EP149 More Than Just Fixing Furnaces: Why NCI is the Heartbeat of the HVAC Industry With Dominick Guarino (December 2023)

Building HVAC Science

Eric and I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Dominick Guarino the Chairman & CEO of the National Comfort Institute (NCI) about its mission to improve the HVAC industry through education and training. Here are the key points:

NCI's origin and mission:

• Founded in 1998 by Dominick Guarino and the late Rob Falke.

• Driven by the desire to improve comfort, energy efficiency, safety, and health in homes and buildings.

• Focusing on high-performance HVAC and the importance of measuring delivered performance.

NCI's activities:

• Offers technical training classes on airflow, combustion balancing, refrigerant side performance testing, and more.

• Develops and provides certifications, such as the only CO and combustion certification in the industry.

• Emphasizes the importance of communication and customer service for HVAC professionals.

• Helps contractors monetize their services by demonstrating the value they provide.

NCI's team:

• Composed of passionate individuals with industry experience and a commitment to high-performance HVAC.

• Key members include David Richardson (VP of training), Casey Contreras (trainer), John Perer (trainer), Al D’Ambola (trainer), Jim Ball (trainer), and Jim Davis ("Captain Combustion").

NCI's impact:

• Trained thousands of technicians and contractors over the years.

• Helped raise awareness about the importance of CO safety and proper combustion testing.

• Contributed to the development of modern CO and combustion analyzers.

Additional information:

• NCI has membership program with member benefits and a summit event every year.

• Eric Kaiser's first HVAC industry class was NCI's CO and combustion class with Jim Davis, which significantly impacted his career.

Dom’s Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominickguarino/

Learn more about NCI at https://nationalcomfortinstitute.com/

This episode was recorded in December 2023