Vermont HVAC installers say 2020 was one of their biggest years ever — with homes and businesses across the state scrambling to upgrade heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems to meet the unique demands of the pandemic.
“I don’t remember a time we’ve ever been that busy before,” said Max Balderas, office manager at Red Rock Mechanical in Burlington. “Our installation guys were booked three or four months out at one point.”
Even service technicians were booked three or four weeks out over the summer, which he said is practically unheard of in this line of work.
Commercial building owners sought to upgrade ventilation systems to improve indoor air quality and reduce the spread of Covid. Air particles from people with the coronavirus are transmitted to others through breathing, talking, coughing and sneezing. The virus can linger in an enclosed indoor space for hours, but air filtration systems can significantly reduce the spread of infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Many residential customers who were working at home also installed new air conditioning systems.
The boom didn’t start immediately after Covid-19 hit in March. Initially, contractors said work slowed way down — much as it did for everyone else.
“At the beginning of Covid, all our calls stopped,” said Jay Ferguson, operations manager at Jay Mechanical Inc. in Burlington. “People were more afraid of the virus I think, than dealing with no heat or a leak in a faucet or something.”
Except for a few kinds of repairs, their work was not considered “essential” under the governor’s stay home order, so for months, there were hardly any HVAC systems being installed — or fixed.
All of that changed in the span of a few weeks when warm weather arrived. People who weren’t used to being trapped inside at home in the summer wanted air conditioning.
“When everything was lifted around June, we got hit pretty hard. It was pretty crazy how busy we got,” Balderas said. “Everyone in Vermont wanted air conditioning at the same time.”
Jay Mechanical experienced the same summer customer demand surge.
“Covid had so many people working from home, and they all wanted AC at home,” Ferguson said. “We did so many AC installs throughout the whole summer.”
Mark Stephenson, a manager at Vermont Energy in Williston, said companies had to adapt to how people were using space during the pandemic.
“Offices closed, homes became offices, retail spaces did everything they could to bring people back, as did schools and other meeting places, everything was different,” he said.
Many commercial spaces in Vermont already have rooftop HVAC units that bring in air from outside, which he said is what is needed for appropriate airflow indoors to reduce the risk of coronavirus transmission. Most new buildings have energy efficient HVAC systems installed, which are also great for air flow. But many older buildings don’t have adequate ventilation.
“We did a project recently at a housing facility in Burlington where their common areas where they cook and have meetings, didn’t have that type of equipment,” Stephenson said. “They had a 10 or 15 year old building, and they wanted to ensure the health of their residents, who are older, so they spent the money and got a high-efficiency ventilation system.”
He said he’s seen a lot of businesses make those kinds of investments this past year. Vermont companies had been slowly adapting to higher air quality standards, he said but once the pandemic hit, clean air became a top priority in a way he’d never seen before.
“Air is not something you can see, and if you can’t see the problem, it’s hard to muster up enthusiasm about,” he said. “But now, people really feel the problem.”
For the past few months though, business has begun returning to normal.
“Gradually as summer ended and winter started to come around, we started to slow down,” Balderas said. “We’re obviously still doing boilers and furnaces, but we’re not even close to how busy we were over summer.”
Once Vermont’s Covid numbers started reaching triple digits on an almost daily basis in the fall, people started to get nervous again about having contractors come inside their houses, just like they were back in March and April, he said.
“We had a handful of people ask us to do quotes on their system by FaceTime, or to do it from outside the house, or send me photos through email to get a quote,” Balderas said. “We’ve had to really maneuver how we did things.”
Even with a slow spring and fall, Balderas said the summer boom made 2020 one of the busiest years to date.
“To be honest, it was a big year,” Balderas said. “We weren’t restricted for too long, and then when Gov. (Phil) Scott opened things back up, that’s when we got flooded. I know a lot of businesses were struggling to stay afloat, but when it’s 90 degree weather and people want AC, Covid isn’t going to stop them.”
