Hartman Brothers enters digital age

The sign in front of Hartman Brothers Heating & Air Conditioning, 535 Green St., in New Haven reads Thank you for 50 great years. Looking forward to 50 more.

It's been five decades since Les and Arnie Hartman christened their company and began making sheet metal ducts for apartment buildings around the area, across the state and in neighboring states.

Their work is part of the infrastructure of Northcrest and Georgetown shopping centers and the B.F. Goodrich plant. From that they moved on to heating and air conditioning for new home builders.

They both retired some years back, and Arnie is deceased. The firm is now run by Arnie's children: Richard as president, David as operations manager and Vicki Peterson as service manager. Another brother, Doug, is a service technician.

Over the years, business has evolved from standard furnace and air conditioning installations to the age of digital technology.

A couple of furnace manufacturers are coming up with smartphone applications, says Richard, that customers can use to control just about any electronic gadget in their homes via global positioning satellite. They'll be able to regulate their thermostat, turn on lights and maybe even turn on the coffee maker and start the crock pot with their cellphone.

Our IT guru Roger Buhr is implementing the programs into our system now and we expect to be up and running in 2014.

A system coming soon is one that senses when the home is empty and automatically reduces the heat setting on the thermostat. It's activated when family members return or can be controlled with a cellphone app.

Another innovation by Lennox is 'smart circuits.' These involve control panels that are self-diagnostic. If some part of the system is not operating properly, a light will flash on their thermostat readout similar to most new cars indicating something is wrong and the home owner should call for service. It's called 'icomfort Notification.' It could report the need to change the filter, a problem with the outdoor unit or a failure of the sensor unit. We also get an email highlighting the problem, but are not allowed to remotely take over a customer's thermostat. Those with concerns about privacy can elect to block us from receiving this information.

When Richard began installing furnaces 40 years ago, the highest-efficiency furnace available was 64 percent, which was considered the top of the line.

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Hartman Brothers enters digital age