Indoor air quality (IAQ) has become a hot topic over the last few years, spurred on by the COVID-19 pandemic and a string of wildfires in North America that left millions of residents breathing in smoke-polluted air.
One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning businesses have heard from many customers interested in improving their IAQ—and they have just the product to recommend.
Blade Air’s MicroPower Guard is an electronic air cleaner that improves IAQ, keeps airflow strong, and allows HVAC systems to run smoothly.
One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning of Cincinnati has been selling MicroPower Guard for about 12 years. Over the past five years, there’s been a big spike in interest, said Drew Dahlke, service manager.
“I think we’d be crazy to think COVID didn’t have something to do with that,” he says.
The MicroPower Guard Difference
Traditional HVAC filters are made of paper, with tiny holes throughout. The MicroPower Guard can trap particles as small as three-tenths of a micron (for context, 50 microns can fit on the cross-section of a human hair.)
“Filters are just filters, catching the stuff big enough to get caught in the fence,” says Brian Wick, owner of One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning of Medina and Dayton, Ohio. “It’s like if you take ping pong balls and throw them in a chain link fence, they’ll go right through. But if you start throwing footballs at it, they’ll stick.”
Yet MicroPower Guard still helps maintain the air flow for newer furnaces, says Mark Hudson, general manager of One Hour of Cincinnati. The pleated air filters found at big box stores don’t collect the amount of dirt and dust a MicroPower Guard does, plus they also restrict air flow. That’s one of MicroPower Guard’s big selling points.
“We don’t want to restrict air flow, because it’s more pressure on the system. I think that’s a good conversation to have, because I think one of the objections we get is, well, I can just get something at the big box store, right?” Mark says.
Reaction from Customers
Kevin Campbell, sales manager for One Hour of Cincinnati, says sometimes customers will notice an increase in dust in their homes when they first install a MicroPower Guard.
“The dust will either be caught by the filter, or it’s going to be heavy enough to fall to the surface, so in the beginning you'll notice that when you clean your furniture, you're going to have more dust. Then you’ll start to see that reduce and that's just where it's taking it out of the air that you're breathing,” Kevin says. “I know we've had those calls before where people thought it wasn't working because they went down after the first 30 days to change it, and it was dirtier than their other filters.”
In addition to improving indoor air quality, MicroPower Guard also protects the equipment in your home, Drew says.
“The more dust and dirt and things that we're catching out of the air, the less of it is getting through these furnaces,” Drew says.
Brian of One Hour of Medina and Dayton says he jumped on the MicroPower Guard bandwagon quickly two decades ago, swapping out systems he’d sold in previous years for the MicroPower Guard and installing one in his home and his employees’ homes.
“Everybody immediately started seeing the benefits and I have not lived without one in over 20 years now,” he says. “We've even gone to a model in our organization where every system that is installed automatically comes with a MicroPower Guard.”
A Business Boost
The MicroPower Guard comes with a built-in recurring revenue opportunity, as customers need to replace the filters regularly. But it’s also the perfect product to sell alongside other products, therefore increasing your revenue and margins, Mark says.
“When you match it right and mix it with another product like an OxyQuantum UV light, you’re stacking revenue and you're stacking more margin, but you're also stacking the coverage and the benefits,” he says. “So if we're going to clean your ducts, get them clean, we’ll talk about putting in a MicroPower Guard to keep then clean and then, oh by the way, there’s a UV light that can get out smells and toxins and really keep your whole system clean. It’s an entry level discussion about how to help a customer and then it allows you to open up and have other conversations with them.”
Brian has an IAQ club for his customers, which includes automatic refills of items including MicroPower Guards and UV light bulbs.
“Occasionally we’ll get a little bit of push back on the price of replacement filters, the medias, because it's an investment every year, a couple hundred dollars,” he says. “So we broke it out into monthly payments and rolled it right into our clubs and now it's just part of your subscription for your maintenance and your filters are prepaid.”
Brian says the MicroPower Guard has helped his locations increase their average ticket on replacement sales by around $800.
“Just because we’re going to include it in there. It’s a great add on for people that if they didn't put it in or maybe we didn't do a replacement for them, but they want to protect their equipment,” he says.
The MicroPower Guard can also be easily removed and installed in a new system.
“We’ve had homeowners who are selling their house, so we go and remove their MicroPower Guard and we go and reinstall it at their new house,” Brian says.
Purchase MicroPower Guard for your Business Today
The MicroPower Guard is “a win, win, win” across the board, Brian says, protecting homeowners from pollutants and equipment from unexpected breakdowns, and boosting your business’ bottom line.
Interested in learning more about MicroPower Guard and purchasing this product for your business? Please contact your Regional Account Manager.