Your company focuses only on hydronics? Do you only work with the state assistance programs or also have retail customers? What's your take on the weatherization/insulation programs side of the equation?
We service and install oil/gas/propane fired residential/commercial hydronic, steam, forced air and hybrid systems, but there are more boilers than furnaces in many regions we service, especially in older homes and buildings.
Subsidized heating fuel customers and subsidized furnace/boiler service/repair/replacement customers are a relatively small part of our business by choice, but this customer base has grown as the income qualification limits have increased.
Most of the subsidized furnace/boiler replacement work is low bid cut-and-run work, so we avoid it unless it's to help a long term customer.
We're swamped with non subsidized annual service, service contract, standard service, emergency service and installation work, so we don't mess with low bid work, highly competitive bid work, low margin work, non-customer warranty work, paperwork, approvals, red tape, fronting large amounts of money and waiting to get paid.
Servicing the older equipment is an expensive, time consuming, dirty job, so we've dropped many of these non-subsidized customers as well. To make money doing subsidized service, you'd have to cut a lot of corners since annual service on some of the large older units requires 3 plus hours of labor, plus tons of refractory, high temp silicone, oddball filters/nozzles/pump strainers, extra vacuum bags etc. We could service 2/3/4 modern units in that time @ $150 to $250 per unit vs $150 for the single subsidized service unit.
Many of these older units contain, asbestos and vermiculite, plus they're generally filthy to service as well. Many people doing cut-rate service vacuum these units with cheap non commercial vacuums and never wear gloves or respirators.
IMO, the winterization/weatherization and furnace/boiler replacement programs make more sense than buying fuel for customers with uninsulated/poorly insulated homes and/or grossly inefficient heating systems. Many of these customers have much less financial incentive to weatherize, replace grossly inefficient equipment, or turn down thermostats since HEAP/Emergency HEAP pays for much of their fuel.
