With 50 years of heating expertise, they’re looking after customers and the planet
.jpg "Barron Heating, AC, Electrical & Plumbing Chief Operating Officer Brad Barron, left, and his father and CEO John Barron in the company’s fabrication shop in October in Ferndale.")
The Barron family, celebrating its 50th anniversary in the heating, electrical and plumbing business in Whatcom County, has seen those technologies change over the years.
When Dan and Vivian Barron started the company, they mostly added heaters to new buildings. Now, most of the company’s work is retrofitting structures with better technology, their son John Barron, the current CEO, said.
While heaters have upgraded over the years, many improvements were made to ventilation. Many people who think they need a new heater actually just need to repair their ductwork, according to Brad Barron. Brad Barron, John Barron’s son, is the current chief operating officer.
An average home can lose 25% to 45% of its heating through leakage, which is expensive for residents and bad for the planet.
“We began to really look at the science of buildings, both residentially and commercially,” John Barron said in an interview with The Bellingham Herald. “Rather than just putting in heating and cooling equipment, we were taking a look at what is going on with the building. From its thermal envelope to air leakage to the duct system and the efficiency of all these things and how they all work together in a concert that we call building performance.”
Another technological change over the years has been the heaters themselves. Over the last few years, the Barrons have seen an increase in the demand for heat pumps. They are a relatively new technology that heats a building in the winter and cools it down in the summer. Heat pumps are currently one of the most energy-efficient methods to heat and cool a building.
However, heating pumps are not going to do much if the duct system is leaking, according to Brad Barron. The best heater in the world can only do so much if half the heat is escaping into the world.
“If we went into a house, and only looked at that furnace or that heater, we would be doing our customers a disservice, and I would say we are doing our planet a disservice,” Brad Barron said.
This story was originally published October 30, 2022 at 8:00 AM with the headline "With 50 years of heating expertise, they’re looking after customers and the planet."
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