Arkansas HVACR NewsMagazine March 2025

News Magazine March 2025

FEATURE STORY

Incentives for Change

“ Rethinking HVAC Relevance

Politically based incentives are never a good thing to build a business on. Long term, and short-term gains jumping through government hoops whether local, or federal, is a recipe for disaster. If an opportunity shows up, be flexible enough to take advantage of the situation, but plan on resiliency as well. Seldom are proposed incentives aligned with the end product. While government proposals for incentives look enticing, (as designed) those programs will add overhead, more often than profit. For an example, there has been talk of fuel changing as a choice for homeowners, and in some cases, it will make sense. Take advantage of the conversation, be the expert in each situation. Guiding a customer to adopt heat pumps in lieu of fuel type heating is generally not recommended, but there are always exceptions. Regardless, make the right call to maintain the customer for the right reasons. Never miss the opportunity to put your foot in the door; but, remember, there are some customers that should be serviced by another company, rather than lowering performance expectations over profit.

Just under 44,000 housing units were added in Arkansas from April of 2020 until July of 2023 which is an increase of just over 3% growth. The numbers are from a spreadsheet circulated by the Arkansas Economic Development Institute (AEDI). When you consider the impact Covid put on the country, it would seem to be a reasonable number. Arkansas outpaced California’s 2.5% growth during the same period while Arkansas’s neighbor, Texas, lead the entire country with just over 6% growth during the same period.

With these facts, we remember no matter how dire the situation, there is

always a need for housing.

Inflation Reduction Act

Where there is housing, there is the need for environmental conditioning. Over the past several decades the HVAC industry has seen many trends, but in the end, well managed companies come out the other side, stronger than ever. It is important to stay focused on your company’s values and goals without respect to outside influences.

Draining the Pool of Knowledge

While our industry is advancing rapidly, some of the fundamentals are being forgotten in order to keep up with changes. Unfortunately, many in the HVAC industry don’t understand what they don’t know. Not because of