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All right. Thank you all for joining us so much today. Today
we're hanging out with my good friend Luis Keller from UEI. Luis
hello. Thank you for having me Clifton. Absolutely. So tell us
a little bit about yourself Luis and how you got into the
industry before we dive into today's topic. Well, you know,
I've been fortunate enough. I've worked for UEI test
instruments for almost the last eight years of my life. It'll
be eight years in July. I actually came from a very
diverse background, retail, retail management and optical
right before I came to UEI. And this has been a great learning
opportunity for me. I've had a history in my jobs of jumping
into industries that I just didn't really know a whole lot
about. And so if you would have asked me about eight years ago,
what a combustion analyzer did, what a meter did, a manometer
or any of those things, I would have my eyes kind of glazed
over and I said, Okay, I'll figure it out. And after going
through a lot of training, a lot of research, a lot of you know,
just learning activities, being out in the field, getting to
talk to everybody I've gotten from just being one of our
customer service teams, to being our national training manager
for UEI test instruments. Okay, so at the national training
level, I am sure you have encountered many different
varieties of how to learn how to use tools, right?
Absolutely. I mean, everybody has a little bit of a different
learning style. So you know, some people, you can just tell
them something, and they're going to remember it, and
they're going to be able to repeat it back, and they're
going to be able to provide that skill. Other people need a
combination, they need something like they have to have the
visual stimulation to be able to understand it. Exactly. And you
know, the most comprehensive is when you can have a mixture of
being interactive, but also having the base knowledge, the
fundamental stuff, exactly. So when I do some of my training,
you know, I do a lot on the dangers of carbon monoxide and
combustion analyst, analyzation. The best classes are when I get
to do something like go through our PowerPoint slides. So you
have the basics, right? So you can see, you can see, but then
when we get to go out into the lab and actually perform a
combustion analysis, you get a touch exactly because then you
get to hear. Yes. All right, now I'm in. All right. Because you
know what I felt like it for me when I came to the industry,
there were a lot of puzzle pieces, and they were all just
scattered out there on the table and you didn't know where the
edges were, you couldn't find the middle, you couldn't. And
then all of a sudden, you start putting it together. And then
one day, the pieces all just magically click for you. And
it's that combination of having the audio, the visual, and being
able to get out there and actually do it.
Now, one thing that I personally, maybe it's my own
perception, but one thing that I see out in the industry is a
tendency for us not to be willing to accept new
technologies very comfortably. In my personal opinion is that,
you know, as we were, let's say we were growing up, we were, we
were learning the industry, and we were taught a certain
particular way. And we connected to that learning, because maybe
it interacted to us all visually, physically, and
audibly. And so we made a connection to that learning
style. So even though technology is transitioning, maybe we are
not comfortable teaching new technology, because what
resonated to us may resonate differently to a newer
generation of technicians. Is that something you see on a
national level? I do. And you know, I think it's one of those
things is that the next generation that's coming up, they
grew up very differently than than what I did. You know, one
of one of the things that I see a lot of times is that we want
to go back to the old technologies because they had
the fundamentals, right? At the end of the day, whether you're
using something that has an analog gauge, or you have
something that's a digital gauge or a wireless gauge, the numbers
aren't going to change. No, it's just how you're looking at it.
Yeah, exactly. And I think we need to change our perspective
and maybe look a little bit to those future technologies. You
know, one of the examples that I like to use is that you don't
need to know how to an abacus works to be able to use a
calculator. Oh, yeah, that's a great one. You know, it a
calculator works, you understand the the principles of your
addition, your math, your addition, subtraction,
multiplication, division. But how that calculator actually
works, it's going to give you the same numbers at the end of
the day. Exactly. So going back to learn that old technology
just kind of seems like a little bit of spinning of the wheels.
Right. So why not move to the newer technology? And the next
thing is, is the new generation, the next generation that that
we're teaching that we're cultivating, everything's tied
into smartphones right now. Absolutely. It's in some kind of
digital technology. There's just no way around it. And I mean, I
think we're all probably guilty of it. You know, we have our
cell phones, we don't have to remember anybody's telephone
numbers, right? Our phones do it for us. Last time we looked into
an actual phone book. Do they still even make those? I haven't
seen one in a while. I mean, they make excellent doorstops.
But why? I can just Google Clifton if I wanted to, you
know, find something. And it's the same information. It is.
Yeah. So whether it's the same information, we're just
digesting it a little bit differently. Yeah, you know, so
true. And so I think it's an important part of what our
future is going for. I don't need to know how a sling
psychrometer actually works. I just need to know how how wet
bulb or dry bulb and all of that. We can show those older
technologies after we've taught them what those meanings are.
Right. But get those actual fundamentals down. Yeah. And I
just I can't blame the next generation right now for not
knowing some of those things because they've never seen them.
Exactly. You know, I can tie that back into, you know,
refrigerant charging. Can I teach somebody how to use a
dial a charge to charge a refrigeration system? Yes,
absolutely. I can. Can I teach them how to use a set of digital
scales and pressures and temperatures to do the same
charging? Absolutely. What am I teaching on the things that are
most relevant for the industry and the industry going forward?
So it's just a different approach. And we try to help
remove some of that stigma of new technologies, because we
really do have to help our young technicians learn in an
environment that is comfortable for them and the way that they
can actually relate.
Exactly. And I think, you know, the next generation, I think
there's an opportunity for them to work so much more faster and
efficiently with with the new tools, you know, and as
technology changes, though, the reluctance to adapt new
technology, if you think about the industry 20 years ago, 10
years ago, five years ago, even three years ago, the technology
has changed on the equipment that contractors are having to
install. So you have to have the new technologies, the new test
instruments to be able to really dial that in.
Exactly. And we think about, you know, the performance of a
system, you know, can we measure superheat and subcooling with a
mechanical set of gauges and some thermometers? Yes,
absolutely. Can we measure superheat and subcooling with a
digital set of tools? Yeah. And can I do it in a fraction of the
time? I absolutely can. So we're not, we're not teaching to
unteach the fundamentals. We're just wanting to move the
fundamentals into a modern technology.
Exactly. And you know, you've been in the industry, many of
the people out here have been in the industry long enough that,
you know, when we're talking about like refrigerants and
things like that, there's the old adage of, you know, when we
were working on the refrigerant, if it was beer can cold, we were
good to go, right? Like, you know, exactly what I'm talking
about. Right. Can we use that though, with the new refrigerants
that are out there on the market? No. So why do we want to
still use the same technology that we were using in those
days, when we're going out there to the job sites?
Exactly. So you know, changes here, changes coming. And I
would say as an industry, we have been able to escape
modernizing our education for quite a while, because our
technology hasn't really changed. Drastically, we look
back at PSC motor driven compressors ran off mechanical
contacts, we've been using the technology for about 100 years.
So the evolution of technology is here. And many of us have to
learn new ways of delivering the content. We're not changing the
content, the fundamentals, we're just learning to deliver them in
a different manner.
Exactly. And you know, one of the things that we like to do at
UEI test instruments is we like to listen to what contractors
what's going on in the industry. One of the advantages that we
have as being a manufacturer is just how much of that product
that is designed and manufactured by us. Right. So as
the technologies change, as we things change in the industry,
because we have so much control over that with the design with
the engineering and with the actual production of it, we're
able to keep our tools relevant to what's going forward in the
future. Nice. And that's a big deal is staying relevant. So we
all have our own responsibility in keeping current with
technology and trends in the industry, and being willing to
re look at the way we deliver our message can be a challenge,
but it is absolutely necessary in an evolution of education.
And I keep coming back to this, you know, we are seeing an
evolution of equipment and evolution of refrigerants. But
we haven't seen a whole lot of the evolution of our education.
Yes. And I think that's why one everybody here is is here for
HVAC excellence. You know, it's certainly one of the reasons
that I want to be here not only just to be able to show the new
product from UEI, but to actually be able to hear some of
the stories and hear what's going on in the industry to make
sure that, you know, everything is staying current and you know,
maybe get some new ideas. And it fosters an environment that
you know, I get to work with some of some of the trade
schools out there and then you hear best practices and then you
get to share. And it just grows and grows and grows
exponentially. Because I we're on the path, but we're
unfortunately, very short staffed in the industry right
now. I don't think that's news to anybody right now that, you
know, more guys are retiring out than than able to come in and,
you know, trying to figure out those recruitment strategies
and everything like that. Being able to show new technology
because honestly, next generation, if it's not on a
phone, they don't know. And it's not their fault.
No, that's how they grew up. That's how they grew up.
This may not be how we grew up, but that is how they grew up.
And that's what they connect with. Yeah, visually, exactly.
Audibly and physically. Think about it. You go to a
restaurant with with your parents when you were a kid,
right? You maybe got a coloring book and some crayons or you had
something to occupy you, right? Go to a restaurant now.
Kid, kid sitting there. What's the first thing that mom and dad
does? Here's phone, watch something play game like, and so
that's just how it's been integrated into their world.
Right. And so we need to be able to keep up with that. And you
know, I think the industry is headed in a really good
direction with that. But it's just being able to change our
perspective and how we're teaching it.
I had an educator approach me and asked, How do I encourage
my youngest, my freshest students coming into my program
that this program is right for them? I said, Well, I personally
like to take a digital manifold, digital tools, digital anything
that I have in the shop, walk over, show them, turn them on,
let them see what is interacting, and then explain to
them that that is where they're going to end up after they've
learned the fundamentals, give them encouragement that the
investment into the fundamental education will provide them the
path to the technology that they are intrigued with.
Okay. Yeah, that's that's a great way to start it. I'm also
a big fan of working backwards. You know, going going with the
all fancy. Yeah, just I'm a big fan of it. I'm gonna be honest,
like, I think, you know, as an industry, show the kid the
technology on the phone that they can do it this way and then
explain what what the past had to offer. Yeah, exactly. You
know, when when I talk about combustion analysis, you know,
we have a digital combustion analyzer out there, right. So
any of our C 160 series, but when you look at them, and you
go through it, how many of you guys actually used a wet kit to
do a combustion analysis? Exactly. So did you need to know
how that wet kit operated? Before you used? No, no. So
why not start and then show and talk about all the poor, you
know, things that you used to have to do and how far we've
come as an industry? Exactly. Because I think sometimes when
you start with the previous technology, it's a little
overwhelming for for the students. And so really working
backwards seems to work well when I'm talking about it,
because if I again, sling psychrometers, do I have to talk
about and show you how to swing it around to be able to, to be
able to read the the relative humidity, wet bulb and dry
bulb? No. Right. But I can tell you the horror stories of what
it was like to have to try to use that. Yeah, exactly. All
right. I love it. So just new approaches for teaching the
same fundamentals and being willing to look at a new
generation of learners and trying to help engage them
visually, audibly and physically the same way we did
learning in our own method that might be different. Exactly.
Awesome. Thank you, Louise. Really appreciate your time.
Thank you, Clifton. I really appreciate being here today.
All right. Thank you.