Above, John Perry, Jr. (left), and Gary Nrodowy in front of the Village Haven's new ramp.
The coming of winter is—like death, and taxes—an inevitability for Rhode Islanders. But, love it or hate it, at this time of year most folks are curious about what to expect.
Fortunately, the Farmer’s Almanac specializes in those predictions, and their news for Rhode Islanders is to expect a “frosty, flip-flop winter,” adding that it’s sure to get stormy in January; they’ve even predicted a blizzard for January 20-23. And then it’ll get downright cold in February.
“So what’s new?” asks John Perry, owner of Advanced Comfort Systems (ACS), a full-service hydronics and geothermal installations and service firm based in North Smithfield, RI. “We’ve seen it all here in New England—from blizzards that roll in unexpectedly and dump three feet of snow, to ice storms that cripple infrastructure, and everything in between.”
“Gary and I often work together to snowplow each other’s lots,” explained Perry. “Gary also had to shovel-out all of the areas closest to the restaurant, including a large wooden ramp built for wheelchair access. He and I graduated from high school together, so I didn’t mind giving him grief about it.
Perry explained that the wooden ramp deteriorated prematurely—probably due to all the salt they had to keep on it for several months each year. “That’s it,” said Naradowy one day as he surveyed the unstable ramp one fine spring day. He called Perry to say, “Let’s build that concrete ramp you’ve been harassing me about.”
“Ha!” Perry replied. “Well, it’s about time.”
But Perry had planned all along to one-up the upgrade by adding snowmelt. Years earlier, he’d replaced Narodowy’s cantankerous, old oil-fired boiler with what he described as a “thing of mechanical beauty,” a 626 MBH, natural gas-fired, mod-con Viessmann Vitocrossal boiler. “The 626 is the smallest in the [Vitocrossal] line,” he explained. “With a turndown of 5 to 1, it was just the right size to meet the restaurant’s [baseboard] space heating and substantial domestic water load, with a bit of room to spare… perfect for the snow-melted ramp I knew they’d eventually build.”
Outside, the ramp—soon to offer a 44-inch rise from parking to entry—was framed and poured. Then, ACS technicians prepared for a second pour by framing-in the insulated snowmelt layer, using fiberboard for the perimeter and rigid, inch-and-a-half X-5 barrier below. A tekmar 654 control and sensor now provide automatic control of the snowmelt system. “It’s now ready for its fifth season. I’m sure they’ll get plenty of good service from it for many years to come,” said Perry. “No more snow shoveling. No more chemicals and no more dealing with a rotting ramp, either.”
And that pleases Gary Narodowy and his parents; they’ve owned the town’s most iconic eatery since 1977. These days, a lot of patrons use that ramp during the winter season to eat at Village Haven. The 8,000 sq. ft. restaurant has banquet seating for 200, and 300 seats in the restaurant.
National Guard to Hydronics
“When push comes to shove, we use only Viessmann boilers, Uponor tubing and Taco circulators, along with zone valves, zone controls and other hydronic components,” said Perry. “That’s the way it’s always been with me and my father; we entered the business together in ’98.” The father-son team quickly established relationships with the trusted suppliers (“We asked around and attended a lot of classes,” said John Jr.) so—unless there’ve been reasons to switch—the Perrys held fast, maintaining loyalty.
“We love the reliability of Viessmann boilers, and the bulletproof stability and dependability of Taco circulators,” said Perry. “These days, we install only Taco ECM circs, a switch that only helps us emphasize our focus on high efficiency.”
Perry explained that, before he and his father formed the business, they both served with the National Guard. John Perry Jr finished 25 years in the Guard as a full-time technician, 19 years in an Air Control Squadron and six years in a C-130 Airlift Wing doing maintenance as a C-130 crew chief. His father, John Perry Sr., specialized in aerospace ground equipment and supply.
“We laughed and learned, and laughed some more,” added Perry. “There’s no sleeping in Barba’s class! Well, who’d want to?”
Today, Barba is Taco’s top trainer, and he’s since come to know John Perry Jr. quite well. “Through the years, John and I have formed a great friendship,” affirmed John Barba. “And, par for the course, I’m not the only one teaching. I’ve learned plenty of useful things from John Perry, too. But even more important than that—we enjoy each other’s company!”
“You’re in charge”
And yet when the design finally came to John Perry Jr., with directions to “just follow the instructions,” Perry fought back. “This design won’t work,” he insisted. It took some doing, but John Perry convinced the homeowner, the GC and the engineer that he was right; the design was overly-complex. The control strategy, looking more like a plan for bioscience research wing, was discarded in favor of John Perry’s plan. Within a few weeks, the homeowner placed John Perry in charge of the entire home comfort system—and that served as the door-opener for North Smithfield’s newest business 23 years ago: Advanced Comfort Systems, Inc. John Perry has since acquired 100 percent ownership of the company, so his father is enjoying full retirement while traveling with his wife Lois between residences in Rhode Island and South Golf Cove, FL.
Today, John Perry’s Jr.’s service crew still visits that home for pre-heating season checkups. “There’s lots of Taco technology on the wall, Uponor in the floors, and a Viessmann boiler at the center of it all. Products and technology that are still doing their jobs admirably,” he said.
Company Staff, Customer Focus
Today, ACS specializes in hydronic systems large and small. They do both commercial and residential work, while focusing on radiant heat and snowmelt, and have slowly been adding more and more geothermal and solar thermal. The common thread between oil, gas, wood-fired and geothermal heating systems is that they’ll all be high-efficiency.
John Perry Jr.’s brother Scott, with ACS since 2010, serves as chief of the installations crew. John’s two daughters are also on staff: Jaclyn (“Jackie”) Casey, a full-time charter school math teacher, is the company’s bookkeeper. Jillian Perry does website work and marketing.
Jackie Corriveau is office manager; she also does scheduling and dispatching. “She’s the glue,” insisted Perry. Kip Colwell is the service manager. Installers are Russell Sanford, Dylan Vanasse, Jason Wilkins and Trevor Duquette. On the service side of the business, Tyler Reynolds is the senior tech. Kyle Romano and Garrett Laverty are technicians.
ACS is now in the midst of their first net-zero home with both geothermal and solar thermal, with plenty of low-temp radiant heat.
“Every job’s a custom job for us,” said Perry. “We begin each exploration with a full, room-to-room heat load calculation and move outward from there.” Their work ethic and careful management of all facets of jobsite installations has won them high praise from customers. “Referrals are our number one source of new business,” said Perry. The company has grown to serve an ever-broadening territory that includes all of Rhode Island, parts of Massachusetts and southeastern Connecticut.
“We love our work, and our customers do, too. It’s an amazing privilege to do what we like most of all, while earning a good living, too. Happy customers—good folks like Gary Naradowy—reward us with repeat business. What more could we possibly want?”