It was the end of another banner year here at NRT, we've seen some changes and learned a few more things, and continued to struggle to update the website!

Hey Everyone,

Well... wasn't THAT a year! After going over the numbers, we were all pretty stunned to find that when the dust cleared on '06, we had once again doubled our volume over the previous year, and tripled the number of control panels we provided to our clients! Lots of systems have come online this winter with many very, very happy clients. Naturally there have been some snafus here and there and we've been busy on the tech support front, but so far all issues have been resolved and we've been getting a lot of great feedback with this recent cold snap that indicates that our sizing practices... often disbelieved by supply houses asked to provide a boiler half the size of the one they would have specified... are spot-on. Good stuff!

We've really picked up on the modulating/condensing boiler trend in the radiant world, but we have noted a few things at this point. When we first started working with them, we were letting the boilers use their own outdoor sensors, control themselves, and we just used good thermostats on top of that, figuring that the onboard boiler electronics were up to the task of managing things.

Well, in many cases they are ok, but we are finding that the ultra-low temperature systems we've been doing left and right are really pushing the boiler logic as far as it can go, and that while these boilers can modulate down to pretty low levels, they tend to be more finicky at those low firing rates. So we have gone back to our good friends at Tekmar and we are using Teknet 4 controls pretty much standard these days... Just as we used to use full Tekmar systems standard on the older boilers. This minimizes boiler cycling and also maximizes initial demands on cycles.. AND allows for absolute minimum water temperature operation year round, while also allowing temperatures to boost for any changes of thermostat settings or what have you. Silly us, thinking tekmar was obsolete! They are still really bringing a lot to the table!

As an alternative in some cases though, we are considering the use of buffer tanks in our systems. The great guru John Seigenthaler pointed us at a new one that fits the bill nicely, and we're going to experiment with it on Dave's own, brand new radiant and mod/con system in his new home addition! We're very interested to see how big of an effect it has on his otherwise very simple system.

Greg and Shawn have really stepped up to the plate this last year, and have become very valued members of our team. Even with their help though, doubling in volume has definitely pushed us to the limits of what four guys can do! We're very happy that we have been navigating this growth while not only maintaining, but improving the quality of our services.. that's a real fear with rapid growth.. but we need more help for sure. So, at the end of Feb we'll have a new addition to the NRT team, Tracy Clark-Miller, who will be taking over all of our financial duties and will be training under Greg to take over inventory management duties as well. This will take a lot of heat off of all of us, so we can focus on our core tasks more, but we have a sneaking suspicion we'll have to hire again before next fall! Tracy has a lot of experience running financial duties for a much larger company and she is sure to get that end of our company in sterling shape!

Amid the maelstrom of work we were doing last year, we also made a couple of major improvements in our systems. First, we did a total overhaul of our heat load calculation software, and added some capabilities that lets us calculate with greater accuracy and speed than ever, and it's starting to automate some of our design calculations as well. Yes, there is software out there that does this stuff already. But we want to do it our way, and so we continue building our own tools in house. We hope to make a lot more progress there this year!

Also, after a few problems with people not noticing their "thermostat schedules" on the drawings and running wires with too few conductors, drywalling, and then realizing their error, we realized we needed to make that crystal clear for everyone. So, we have started doing low-voltage wiring layouts in addition to tubing layouts for our systems, showing all the wiring that has to run around the building and where it's going. This has already made things a lot easier for the clients that have had drawings finalize recently.. we should have thought of this sooner! It's quick and easy for us, since the floorplans are drawn already, and a big help out in the field for sure. We'll have some new sample diagrams up soon to show off the new work.

That's it for now! With any luck THIS year we'll finally get some major new content live on the website (like, oh, I don't know.. some new projects perhaps???). Thanks for reading, take care, and be well!