Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Bergen County
Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Ep. # 89 Keeping Your Home Comfortable: Inside the HVAC Business
Your home's comfort system is more than just a convenience—it's essential infrastructure that directly impacts your family's health and wellbeing. In this revealing conversation with Joe Cascone, founder of Climate Plus Heating and Air, we explore the fascinating journey of a 38-year HVAC veteran who stumbled into the trade by accident but discovered a lifelong passion.
Joe shares candid insights about the hidden dangers lurking in neglected HVAC systems, comparing air conditioners to cars that need regular maintenance regardless of whether they appear to be functioning properly. "You wouldn't drive your car for a hundred thousand miles and not take it to get an oil change," he notes, explaining how seemingly minor issues can compromise both system efficiency and your indoor air quality.
The discussion takes a surprising turn when we explore the science behind home comfort. Climate Plus has developed an innovative approach to educating customers through their mascot "Cozy" and STEM-based learning activities for children. This unique blend of technical expertise and community education reveals how modern HVAC companies are evolving beyond basic service calls to become trusted partners in home health management.
Perhaps most compelling are Joe's stories about helping community members in crisis, including donating equipment and labor to Hurricane Sandy victims. His detailed explanations of how rodents, insects, and neglected ductwork can introduce harmful contaminants into your living space serve as an urgent reminder that professional inspection isn't just about comfort—it's about creating a safe breathing environment for your family.
Whether you're a homeowner curious about optimizing your system's performance or someone interested in the science behind indoor comfort, this conversation offers valuable insights that will change how you think about the air you breathe every day. Schedule your seasonal maintenance today and discover what might be hiding in your home's air circulation system.
Climate Plus, LLC
Joe Cascone
5558 Berkshire Valley Rd Oak Ridge, NJ 07438
(973) 874-1578
office@climateplus.com
climateplus.com
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Doug Drohan.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, Welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast brought to you by the Bergen Neighbors Media Group. I am your host, Doug Drohan, and today we are joined by Joe. Joe from Climate Plus Heating and Air I guess your HVAC is how we would categorize your business, right, Joe Cascone? Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much, Doug. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I appreciate you joining. I always say we've interviewed a lot of different business owners and we have not had an HVAC business on the podcast show yet, so welcome being our first HVAC company. But what we do have is owners and entrepreneurs that have come from every walk of life. They're usually driven by a passion to start their business and we kind of get into why HVAC and what's your story about how you got into this business?
Speaker 3:what was? I didn't grow up in the trades. Um, it was, honestly, it was a, I would say a complete accident how I ended up in the trade. Um, I wasn't sure, uh, coming out of high school, what I wanted to do. And uh, just got this mailer came, came from a trade school, learned air conditioning. I was like, well, that seemed different, pretty fun. Honestly, it said the mail came from a school in Florida. I was like, well, this is awesome, I'll go to Florida for a few years learn air conditioning. Be nice weather down there. Signed up for it. Ultimately, find out the school is in Union, new Jersey, not Florida. Up for it. Ultimately, find out, the school is in union, new jersey, not florida.
Speaker 3:Um, and uh, my dad uh was uh against it. Um, you know, as a kid I was more into playing sports and, um, you know, didn't even want to do yard work and the kids just kept telling me go to college, you know manual work. It's like you hate doing it, you hate doing it, you hate doing it. Um, funny story is 30, 38 years later Now my dad yells at me are you ever going to take any time off? Are you ever going to slow down and do something besides work, so uh and what?
Speaker 2:what was your answer?
Speaker 3:Uh, it's fun for me. I like doing it. Um, you know, definitely gets a little rougher as you get older. Body doesn't seem to recover the same way as it used to, but it's still fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So I mean, what do you love about what you do?
Speaker 3:Honestly, I love the challenge. You know over 38 years of doing residential and commercial service work and install work. I love the challenge to it. I love the. It's something different. I was more always on the service side of stuff, so it's a different situation every day. It's not I'm not in the same place every single day and I love the change. I love the change of scenery and, honestly, out of everything, I do love helping people when they have a problem. I get the I don't know. Sometimes I think I get more joy out of getting their heat or air conditioning going than they get by having it working when it's all said and done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I, you know it's usually, um, obviously, you get the call the first really hot weekend of the year and, uh, or the first really cold day in winter when their furnace isn't working, and I mean, listen we, we? Whether you're on either side, it's an emergency, you know. I mean, it's 90 degrees out and it's humid and all of a sudden your AC is not working and you're having people over, or even if nobody's coming over, it's uh, you want to live like that for long. So I could see why. You know you get that panic calls and it's a huge, huge relief, uh, when it's fixed.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, yep, and and yeah, especially when you know unfortunately it's not every situation, but they're they're growing into with the mindset that my unit's old and I need to replace it. And we can get there and take a look and say, hey, you know what? Yes, your unit is old and you know you may have to think about replacing it, but I can get you going right now and let's get you comfortable and let's worry about it when it's not 100 degrees out and it's not a dire emergency.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So with that said, you do a lot of maintenance as well. Like if somebody like do you sell, do you help install new, say, ac systems?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so as a company, yes, systems yeah, so as a company, yes. So, um, at this point in my life, my career, um, I'm not really out doing installs anymore. Um, we've got our install crews out running around. Um, I do a lot of the selling. Uh, I will still pop in if they need an extra set of hands or if something unexpected pops up, I'll, I'll head over and take a look. But we have a, we'll call it. We're a small company but we still refer to it as our service division and our install division. You know, everyone kind of helps out on both sides as we need the help. But we have, you know, guys that just work on the service side and guys we try to keep just on the install side. But we do everything. We're actually gearing up now is, you know, was it a week and a half ago? Two weeks ago hit high 60s and the phone started ringing about getting air conditioning maintenance is set up for the year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's one of the things that people will do, like a maintenance plan with you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, we have a couple different plans in place. We do some depending on what their needs and wants are. We have something that's more all-inclusive and something that's just more of a discount membership that helps them save on all of our services.
Speaker 2:How often do you recommend someone get their central air systems maintained do?
Speaker 3:you recommend someone get their central air systems maintained? They should definitely. In my opinion, they should definitely have their air conditioning serviced every spring, have their heating system serviced in the fall. What people don't realize is your air conditioning unit is not much different than a car. I mean, you're not sitting inside of it and going somewhere with it, but this thing is out there and it's running. Especially, take a summer, like last summer, it was hot. These things work seven days a week. And how many hours a day are they running? And one of the common misconceptions is well, it works. I don't have to do anything to it. I'll just wait until it breaks down Right right to it. I'll just wait until it breaks down right right. You know you wouldn't drive your car for a hundred thousand miles and not take it to get an oil change.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's true. But you know, as you're saying this, I'm like, hmm, when was the last time I got my, my two units? And you know they're outside, I don't cover them in the winter. Do you recommend? I've heard different things and you see, some people cover their units, others don't.
Speaker 3:I've never covered mine. I've always covered my dad's Part of how we do our spring service, how we train our guys. So the biggest thing about covering them is in the fall. All the leaves and everything fall inside through the top cover, through the top grate, and they sit on the bottom and there's drain holes on the bottom of that unit. Grate and they sit on the bottom and there's drain holes on the bottom of that unit and there's all the dirt and the leaves build up.
Speaker 3:Well, now when it rains, you can't get the water out and it starts to rot out. The bottom metal on the unit, the compressor, is now sitting in water. So part of what we do is we actually tear the whole thing apart. We get inside. Uh well, we have a guy lean over inside, um, we clean it up, we vacuum out any leaves, we scoop out anything and when we watch it, we make sure to clear out all the drain holes and clear out the base around the unit to make sure that water flows out yeah, okay, you know we had a last time my unit didn't work.
Speaker 2:It was like a dead chipmunk or something. So you know they like to I guess a lot of animals like to burrow underneath the thing and there was some dead. It was a chipmunk or a squirrel, something in there that caused it to kind of short out.
Speaker 3:Well, they get inside the electrical compartment because they're protected from the elements, so it's a nice warm place in the winter for them to go.
Speaker 2:Got it, okay. Well, with that said, I think I got to make a call because you know it's getting to be that time and you know usually we call when it's not working. So so now, aside from that, okay. So, because we're getting into spring, we're thinking about, you know, air conditioning. But what are the other services that you guys provide? And you know the name of your company is heating and Air. So obviously heating is one of them. What else? And when it says air, you know we think about air conditioning but are there other air services that you provide?
Speaker 3:Absolutely so part of air. You know, technically heating falls under air too. We're conditioning air, whether you're heating it, no-transcript. You pay a lot of money to own a house. Um, we pay a lot of money in taxes to keep that house, especially in New Jersey. And, uh, you know, the last thing you want to do is when you're in your house is be miserable and have to load up on, you know, all sorts of do is when you're in your house is be miserable and have to load up on, you know, all sorts of allergy medicine when you're in the comfort of your own home. So we're really big on trying to keep the air as clean as possible so at least when you're in your house you can be comfortable and enjoy being in your house so is that duct cleaning?
Speaker 2:is that the primary thing you do to make sure the air is clean?
Speaker 3:um, yeah, well, duct cleaning, you get any of that, just that stuff that's been building up, especially if it's never been done. It's actually pretty scary some of the stuff we open up and it's like, okay, go get the masks, we're not breathing this in for the next four hours. Um, and then putting better filter to to catch that, those airborne particles, before they they travel through that air conditioning unit. Because anything that gets through the filters ultimately ends up on the evaporator coil, which is the indoor air conditioning coil, and that's whether it's heating or cooling season. And then they end up on the fan wheel and over time that stuff reduces efficiency of the system, reduces performance and technically we're not allowed to say the word mold unless you've actually had it tested by a lab, but it builds microbial growth inside the system. So we look to avoid all that so you have the cleanest system possible.
Speaker 2:Got it, Got it. So you know. I don't know if this is related to you, but you know you saw the news with Gene Hackman and his wife passing away and they said she might have died from something that was due to rodent droppings. Um, and I heard that story once before, so it gets in the air and I guess if you have rodents that are in your attic or something like that, I mean it seems like an extreme case but I guess it happens.
Speaker 2:I think it happens more out in the west, because the other stories I heard was something out in, uh, native american, uh reservation areas where people were succumbing to something. They didn't know what it was and ended up being rodent droppings. But nevertheless, is that something else? That like, say, you go up in somebody's attic to look at their unit and it's not actually in the unit, but do you think that could affect the air quality and then obviously the health of their and then obviously the health of their Sure Well, especially if I can't tell you how many systems we go to when we're doing our inspections and services and there's so many leaks in the ductwork where it was never properly sealed, stuff is pulled apart.
Speaker 3:Somebody stepped on something and it's partially disconnected. Rodents have gotten to it and have chewed away the insulation, looking to make a nest, and now you're actually sucking that attic air or crawl space air right inside the system, so anything that's in that attic that you'd be breathing. You're now bringing it into your house and, you know, distributing it for your family to breathe wow, all right.
Speaker 2:So it's probably a good idea to even just get that inspected every once in a while, right, because you know, I have, I have a, I don't have an attic. You can walk in, but it's a crawl space, but I don't know what's up there, you know yeah that should be any company doing any type of service.
Speaker 3:I know for us it's a standard, that's part of our complete inspection. We actually use some I like to think of it as revolutionary technology. We have a software that we use, all wireless sensors that we hook up to the system. So the best way I can equate it it's kind of like taking your car to the mechanic or the dealer and you've got a problem. You get a check engine light, but we don't know what the check engine light means, and they can plug it into a computer and it gives them a full diagnostic.
Speaker 3:Well, we have a similar tool that we turn it on and it tells us. It won't tell us if you've got you know stuff blowing through your system. As far as you know, there's other tools for that but it gives us a full breakdown of how your system is performing. I mean, it tells us how much energy it's using. It tells us what the efficiency rating is. It tells us how much energy it's using. It tells us what the efficiency rating is. It tells us if your duct system is in good shape. It will actually tell us to look for duct leaks because it sees an imbalance between temperatures and pressures. It's actually really cool and it's just part of our standard routine maintenance. It's nothing that we charge any more for. It's just a service tool for us.
Speaker 2:So I wonder if a red flag? So we had mice in our house. You know our pest control company discovered some. I caught a bunch of my garage when I noticed a Halloween candy was gone mice like chocolate. But I guess, with that said we, you know, we found them in the downstairs, but they probably liked the attic. We, you know we found them in the downstairs but they probably like the attic it might be a good idea to get up there and then have a diagnostics check so to make sure that nobody chewed through anything. And I mean, obviously you guys are not a pest control company, but the fear is that, like you said, if there's a hole in the duct line or something like that, then those airborne particles can then be brought into our living space.
Speaker 3:Yep, absolutely, those airborne particles can then be brought into our living space. Yep, absolutely, and and we we tell people to. If we see stuff, we'll, we'll make the recommendation and say, hey, you may want to get a pest control company, um, whether it's mice, um raccoons, yeah, yeah, you never want to run into a raccoon in an attic. You can't. You can't fall out of the attic fast enough. Um, yeah, and and honestly worse is is bees, uh, that that's always a fun one in the summer't fall out of the attic fast enough. Um, yeah, and, and honestly worse is bees, uh, that that's always a fun one in the summer.
Speaker 2:Is the bees in the attic, yeah yeah, so I wanted to switch gears a little bit. Um, I want to understand who cozy is. C-o-z-e-e cozy. Yes, is that like your mascot?
Speaker 3:yep, yeah, he's our mascot. He's kind kind of evolved over the years from when we started One of the marketing companies we worked with. We wanted something more than just a logo, we wanted a mascot, and they kind of turned him into almost like a super tech.
Speaker 2:Got it, got it Okay. So one of the cool things is you have a section called Cozy's Comfort Science where kids can learn how comfort works with these fun STEM learning activities. So like what is heat? And then they do an experiment what? How does conduction work? Which I couldn't tell you the answer to that. So maybe I'll do these experiments and you know magically moving more. So this is pretty cool. I mean, I like the idea of you know most HVAC companies. You're not going to see this type of approach when it comes to building a brand and then having fun content. It's not just blogs about. You know what to do with my. You know water heater breaks or my furnace doesn't work, or you know the things we've just talked about. You're actually taking this from uh to a different level. Like, so that that came about from um, from a marketing company that told you you guys could, could, uh, maybe come up with a mascot and that's going to help. What there? Yeah, and help in what way? Like what was their reasoning for that?
Speaker 3:um, well, the mascot was something we wanted. We wanted more brand awareness. Um, we wanted fun. Um, we, we, we went from the, the traditional, you know, white trucks with red, white and blue lettering. I mean our trucks now are. I love loud and loud. I'm the guy who, when you know we go out someplace putting on a suit, I want the loudest, most obnoxious tie in the room and I think we accomplished that with our trucks, where, you know, you see this really bright, pink and teal and purple vehicle coming down the road you know people don't miss us, that's for sure. And we wanted the road. Um, you know people don't miss us, that's for sure. And we wanted the mascot. Uh, we're actually in the process of having a uh, well, we're looking at having a suit made so we could have and we get involved with a lot of uh, just town days and we want to be able to have that mascot out there.
Speaker 3:The, the STEM stuff, um, for me, having still three kids four kids altogether, but three still in school um, one who went to college and got a degree in biology Um, it was just something different, something to introduce kids that, you know, the trades I think get a bad, a bad rap, you know it's. It's considered hard work and no pay and it's not what it is. There's science involved behind what we do and, uh, it was just a fun way to bring it out to the kids and we, we actually did. It was a year or two ago. We, uh, we ran a little contest for a day and we said, hey, hit our page up. Have you know, send us in videos and pictures of your kids doing, you know, some of these projects. We'd love to see it and we did. We had some parents that you know took pictures and videos of kids doing different experiments. It was pretty cool, nice, nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's cool. I think to your point like there's science behind what you do. I don't think people think of it that way, you know. At least I never really thought of it that way myself until you just brought it up. And the idea of bringing that to you know, not maybe not to the forefront, but understanding and educating. I mean you want to say educating your potential HVAC professionals of the future. But I think it also builds an appreciation on the client side you know the homeowner side that you know what you're doing is not, you know, just sticking. You're not just some tech who's just putting a. You know changing a part. You know there's a reason why. You know why you have to do what you do or why something's not working.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:That's interesting, yeah, so what do you have any? I mean, I know you talked a little bit about you know the thing that you take the most pride in is helping people and helping them probably in a big time of need. Do you have?
Speaker 3:any examples of like a case, like a case study of somebody called you and maybe something maybe a little bit more out of the ordinary rather than just you know, my heat's not working on my air conditioning.
Speaker 3:Air conditioning isn't working. Yeah, after Hurricane well, superstorm Sandy, there was just obviously tons and tons of damage all over the place. And a friend of mine, she, reached out to me and she said hey, I don't know if this is something you could help with, but, um, a church she belonged to, uh, up in warwick, new york, at a another branch that was out in long island, and they had a woman who, basically, when, when the waters came, went right through her house and she, she couldn't afford to move, she couldn't afford to sell her house, it was getting into winter, she had no heat. We actually even though that's definitely not our service area um, we worked with our distributor and we were able to get her a furnace. Um, we donated the equipment to her, we donated all the labor to her to make sure that her, her family, had had heat for the winter time neighbor to her to make sure that her, her family, had had heat for the winter time.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow, that's great. Yeah, you know, a lot of came, a lot came out of superstorms, superstorm Sandy, thank you. Easy for me to say uh, you know generators, people buying generators was, uh, was it picking out? Do you guys service generators? Is that something you do?
Speaker 3:we dabble um, yeah, we'll dabble, we'll help if people are stuck. Uh, we've got some commercial accounts that'll ask us, you know, we'll change the oil and stuff. We, we don't have anyone dedicated, we're just we don't have enough staff to cover all that, but we'll, we'll help and if not, we can refer out to, uh, a couple of different generator companies, if they're, if they're broken down, they need help right away okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 2:So, speaking of helping somebody out, your you know your website says Oak Ridge, new Jersey, but you're in surrounding areas and then if you look at you know it looks like you guys service a lot of different towns in New Jersey. Is there a specific area to you? You know the name of this podcast is Good Neighbors Bergen. Do you service Bergen County?
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. I started the business started in Hawthorne. I grew up in Hawthorne and we spent about three or four years in an industrial park in Wyckoff, right on Golf Road on the Hawthorne border. And yeah, the core of our business is bergen, ampus, eight counties. So we we do spread out a lot of our customers have, you know, beach houses. So we, right, you know, we'll travel like I. I was kidding around. If anyone ever broke in and stole my truck, they would have access to about 50 different houses because I've got so many different keys and codes to get in everyone's houses wow, that's funny but yeah, so we we do a lot of work in in Bergen County all right, good to know, good to know, so.
Speaker 2:So if somebody wanted to book, uh, you guys request service or get a quote. Climateplus. com is your website. Yeah, but what's the best way to reach you?
Speaker 3:So we do have a link on our website to schedule an appointment. You can email us at office at climate plus dot com. Our office number is nine seven, three, eight, three, eight, three, two, zero, zero. That's our main office number. We also have a two on one number which I never call, so I'm going to be honest, I don't actually remember it off the top of my head. So I have a 201 number which I never call, so I'm going to be honest, I don't actually remember it off the top of my head. And then through any of our social medias, we're always getting requests through our Facebook and Instagram and now our TikTok that people are, you know. They'll pop in and just say, you know, facebook Messenger. Hey, I'm looking to schedule service.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, okay, I never thought I'm looking for an HVAC company through TikTok.
Speaker 3:but you know different generations. It's new, that's a new world for me. I'm, you know different generation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely Well, joe. I really appreciate you joining the show today. Joe Cascone from Climate Plus, it is again climateplus. com, phone number 973-838-3200. And we are just going to have Chuck say goodbye and you and I will be right back.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much, Doug.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpbergen. com. That's gnpbergen. com, or call 201-298-8325.