Improving indoor air quality through interventions like adequate ventilation, proper filtration, and ultraviolet germicidal irradiation in public buildings could conceivably cut the transmission of respiratory illness by up to two thirds. But there are bottlenecks to the mass deployment of these new technologies. A 1Day Sooner/Rethink Priorities report lists three: a lack of clear standards, the cost of implementation, and difficulty changing regulation and public attitudes.I’d like to add a fourth: the workforce that will be tasked with installing them.
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It’s hard to say what led to the current state of the HVAC industry, and my comments here are anecdotal and speculative. That said, my experience suggests that it is all too common for contractors to convincingly lie about their capacity to perform a job, or — worse — report having performed jobs they haven’t even attempted.Equipment sophistication has vastly increased over the past few decades, but the quality of the workforce hasn’t risen to match the increased demands. During the pandemic, a common refrain among public health experts was that technicians simply needed more training to bring buildings up to public health standards. But the improvements and repairs required to upgrade HVAC systems for pandemic prevention are, by and large, covered in basic certification. Technicians may of course need better training, but my experience suggests that cultural changes in the industry will be necessary for this to have real impact.
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In order to fix these problems, occupants need clear, verifiable information about how their HVAC systems work. The more complex and opaque a system is, the more likely it is that technicians will make mistakes in installing and repairing it — and the easier it is for them to lie. Measuring airflow might seem like a simple task for an HVAC technician, but in fact it’s widely misunderstood. Most technicians won’t have the training or tools to quantify airflow. And in an industry in which technicians and managers routinely lie, asking whether an individual or company can perform a task has the potential to select for lying instead of competence.In the absence of industry wide norms change and regulation, there are interventions that can put objective metrics into the hands of end users — and thereby create feedback loops that create consumer checks on the industry. Imagine the gas mileage in your car abruptly plummets. You may not be able to diagnose the issue, but you’ll have immediate feedback over whether the mechanic has actually fixed the problem the next time you drive. These proposals won’t be enough to better regulate the HVAC industry on their own: People need to use them, and agencies and unions will need to adopt or support them in some form, but they represent a first step.
- No location available
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Improving indoor air quality through interventions like adequate ventilation, proper filtration, and ultraviolet germicidal irradiation in public buildings could conceivably cut the transmission of respiratory illness by up to two thirds. But there are bottlenecks to the mass deployment of these new technologies. A 1Day Sooner/Rethink Priorities report lists three: a lack of clear standards, the cost of implementation, and difficulty changing regulation and public attitudes.I’d like to add a fourth: the workforce that will be tasked with installing them.
- No location available
-

It’s hard to say what led to the current state of the HVAC industry, and my comments here are anecdotal and speculative. That said, my experience suggests that it is all too common for contractors to convincingly lie about their capacity to perform a job, or — worse — report having performed jobs they haven’t even attempted.Equipment sophistication has vastly increased over the past few decades, but the quality of the workforce hasn’t risen to match the increased demands. During the pandemic, a common refrain among public health experts was that technicians simply needed more training to bring buildings up to public health standards. But the improvements and repairs required to upgrade HVAC systems for pandemic prevention are, by and large, covered in basic certification. Technicians may of course need better training, but my experience suggests that cultural changes in the industry will be necessary for this to have real impact.
- No location available
-

In order to fix these problems, occupants need clear, verifiable information about how their HVAC systems work. The more complex and opaque a system is, the more likely it is that technicians will make mistakes in installing and repairing it — and the easier it is for them to lie. Measuring airflow might seem like a simple task for an HVAC technician, but in fact it’s widely misunderstood. Most technicians won’t have the training or tools to quantify airflow. And in an industry in which technicians and managers routinely lie, asking whether an individual or company can perform a task has the potential to select for lying instead of competence.In the absence of industry wide norms change and regulation, there are interventions that can put objective metrics into the hands of end users — and thereby create feedback loops that create consumer checks on the industry. Imagine the gas mileage in your car abruptly plummets. You may not be able to diagnose the issue, but you’ll have immediate feedback over whether the mechanic has actually fixed the problem the next time you drive. These proposals won’t be enough to better regulate the HVAC industry on their own: People need to use them, and agencies and unions will need to adopt or support them in some form, but they represent a first step.
- No location available
-