Southwest Florida Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations

Your air conditioning system’s duct work is one of its most important components. If you’ve got leaks in your duct work, chances are good there’s at least one room in your house that always hot or cold – no matter what temperature you set your thermostat. That’s because cool (or warm) air is escaping through the duct work on its way to that room.

Leaky ducts also make your system less efficient and more expensive to operate. So, it’s a good idea to have your duct work checked especially if you’re concerned about your electricity costs or temperature inconsistencies in your home. It may save you from replacing perfectly good equipment!

Want more tips like this? Visit Techster’s Tips on www.home-tech.com.

Bears donated following 2010 Cattle Baron’s Ball, support children with cancer

(Fort Myers, Fla. – August 24, 2010) – Stuffed teddy bears dressed like cowboys were donated to children attending the American Cancer Society’s Reaching Out to Cancer Kids (R.O.C.K.) camp at Camp Boggy Creek earlier this month. The bears were originally purchased for the 2010 Cattle Baron’s Ball by Home-Tech, the event’s Bear Sponsor.

Three campers showing off Home-Tech bears.

“It makes great sense that a fundraising item like our bears be used to comfort the very people we were sponsoring to raise money for – the kids with cancer attending R.O.C.K. camp,” says Home-Tech founder and CEO Steve Marino. “All of us at Home-Tech are happy to be part of comfort for these children, if even in a small way – to give them something to hold on to.  We hope it made their camp experience that much better.”

The bears were included in Home-Tech’s $5,000 sponsorship of the Cattle Baron’s Ball, which raises money for the American Cancer Society.

Campers with Home-Tech bears.

About Home-Tech

 

Based in Fort Myers, employee-owned Home-Tech has been an industry leader and trendsetter in the fields of air conditioning service and installation, major appliance sales and service, home-service agreements for nearly three decades.  Founded in 1981 by Steve Marino, who continues as President and Chairman of the Board, the privately held Home-Tech employs 127 people and provides services in Lee, Charlotte, Collier, Sarasota and Manatee counties in Southwest Florida. Home-Tech operates from two principal locations.  Its headquarters, tech training facility and appliance showroom are located at 6400 Techster Boulevard in Fort Myers and a second office at 5215 Lena Road in Bradenton which services Manatee and Sarasota counties. For more information about Home-Tech, visit www.Home-Tech.com or call (239) 433-3344.

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Local organization selected as “Charity of the Month”

PACE girls Gwenetha, Monica, Jasmine, Brittany with Chrissy Hollis of Home-Tech, her daughters Kristy Rivera and Hannah, and PACE Board Member Christin Collins.

(Fort Myers, Fla. – August 24, 2010)

–Southwest Florida air-conditioning and appliance sales and service leader Home-Tech donated $1,157 in the names of its July customers to the PACE Center for Girls as part of the company’s Charity of the Month program. This program donates a portion of the price of new air conditioning units sold each month in customers’ names rather than sending the customer a corporate gift like it has done in past years. Entering its second year of the Charity of the Month program, Home-Tech has given nearly $12,000 to local charities located from Sarasota to Naples, in addition to the company’s ongoing charitable giving and sponsorship of local charity events.

The PACE Center for Girls provides at-risk girls and young women an opportunity for a better future through education, counseling, training and advocacy. In addition to the Charity of the Month donation, Home-Tech also sponsored the organization’s “Love that Dress” event and donated a wine refrigerator for the fundraiser. Later this fall, Home-Tech will be a gold sponsor of PACE’s November Luncheon.

• Melissa Simontis, Stefanie Ink and Lynn Tarman of PACE Center for Girls.

“With two grown daughters, I’ve seen firsthand some of the challenges girls face as they age, even if they have a strong support system at home,” says Home-Tech President and Founder Steve Marino.  “Organizations like PACE are so important for girls who don’t have that support or are living in unbelievable circumstances, giving them the confidence and skills they need to lead the best possible lives.”

Home-Tech’s Charity of the Month program donates a portion of the price of each new air conditioning unit sold to a different charity each month.

About Home-Tech

Based in Fort Myers, employee-owned Home-Tech has been an industry leader and trendsetter in the fields of air conditioning service and installation, major appliance sales and service, home-service agreements for nearly three decades.  Founded in 1981 by Steve Marino, who continues as President and Chairman of the Board, the privately held Home-Tech employs 127 people and provides services in Lee, Charlotte, Collier, Sarasota and Manatee counties in Southwest Florida. Home-Tech operates from two principal locations.  Its headquarters, tech training facility and appliance showroom are located at 6400 Techster Boulevard in Fort Myers and a second office at 5215 Lena Road in Bradenton which services Manatee and Sarasota counties. For more information about Home-Tech, visit www.Home-Tech.com or call (239) 433-3344.

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(Fort Myers, Fla. – August 19, 2010) – Southwest Florida air conditioning and appliance service and sales leader Home-Tech has been included in the Lee County Economic Development Office’s list of the largest 100 employers for the second half of 2010.

The company has grown from one employee to 127 in Lee County over the past 30 years, and has continued to grow despite the current economic climate. Over the years, the company’s service area has also increased to include Collier, Charlotte, Manatee and Sarasota counties and the company plans to open a showroom and sales office in Bradenton early next year. Its headquarters and main showroom are located at 6400 Techster Boulevard in Fort Myers.

“I am honored to be included in this list and grateful that we have accomplished so much growth,” says founder and CEO Steve Marino. “I attribute a lot of our success to being an employee-owned operation. Every member has a stake in our customers’ satisfaction and loyalty to the company, because they can all have an ownership stake in the company. Much of our growth has occurred since we became employee-owned.”

Aside from being a top employer in Lee County, Marino says giving back to the community is a priority for the company. Home-Tech sponsors a number of local charities through financial and in-kind support. Home-Tech customers also give back when they purchase new air conditioning units from the company through its Charity of the Month program.

About Home-Tech

Based in Fort Myers, employee-owned Home-Tech has been an industry leader and trendsetter in the fields of air conditioning service and installation, major appliance sales and service, home-service agreements for nearly three decades.  Founded in 1981 by Steve Marino, who continues as President and Chairman of the Board, the privately held Home-Tech employs 127 people and provides services in Lee, Charlotte, Collier, Sarasota and Manatee counties in Southwest Florida. Home-Tech operates from two principal locations.  Its headquarters, tech training facility and appliance showroom are located at 6400 Techster Boulevard in Fort Myers and a second office at 5215 Lena Road in Bradenton which services Manatee and Sarasota counties. For more information about Home-Tech, visit www.Home-Tech.com or call (239) 433-3344.

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It seems like every month, there’s a story in the news about someone who’s paid a company to fix something in their home only to have the company close up shop before the job is done, or after the job is done wrong and created an even bigger problem. With Home-Tech, you never have to worry about something like this happening for several reasons:

• First, we’ve been in business for nearly 30 years. That means we’ve got a lot of experience working with air conditioning and appliance systems in Southwest Florida and knows all the little peculiarities of how they should work in and out.
• Second, we aren’t planning on going anywhere. We’ve invested 29 years building a strong reputation and we want to keep it that way. We have a vested interested in keeping you satisfied.
• Third, we train the heck out of our techs. Our technicians have an intense training period and obtain NATE certification before they are ever sent to your house to do a repair. They know their stuff!

Want to know more? Stop by our showroom or website, or give us a call, and we’ll be happy to tell you all about how you can save and benefit by having a service agreement with Home-Tech.

Want more tips like this? Visit Techster’s Tips on www.home-tech.com.

The type of cooling, or indoor comfort, system you choose for your home is a major investment and merits a good deal of thought. In addition to the size of your home, the layout will likely influence your decision. There are two types of cooling systems:

• Split systems, which places a condenser outside and other components like an air handler and cooling coil inside, usually in the attic or garage. The air handler “inhales” air through the home’s big return grills, passes it through a cooling coil and then “exhales” it back into the house through small supply grills. The heat removed from the air is transferred to the condenser outside by refrigerant gas and released.
• Package systems, which – true to their name – package the air handler, cooling coil and condenser in one box outside. These are typically less efficient because “inhaled” air has to travel all through the home’s ductwork to the handler outside, and then back inside once it is cooled.

Picking a system may be as easy as asking yourself if you have an attic, garage, closet or other space where you can put an air handler inside. Or, it may be a little harder. Lucky for you, Home-Tech has 30 years of experience with air conditioning systems in Southwest Florida and can help you find the perfect system for your needs. And if you add a service agreement, we’ll keep it up and running for years to come.

Stop by our showroom, website or give us a call and get started today!

Want more tips like this? Visit Techster’s Tips on www.home-tech.com.

Air conditioning is essential if you live in Florida, but here at Home-Tech, we like to think of the units we sell as providing more than air conditioning – we specialize in indoor comfort.  A proper indoor comfort system has several parts:

• Cooling. Certainly the primary and most important purpose is to provide cool and dehumidified comfort. Typically, you want your system to keep your home between 72 and 76 degrees and 50 to 55 percent relative humidity.
• Heating. It isn’t too often that we need to warm our homes down here, but when it does get chilly outside, this is nice to have. Heating homes to 68 to 72 degrees is the norm.
• Distribution. Air needs to work its way through your duct work, vents and out into your rooms quietly, evenly and efficiently so you can enjoy all rooms in your home equally.
• Quality. In addition to pumping cooled or heated air in, your system should keep airborne allergens like pollen, dust, pet dander, bacteria and mold spores out.

Picking and choosing the elements to create a customized system to meet your needs and work efficiently is our specialty and our pleasure. And we install and maintain systems like nobody’s business. Stop by our showroom or website or give us a call today…and get ready to get comfortable!

Want more tips like this? Visit Techster’s Tips on www.home-tech.com.

(Fort Myers, Fla. – July 22, 2010) – Home-Tech founder and CEO Steve Marino is  featured in a national online industry publication on website design for the Air Conditioning Contractors of America’s Contractor Excellence. The online publication serves as a resource for America’s most successful heating, cooling and refrigeration contractors to share best practices with their peers.

In the article, Marino shares how the company redesigned and recently relaunched its website, www.Home-Tech.com, to create an inviting place for customers to go online. The new site includes many customer-friendly features, such as the ability to schedule service calls and purchase or renew service agreements online, browse the company’s appliance and air conditioning catalogs, and read company news and appliance maintenance tips. According to Marino, the online service scheduling feature alone has paid great dividends – half of Home-Tech’s customers now opt to schedule appointments online.

“Websites are very labor-intensive, and they need to change constantly,” said Marino. “Spending that time is necessary, though, because all of our advertising is geared toward bringing the customer to our website, which is where we can really give them the full message about our company.”

Marino also talks about the company’s plans to launch and e-newsletter, in further response to customer feedback. The full article featuring Marino’s interviewed can be read at http://www.contractorexcellence.com/1945.

About Home-Tech

Based in Fort Myers, employee-owned Home-Tech has been an industry leader and trendsetter in the fields of air conditioning service and installation, major appliance sales and service, home-service agreements for nearly three decades.  Founded in 1981 by Steve Marino, who continues as President and Chairman of the Board, the privately held Home-Tech employs 127 people and provides services in Lee, Charlotte, Collier, Sarasota and Manatee counties in Southwest Florida. Home-Tech operates from two principal locations.  Its headquarters, tech training facility and appliance showroom are located at 6400 Techster Boulevard in Fort Myers and a second office at 5215 Lena Road in Bradenton which services Manatee and Sarasota counties. For more information about Home-Tech, visit www.Home-Tech.com or call (239) 433-3344.

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In our ads, catalogs and TV commercials, you’ve probably heard us talk about how all of our technicians are NATE-certified and wondered “who the heck is NATE and why should I listen to him?” Allow me to clarify. NATE isn’t a person, it’s an acronym for North American Technician Excellence. NATE is a non-profit certification program for technicians in the heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and refrigeration industry. It’s the only certification that is supported and recognized by the entire industry.

In layman’s terms, that means technicians who earn NATE certification have been tested by industry experts and know their stuff. Big time market research and customer satisfaction companies have also polled customers that used both NATE-certified and non-NATE-certified technicians to install or service air conditioning units and air conditioning. According to their research, customers who used NATE-certified technicians had:

• Fewer callbacks and warranty returns
• Increased energy efficiency, resulting in lower utility bills
• Job done right the first time
• Fast, efficient service

Some common complaints about jobs done by non-certified technicians included poor air quality, less efficient energy usage, and explosions. I’m not trying to scare you, but that’s enough to make me ask for NATE certification! Luckily, if you call Home-Tech, you don’t have to worry about that because all of our technicians are NATE-certified. It’s just another way we give our customers peace of mind.

Want more tips like this? Visit Techster’s Tips on www.home-tech.com.