Quality Installation

Quality Installation Verification Protocols

Quality Maintenance

Quality Restoration

Quality Installation (QI)
ACCA's Quality Installation Specification is an ANSI-approved standard that describes precisely the steps a contractor must take to ensure a truly quality HVAC installation.

Developed by a broad coalition of industry stakeholders, the QI Specification identifies consensus requirements associated with quality installations, acceptable procedures for measuring or verifying the attainment of those requirements, and acceptable forms of documentation to show compliance to the requirements. 

The QI Specification
The QI specification may be purchased in print form here. As a service to the HVACR industry, we are also making the specification available for download here (it is available at no charge to members and non-members alike).

The QI Specification ANSI / ACCA 5 QI 2007 HVAC Quality Installation Specification was developed 2 years ago.  It was written so various HVAC industry stakeholders could use the criteria in diverse manners. Examples include:

• Contractors – to demonstrate their commitment to quality HVAC installations
• Equipment manufacturers – to highlight and encourage quality installation practices, resulting in better equipment performance and durability
• HVAC trainers – to assist in the ongoing development of appropriate course curricula and training programs
• Utilities – to integrate performance based requirements into their incentive programs
• Building owners/operators – to promote quality installation requests

Now the QI Specification is in various stages of implementation by numerous stake holders so it is a good time to review  for implementation difficulties. Comments and recommendations, that will further refine this  document,  would be greatly appreciated. Please use the attached review form and include the following information:

• Please use an electronic review form:
• Please note on the form the section and page number for any suggested change.
• Include on the form specific comments that justify the change, and if available include supporting documentation
• Suggested wording changes that satisfy the comments would be greatly appreciated

Responses  are requested by Friday December 12, 2008.  Please send all comments and recommendations to Donald Prather at: donald.prather@acca.org 

Technician's Guide for Quality Installations
This new guide for technicians will enable them to implement all of the measurement procedures required by the QI specification. Its examples and illustrations address various types of testing and diagnostic tools and equipment and are a necessary "field guide" to verifying a quality HVAC installation. Purchase it here.

Quality Installation: Checklists for Consumers
These PDF checklists will allow consumers (homeowners and building owners/managers) to intelligently compare contractors to make sure the contractors are offering "quality installation" services in accordance with industry-accepted standards.

Comfortool: Quality Installation
This customizable flyer is a leave-behind for contractors who embrace the "quality installation" specification to educate consumers on what they should be looking for to ensure "they get what they pay for." For members only; add your contact info right in the free Acrobat Reader, no additional software required.

Articles

• Stricter Installation Standards
  Joanna Turpin, the NEWS, 13 October 2008.
• “Are You Ready For Quality Installations?”
  Contracting Business article by Ray Isaac, Chairman, ACCA Board of Directors 2008-2009
• A Quality Installation Spec For Air Conditioners "Reprinted with permission from the May 2008 issue of Energy Design Update. Copyright 2008 by Aspen Publishers. To subscribe to Energy Design Update, call 800-638-8437."

Quality Installation Verification Protocols (QIVP)
The QI specification may be purchased in print form here. As a service to the HVACR industry, we are also making the specification available for download here (it is available at no charge to members and non-members alike).

Verification activities associated with the ANSI/ACCA 5 QI – 2007 (HVAC Quality Installation Specification), the QI Standard, involve validating that an HVAC installation adheres to the standard’s requirements. A strong, objective HVAC Quality Installation verification effort follows consistent, transparent, and standardized procedures. The ACCA QI Verification Protocols are for those who intend to protect the value and integrity of the QI Standard through qualified and objective examination of submitted HVAC system installations. Verification participants (Contractors, Verifiers, and Administrators) that follow this document’s protocols will meet the minimum requirements for ensuring that outcome.

Quality Maintenance (QM)
For the public good, it is essential that residential Heating Ventilating and Air-conditioning (HVAC) systems support a comfortable, healthy indoor environment and operate efficiently throughout its lifecycle. However, HVAC Contractors use different approaches for inspecting and maintaining HVAC systems. There was no way to determine if the many types of “seasonal tune-ups”, “clean and checks”, and “maintenance services” performed on HVAC equipment were equivalent.

Residential Maintenance - ACCA developed this standard to provide a nationally-recognized, manufacturer-endorsed set of inspection tasks which would meet this need. This standard establishes the minimum tasks that should be performed for HVAC equipment maintenance inspections. From this base, consumers can compare the value of the additional recommended corrective actions which may be needed to remedy identified faults. For contractors, it provides a common platform for creating a maintenance program, while allowing for bundling different recommended corrective actions at different fee structures.

Purchase it here.

Commercial Maintenance - Working with ASHRAE, ACCA is co-developer of a similar standard aimed at commercial equipment applications.

Purchase it here.

Quality Restoration (QR)
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems consist of equipment, components, and associated ducts and piping. A lack of routine maintenance or catastrophic natural disaster such as flooding may cause excessive soiling and fouling of the HVAC system. In such cases, the HVAC system will require cleaning activities beyond those performed in normal HVAC mechanical maintenance and servicing. This standard provides the procedures to:

• Significantly improve the cleanliness of an HVAC system and return it to a reasonable serviceable condition, although not necessarily to return the system to an “as new” condition.
  
• Allow the contractor and/or owner to determine if replacing certain components of the HVAC system, or possibly replacing all of the HVAC system, is a more feasible approach versus undertaking associated cleaning activities.

This standard is intended for restoring the cleanliness of HVAC systems. The procedures are also designed to reduce an adverse effect on the indoor environment and other building systems. However, it is not intended to be recognized as the sole remedy for resolving all indoor air quality concerns which may be caused by other building components and systems.

Purchase it here.