though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's not do that. Who?
Speaker 3:is kelly? Who is jr? Oh, my gosh, right, I'm so old. They are ewing from dallas fame. Nobody knows what that is anymore, right?
Speaker 2:I have no idea what you're talking about he is such a liar really.
Speaker 3:Pop culture, pop culture. Actually the 20-somethings will not know what I'm talking about. But back when tv was like this thing that only came on, you know you couldn't re-watch things and you know it was. It was kind of this cool thing that episodes did cliffhangers and you had to wait all summer to find out what happened.
Speaker 2:People don't do that anymore. My tv growing up was about 300 pounds and it had two knobs. One was for to get down to the bottom knob and then the other is like one through 10 I think, and then you go down to the bottom one. You had 11 through like 60.
Speaker 3:You were fancy. I had a black and white TV growing up. Oh, did you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, mine was color. I don't like to brag, but it was color I mean you were fancy. Did you have the bunny ears?
Speaker 3:We did not have cable. We only had the bunny ears with the little aluminum foil on top.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and if you bridge the aluminum foil?
Speaker 3:I swear you could pick up one more channel?
Speaker 2:I think you could. Yeah, so as we get to our season finale we thought it'd be, there was nobody better to uh have on than nathan solenberger. Hello, nathan Stolenberger, hello, nathan. Hello, thanks for having me. You're welcome, nathan. So we're going to talk today about a product that's fairly new called Safety Deck. And how is first off? Before we go any further, nathan, how do you spell Safety Deck?
Speaker 4:Safety Deck. It is S-A-F e k, so it we get it pronounced. You know, safety deck, sometimes some other things um, safety deck just kind of was a name that we put together a couple years ago and it kind of stuck and kind of became its own thing. So it's been been, it's been fun.
Speaker 2:The nice thing about it is, I feel fairly sure that when you say safety tech, the listener has a pretty good idea of where this is going, which is what you want, right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely Safety driven. You know, safety oriented product kind of came out of necessity of what we do in our industry, so happy to kind of jump into it whenever you guys want to chat more about it.
Speaker 2:Sure, yeah, before we get there, a question for you. We like to ask everybody, and we did it for episodes one through 13. So season finale we've got to keep going. Take us through, Nathan, how you graduated on that beautiful May day in high school and then all of a sudden got into the HVAC industry. So kind of walk us through that high level 5,000 foot view of how you got to where you are today. Ready set go.
Speaker 4:Yeah, sure, so I guess backing up a little bit. I grew up in Pennsylvania so I was there my entire life and knew I wanted to go to a different state for school. So North Carolina was kind of a choice that I just had. I knew that's where I was going to go, so went to UNC. Charlotte graduated in 2014,. Which is crazy, it's been 10 years already. It does not seem that long Old man, nathan.
Speaker 1:I know.
Speaker 4:So from school I ended up going to work at a hydronics company. We actually did valve design. So I did that for a couple of years as an actual, you know, design engineer. So I was doing design work with valves and control valves and piping packages and some of those things and then, probably two years after that, started working for Hoffman on the control side doing actual you know data center controls work, worked on that for two years and then ended up coming over to the equipment side and have been doing equipment procurement and rep work for some of our main data center accounts for the last six years. So that's kind of what we've been doing and that's kind of where the need for Safety Deck ended up coming from Out of these big accounts that we service and maintain. They were the ones that had kind of come to us and said, hey, we need this, and I mean we couldn't find it anywhere else. So we decided to make it.
Speaker 2:Very cool, so thank you for sharing your story, so help us understand what this is. So this brand, this product, that is Safety Deck, what is the intent of it? What is it?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so Safety Deck. If you've seen, you know, mechanical equipment before. A lot of these different pieces of equipment will have fans and motors and other things that are mechanical on the top or on the roof. All these things are, you know, 10, 12, 15, 20 feet off the ground and it ends up becoming something that is very difficult to service in a way that you know keeps you within OSHA's requirements. For, you know, protection for fall loads, for railings, all of the above.
Speaker 4:So what we did was we actually came up with a railing system that is attached to the bottom of one of these pieces of equipment and then at the tops of them it actually has these clip-in, tie-in points. So you are fully protected and fully, you know, rated for those fall loads that OSHA requires. So you know, you picture a chiller or you know, a package rooftop unit with these fans at the top. Our system kind of bolts around. That apparatus extends up above the roof of that unit and then has a fixed ladder on the back of it that you can actually climb up to. There's a swing gate. It has all these different safety features that when you're up there you can close that gate. You're encompassed in this railing system and you can do your work, do your maintenance, do your service, do your inspections. Do all these things without climbing on a ladder, you know, and putting yourself in a position where you're not doing the work safely.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, thinking back to my service day, or you know service work, so you know technicians will walk up to a piece of equipment, just like you said an air-cooled chiller, a rooftop unit, anything with condensing fans on top and then what happens is is those fans go out. Well, there's no way to get to them unless, just like you said, you do things that are one not safe and not probably compliant with where you're working or with regulatory entities like OSHA, and so you're putting yourself at risk, you're putting the company at risk for both having to pay for your workers' comp or you know any kind of violations that might be fines or whatever associated with that, and you're climbing up this ladder that's not secured. You're getting to the top of this equipment, which is designed for you to be able to put some load bearing on, and then you have to work on this with no railing around you.
Speaker 2:And so what I love, nathan, is that you guys came up with a solution to really make it to where the technician feels safe when they go up there. And that's a sign of my company cares about me, right? Or this business cares about me because I'm going to make it home to my family because I'm in a safe environment. The other thing that I like, nathan, a lot about your product is is that it actually, if I remember right, has a flooring system that you can put over this piece of equipment so that the technician can really kind of move the flooring as they need to to really have a secure thing that they're standing on whenever they're uh, whenever they're having to work on this piece of product. Is that correct?
Speaker 4:Yeah, it is. Um, some of the manufacturers they have the unit tops don't support the weight or they're not, you know, designed to support the weight of someone standing. Do people do it, absolutely. But for those clients and those people and those companies that have these super high safety standards, we came up with this platform system, that kind of bolts to the side of the railing platform system, that kind of bolts to the side of the railing, and when you're in service you can take it off the rail. You can install it, as Ryan you talked about, kind of in those areas where you want to work. All your weight gets distributed down through the uprights of safety deck, versus standing on top of the unit directly, so your weight never touches any top. You know section of that unit. You can do your work, you can remount that railing and then climb down the ladder and then you have that extra feature of the product.
Speaker 3:I have a question for you, Nathan. Have you talked to any technicians who have used the safety deck and what have they had to say about it?
Speaker 4:thing. It's one of those things that you know, while it is a nicety, in my opinion it's a necessity for what we're doing, and you know we're really trying to get the word out there of what we're doing, so more people can kind of have this apparatus that does keep them safe. But, yeah, technicians seem to love it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Because otherwise you know a lot of these roofs. The only way to access them is through a closet, through a roof hatch, and you're climbing up this little scuttle hole, which I don't think I'm that big of a guy, but I swear, I feel like I'm being rebirthed whenever I go through these things. So you climb up through this scuttle hole and then the only way to get that ladder up there I mean you're not going to pull it up through that room you have to actually go, have a piece of rope tied to the, take it down, have a second person there that you can tie the ladder to, and then pull the ladder up on the side of the building, which, from an OSHA compliance, you have to maintain a certain distance from the edge of that building. So you are almost always putting yourself at risk in those kinds of scenarios and I think safety deck helps to eliminate a lot of those different scenarios.
Speaker 2:I love it, Nathan. I mean, as soon as I saw the product and heard about it, I was like this is a no brainer. So let me ask you this if you wanted to, do you have the ability to add any kind of uh rigging equipment to basically make it to where you could uh, set heavy things by the unit and the motor, for example, and then be able to pull that motor up. Do you have anything like that as an add-on?
Speaker 4:yeah, we do. Um, we have what we would refer to as a davit crane. I mean, we can do a couple of different options there, but the crane would essentially mount to the top rail of safety deck and then you can essentially use that as a swing portion. You can crank the hook down. Say you have a bag, you have something that you're going to use to bring a motor up, use to bring a motor up. Some of these motors can be up to, you know, 7,500 pounds, maybe more, depending on you know your different sizes that you have. So it just gives you another option to kind of put it in some kind of basket or bag. You know, crane this thing up, get it over the railing and then you're already up there. You don't have to worry about coming back down, going up and down, trying to lift that thing while you're walking up the ladder. It's just yeah to your point. It's another feature that we do offer.
Speaker 2:So if you had to look for savings in something like this, well, one, you're saving as something that you don't know that could possibly happen, that's an incident. But two, if you had all these features on this, you can lose a man, basically, on having to do this work. Instead of having three men show up to the job, you can have two men show up to the job. Instead of two, you can have one, because you can be a lot more independent now that you have this mechanical system that's doing a lot of the work.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely. And and from that too, I mean it's it's a time saver as well as a personnel saver because of not having to get that ladder up there, because of not having to, you know, figure out a way to get what you need up to the roof. It's already there, it's already installed, it's a permanent system that you're not going to take down or set up every time you have to go do any kind of quarterly or, um, you know, maintain, you know your service agreements and other things like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're in the age of trying to figure out how to take the grunt out of grunt work, and the reason why is is because we want employer retention and I think if you make it to where the people don't have to feel like they're busting their back to make things happen for the business, it makes it where they want to stay on longer Because nobody's getting any younger. So let me ask you this, nathan and I know the answer to the spoiler alert but what do you guys so? Are y'all a cookie cutter kind of business? Or if somebody kind of has a unique solution that they need, uh, do the? Can they bring that to you?
Speaker 4:Totally custom. So we can do about anything you're looking to do. Um, the great thing about the products is it scales. It scales really well. So all manufacturers you know are very similar in size and in comparison and design. So the stuff, while it may be not exactly like it was on this job, it's going to be slightly different. Here the product scales to fit what you're looking for. And if you do have a crazy design where you know you have a conflict or you have, you know, another obstruction on the roof for piping or some kind of duct crossover or something where you're working around, that's where we kind of come in with our engineering, with our design work that we do. We can set you up and have that design where it's integrated into what's already on the roof and that's what makes it really powerful.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, kelly, I have a kind of a cool situation where I called Nathan. It was a studio for a TV station and they needed the equipment. The equipment has to be insanely quiet and so you can't have equipment like right by where they're doing their live broadcast.
Speaker 2:And Nathan and I came up with a solution that basically built like this two-story monstrosity that would bolt onto the side of the building so it would not take any real estate up on their roof and it would also made it to where they with.
Speaker 2:The problem with what we were trying to do is we were trying to get this unit into a little corner where, um, uh, where they needed to walk, and so this made it to where, because we've lifted it up to where it was basically two stories people could walk underneath and then you had easy access by ladder to be able to get to the equipment. You could get all around the equipment and work on it, and it was great. And I have to say, nathan, I think that that solution was significantly cheaper than any other solution that we could have possibly done, because now you're not building another part of the building, you have this system that you can install. It has all the weight loads needed for it and made it to where the equipment was accessible and the building was still accessible by folks trying to get in.
Speaker 4:Yeah, agreed. And just to add to that too, I think one of the things that makes it nice and a lot of requirements some of these buildings require you to have these seismic ratings and these wind ratings and structural loads done To your point. You don't have to do it against the building, it's a standalone structure that you can do, and we have the capabilities to run those calcs, to run those stamped drawings, all of those things that these contractors and clients want more and more of now. We can do that with this design.
Speaker 3:So if I have a question, if I was a university and we're going to use my favorite NC state university, right, and they have a lot of red things on their campus, right? So what if I wanted safety that deck to be red? Could it be red?
Speaker 4:It can be red, it can be red, it can be green.
Speaker 4:Go Niners it can be all kinds of other colors that you want. So we have a couple of different options. You can do it galvanized, you can do powder coat or just a standard exterior paint. So totally dependent on where you're at, what the customer wants, we can have it blend in with the equipment. We can have it blend in with the equipment. We can have it blend in with the buildings. We can have it stand out if you want to show you know, if you want the safety, yellow right on the roof so you can see the safety.
Speaker 4:You know mindset of that too. So we've seen it a ton of different ways.
Speaker 3:I like it.
Speaker 2:So I guess with that then you can kind of make sure that these are able to hold up to things like the ocean, like being by the ocean, as far as making sure they don't rust out or anything.
Speaker 4:Yep, any of the powder coat is typically what we do for anything that runs. Any kind of coastal Seems to hold up really well for that.
Speaker 2:So, Nathan, do you see Safety Deck being something just like a Carolinas solution, a Southeast solution? Do you see it going across the country, across the world? How far do you feel like the reach is for the product safety deck?
Speaker 4:It has to be all over With this safety stuff becoming more and more in the forefront of all of the different client programs and even regulatory bodies. It's just becoming more important, as it should, with the goal being to keep people coming home safe. It has to be a priority. And the crazy thing about it now is, I mean, those same laws and rules are in effect. It's just people don't know about it, or people don't know that, hey, this is a requirement, but we may have just been doing it like this since the beginning of time. So it's one of those things where we need to get the word out. We need to be diligent about showing the product, getting people up to speed and just letting them know something else is out there for this and you don't have to rely on you know a ladder like you did in the past.
Speaker 2:Well, just the fact that you know the simple statement that human life is valuable. And then what can we do to preserve that? And I think you guys have come up with a great solution in our industry. Well, any more questions, kelly.
Speaker 3:I just have one question for Nathan. If people wanted to know more about Safety Deck, where could they find more information?
Speaker 4:Yeah, we have a website, wwwsafetydeckcom S-A-F-T-D-E-Kcom. It has some good information on there. You can always reach out to me direct if you want to. You know, look at options that we have. But the website has some good information and kind of gives you good visuals. I don't know if I painted a really clear picture of what it looks like, but if you picture a nascar hauler, if you've ever seen one of those, picture the railing on top of that and that's what this is. So it's. It's quite extensive. Once you see what we can do with this stuff very cool.
Speaker 2:Well, that is our season finale and nathan, thank you so much for being a part of that, and folks, you will be hearing from us after a little while.
Speaker 3:A little while. We'll just leave it there.
Speaker 2:That's right. Well, that wraps up season one of HVACology. Kelly, I have really, really enjoyed hosting this podcast with you.
Speaker 3:Me too, ryan, you are a fabulous, fabulous podcast host. I think that you should be famous for this, really.
Speaker 2:Oh, you're too kind. You know I do appreciate more. You know, when we first started this venture and we were like, oh, what is it? 90% of people quit after the episode three and then 90% of those people quit after episode before they get to episode 20. I was like Kelly and I, we're going to totally get to episode 20. And I think we will.
Speaker 3:We will, however, it does take a lot, it does, it does. It takes a lot of time and energy. But you know, overall I think the content we've developed is well worth it for our industry.
Speaker 2:I really do is well worth it for our industry. I really do. Well, the the biggest thing to me, kelly, was whenever I would have somebody random come up to me and said I didn't know that about X and I learned about it. And that that's the goal is to break the barrier of you know, this stuff is impossible to figure out too. Yeah, it is. Uh, it's achievable to learn what in the world's going on. You know what? What was your? I'll tell you my takeaway so that I give you time to prime for it. But what was your takeaway from this season? Like, what did you? What was something that kind of surprised you? And I'll tell you mine first, so you have time, okay, okay.
Speaker 2:I loved how much joy people had when talking about what it is that they did or about a product, like hearing someone get excited about filters made me excited about filters.
Speaker 3:Right, I never thought I could get excited about filters.
Speaker 2:Yes. So I really appreciated the enthusiasm that all the folks had on our show about their product or about their offering, or about their solution or about what they do. All right, kelly, your turn.
Speaker 3:All right, I'd say that my so. I always love the people aspect of it and I love that not a single person that we've interviewed this season has said you know, I always wanted to be an HVAC when I grew up right. Not a single person said that We've had people who were into music or you know, somebody wanted to be a doctor or a vet or I don't know what it was. But everyone you know, their journey has found them in the HVAC world and I think it's full of people who are good people, who want to do the right thing, and it's just been interesting to hear the paths that people have taken to get here.
Speaker 2:I completely agree with you and that is a great observation that it does. This is the multi. I don't know how big of an industry. We'll call it multi, multi-billion, maybe trillion, who knows? Dollar industry, and yet it's the industry that it seems like all of their people stumble into it. Like nobody, nobody. At fifth grade, when they had to get up, said I'm going to be an HVAC. Everybody was a police officer or a nurse or a doctor or whatever.
Speaker 3:I was going to be the president of the United States, and I mean HVAC is where I landed.
Speaker 2:Well, there's still a chance. It seems like you have to be about 80 years old before you even think about doing it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I'm not there yet, maybe later.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe later.
Speaker 3:All right.
Speaker 2:Well, cool. Well that's it, folks. Season one in the bag.
Speaker 3:All right, thanks so much. We'll see you next time.
Speaker 2:Bye, bye I think, Nathan.
Speaker 4:Another way to say it is the same way that Master P said it in his Ghetto Dope album.
Speaker 2:If you want some, come and get some here. He is making everyone laugh.
Speaker 4:That's what we're going to do.
Speaker 2:Nathan, we want that more information we're going to get it from you.
Speaker 4:Excellent, just keep it coming, I can answer questions okay kelly, we could.
Speaker 2:You could use that snippet if you'd like, in the uh, because you're recording I am recording I might use a snippet episode 14 all right here we go.
Speaker 1:All right Ready. I got lost inside a daydream. Get sick of all schemes they play on their machines. Lost so many words as I got older. You would have thought I was a storm in a mind of love. I accidentally wrote these words down, thought all the best of me Faded in an endless sea. But you always bring me back. It's your blue eyes, 20 years of staring at that freckle on your left shoulder. Who would have thought all I needed Was to think of you to bring back the words inside? But you always bring me back. It's your blue eyes. I love you, the words inside of me.
Speaker 1:I drove an hour to see you. Things just seem to matter more to me anyway. Got lost in reality. No answers to cancer. We never got to talk. Lost so many friends as I got older. Wish I had the strength to hold you a little bit longer.
Speaker 1:Always meant to write these words down, thought all the best of you Faded in an endless sea. But you always bring me back. It's your blue eyes, 20 years of staring At that freckle on my left shoulder. Who would have thought all I needed Was to think of you to bring back the words inside of me? You always bring me back At your blue eyes, 20 years of staring At that freckle on your left shoulder. Who would have thought All I needed Was to think of you To bring back the words inside? But you always bring me back At your blue eyes. 20 years of staring At that freckle on your left shoulder. Who would have thought All I needed Was to think of you To bring back the songs inside of me? You were always inside of me. You were always a part of me.
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