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Considerations for a Successful HVAC Equipment Upgrade Program

Posted on by Lindsey Burbee

Have you ever replaced old HVAC equipment just to find that, after spending a lot of money, the comfort issues you were experiencing previously are still there?  Or you now have new problems that weren’t there before?  Your HVAC operates as a complete system, and the new equipment is only as good as its installation quality and the existing system it is connected with.  Here are some tips to help you get the most out of your HVAC equipment upgrade program.

  1. First, be proactive.  Get ahead of HVAC issues before they get worse or before they occur at all.  The more proactive you are, the lesser the negative impacts to your facilities operating budget, revenue, customer relations, and human resources.  On the flip side, with a fix-on-fail approach, you deal with costly emergency repairs, you have high energy costs from inefficient equipment, your revenue and customer relations suffer as uncomfortable customers take their business elsewhere, and your human resources incur lost productivity and even turnover of employees due to uncomfortable/unhealthy working conditions.  Not to mention the effect on your stress level when you have to deal with HVAC breakdowns!
  2. Start with a site survey.  You need an accurate inventory of your existing HVAC equipment, so you can make decisions on what to do with it.  Be clear about what information you need to have collected from the field, information that will enable you to make a thorough evaluation and meaningful recommendations.  Examples include equipment age, condition, features, operating measures, and so on.  Remember that your HVAC is a system, made up of many components all working together.  The focus can tend to be limited to the heating/cooling equipment, but there are also other pieces of the system that are very important, such as exhaust fans, ductwork, air grilles, and controls, to name a few.  Issues with these other components could limit the effectiveness of any new heating/cooling equipment.  The system is only as good as its weakest member.
  3. Assess the data.  Review the data returned from the site surveys to assess the overall scale and scope of your upgrade program.  Determine your trigger points for repair versus replacement, such as equipment age, condition, and efficiency.  This is the methodology that will help you to objectively decide whether you will continue to invest in a piece of equipment or replace it altogether.  In grading the equipment, this could be a simple, Green – Yellow – Red system of classification.  Green meaning ‘do nothing’, the equipment is good as-is.  Yellow meaning ‘repair’, the equipment has some issues that can be corrected at relatively low cost.  Red meaning ‘replace’, the equipment has completely failed or is no longer worth investing in.
  4. Prepare a scope of work.  Apply the previously prepared methodology to your entire equipment inventory.  This then becomes your scope of work for each site.  Put the scope in writing and be clear about your expectations.  Your equipment suppliers and installation contractors will need this scope in order to provide you with accurate estimates of cost and lead time.  This advanced planning, budgeting, and coordination will help to ensure the subsequent execution of the work goes smoothly.
  5. Consider the timing.  Equipment suppliers and installation contractors tend to be busiest in the summer and early fall months when construction activity peaks.  Avoiding these times helps to ensure you have the support you need, and your costs may be lower.  Plus, upgrading before summer helps to prepare your facilities to handle the hot/humid weather ahead.  Any temporary outages of heating/cooling that may occur while equipment is being repaired or replaced is less impactful on the facility operations during times of milder weather.
  6. Vet your partners.  Working with the right people makes a world of difference.  Partner with suppliers and contractors who are trustworthy and reputable.  Make sure they have experience with your type of facility and HVAC system, and are qualified for the services to be performed.  With the right team, you can accomplish most anything.
  7. Inspect the work.  After the equipment is repaired or replaced, it is imperative that it be inspected, tested, balanced, and commissioned in order to receive the full benefit of your capital investment.  This is your final assurance that you get the quality and performance expected out of your HVAC system.  When issues are uncovered during this process, be sure to have them corrected by the suppliers and contractors while they are still under warranty.  If left unaddressed, those issues will become headaches and costs to your facilities and operations teams later.

Managing an HVAC equipment upgrade program can be a daunting job.  When it is handled in a proactive and organized fashion, and includes the right partners, the results can be extraordinary.

The 3 Most Common HVAC Problems During Winter

Posted on by Lindsey Burbee

To quote a critically acclaimed HBO television series, “winter is coming, and we know what’s coming with it.” While it may not be as bad as the army of the dead, we can expect winter to bring about a variety of HVAC issues that can cost more pennies than shivers. Here are the top three most preventable winter mishaps, and how they can be avoided with a little DIY maintenance.

  1. Frozen Pipes

Besides fire, a building’s biggest enemy is water. Only this time of year, unwelcomed water doesn’t come in the form of humidity or a leaky roof, rather, in the form of solid icy pipes. Many building owners will try to cut costs by not heating their buildings at all times while completely unaware that above ceiling and sub-floor spaces can fall below zero in extreme cold weather. These spaces are home to water pipes that can freeze and burst causing un-flushable toilets, compromised showers, inaccessible tap water, and not mention, outrageous repair costs. The residual heat from the livable spaces above or below these pipes help to keep temperatures above freezing, so setting the thermostat to at least 65 °F throughout the day and night should keep the water flowing. In addition, be particularly aware of areas that are unheated or are constantly exposed to the elements like garages, loading docks, and basement storage rooms. Insulated pipes and walls will help to seal the deal.

  1. Uneven Airflow and Temperatures

Depending on the season, air is circulated throughout a building in different ways. Cold air falls which is why in the summer months, closing floor vents to allow more air to diffuse from ceiling vents is most effective in cooling a space. The opposite is true in the winter months where rising warm air is best circulated from floor diffusers and baseboard radiators. Knowing these trivial properties about air temperature can best optimize how your building is heated or cooled, so let the cool air fall and the warm air rise!

  1. Dirty Furnace Filters

While problems that arise from dirty or clogged filters are not unique to the winter, it’s still one of the most common culprits for defective air conditioning. A unit’s air filter removes particulates from the pre-conditioned air and allows the clean air to be conditioned and distributed. If a filter is clogged, airflow is reduced, and the terminal units will have to run longer to achieve desirable space temperatures. In the colder months, the air becomes dry which can dehydrate a person’s skin as a result. With dead skin cells making up 70 to 80 percent of dust content, it’s no wonder that the winter sees some pretty dirty filters. Changing an air filter is one of the easiest, cheapest, and most effective way to ensure maximum heating outputs which is why new filters should be installed before every season.

These winter mishaps are snow laughing matter, but just like bad puns, they’re easy to spot. Keeping these three common maintenance issues in mind will allow you to brave the cold and keep cozy all winter long.

Cultural Rules and the Global Economy

Posted on by Lindsey Burbee

Between Milford, Ohio and Barcelona, Spain we have thousands of miles for you, kilometers for me, gallons of salted water for you, liters for me, pounds of earth for you and kilograms for me…

We have different ways to talk about the same thing, but sometimes for different things we try to use the same way, what is a common mistake…

In terms of business, like the stone falling on the water, any new project will have an infinite number of concentric circles. The stone can be bigger or smaller, but always will generate a wave, big or small as well.

We will always face a person, with a better or worst day, with more or less problems, at home or at work, it doesn’t matter, with a culture, an education, inside of an organization, with a culture and an education, sometimes with people above, sometimes under, sometimes both, in a county of a region in a state of a country integrated with the economy of 28 other countries, with special regulations at different levels, different languages, different cultures…

Too complicated to be true? This is every single day of a sales in a global economy. Sometimes with more or less circles around each project, but this is the cruel reality nonetheless.

In this scenario, it becomes fully necessary having an internal decoder, armed with miles of knowledge, gallons of passion and pounds of personal skills, but also kilometers experience, liters of patients and kilograms of attitude.

How do you face this? It is easy, we build a rules structure trying include what we consider is “general” or “normal”. With these rules we don’t need to think about processes (internal or external) and we can be focused on what it is important: making a global impact.

But what happens when it is out of what we consider “normal” in our home culture, but acceptable in others? Here is when we need to show how flexible we are. It must not be a drama. This is life, different people thinking different. However, it’s important to keep the mission in mind and work towards a common good for ourselves, fellow man, and planet.

Being flexible is not meaning breaking the rules, because within these rules there are some red lines we must never cross in any culture, but we need to adapt ourselves to the situation. If we just can see the shadow of a tree is covering us, we will never be able to see the forest. We need to balance our flexibility with the opportunity cost and the risk it supposes.

So, if you know the rules, because they are yours, and within these rules exist the red lines, it is just about how flexible you are to get the job completed. And everyone has their own way, their own flexibility. There is no miraculous recipe, just training your own flexibility to convince the Polish mechanical contractor and the French end-user with different arguments to be a collective success, because they have diametrically opposed interests for the same product or solution.

To be truly global, you must be global in your thoughts and open to cultural norms wherever you may go.

Road-Tripping in a Non-Tesla 100% EV

Posted on by Lindsey Burbee

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.

Abraham Lincoln

I have the unique pleasure of working with an employee-owned organization, Melink Corporation, that is dedicated toward making the world a better place. Our vision is to help advance clean energy such that it transforms the world through improving our global economy, security and environment – for ourselves, our children and future generations.

Though energy efficiency and renewable energy are at the core of what we do, sustainability is central to who we are. If we don’t lead by example, who will? So, in addition to operating a Net-Zero LEED® Platinum headquarters facility, we have a super-green fleet of vehicles. Our National Network of Service Technicians each drive hybrid vehicles. Our parking lot has over twenty electric-vehicle charging stations. In total we have over forty hybrids and seventeen EVs in our fleet driven. 61% of our employees drive either hybrid or electric.

I, personally, drive a 2018 Chevy Bolt and have done so for about nine months. The car has a 238 EPA estimated range and does not have the luxury of accessing Tesla’s Supercharging Network. I have a 45 mile commute, one-way from my home to my office. Fortunately, by driving an EV, living in a home and working in an office that are both powered by renewable energy, my ‘electric gas’ is very clean. I have three young kids, and it is very important to my wife and I, that we set a good example; not only so we guide them toward making their own integrity-based decisions as they mature, but also so in a direct effort preserve their future. As Abraham Lincon said, You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.

This month was the first time I took the Bolt on a good old fashion, American road-trip. I knew it would be a challenge but as another President said, nothing in the world is worth doing unless it means effort pain and difficulty. Here’s how it was (and can be) done.

The Hardware. You’ve got to have an EV that has an extended range. Here’s a list, for your reference, of the longest range EVs on the market today. But you’ve also got to have the capacity for Level 3 charging. On the Chevy Bolt the hardware cost an incremental $750, from the factory. GM advertises 90 miles of charge in 30 minutes, up to the 80% mark and the speed begins to taper to protect the battery.

The Fuel. There are of course Plug-in Hybrid EVs such as the Chevy Volt and Honda Clarity. Those models have about 30 – 50 miles of battery capacity with traditional gasoline as a backup. This isn’t the kind of EV I’m talking about here; I’m talking about 100% electrons. And I must acknowledge that during my road trip the electrons pulled from the grid may be coming from brown-power sources; but not necessarily. Wal-Mart, for example, has solar on many of their locations. And one of the two EVgo stations I charged at was at a Wal-Mart. Nonetheless, what’s the advantage of driving an EV vs. a traditional internal-combustion engine that uses gasoline? For one, EVs convert about 60% of their energy from the grid to power at the wheels; gasoline only converts about 19% of the energy stored to the wheels. Also, electricity, even from a coal-fired power plant, is a domestic energy source. Finally, you can get your electricity from renewable sources such as solar and wind.

The Apps. Before making any long-distance road trip, pre-planning the locations of charging stations (and their distances from one another), is critical. There are a number of apps you can use to see what’s out there: PlugShare, ChargePoint, and EVgo are the ones I use.

The Infrastructure. EVgo is America’s largest Public Electric Vehicle Fast Charging Network, with over 1,000 chargers in 66 markets. As a non-Tesla driver, this network is vitally important for the emerging EV market.

The Planning. A few days before my trip from Southwest Ohio to Eastern Tennessee, a 350 mile commute, I identified two Level 3 Fast charging stations and one Level 2 charging station for my trip. The first Level 3 charger I stopped at was only 35 miles from my house, located at a Wal-Mart in Florence, Kentucky. I topped off and drove another 239 miles to Knoxville, Tennessee… quite literally almost no margin for error between charging stations. Fortunately, during my planning I learned of an EVgo charging station that’s being installed about 3/4 that distance, along I-75 near Williamsburg, Kentucky. So the infrastructure is continuing to develop. After making it to the next fast-charger in Knoxville… I had 8 miles to spare. Nonetheless, I made it. So I charged for about one hour (180 miles). While I waited I was able to eat lunch and catch-up on some work. Then I drove another 35 miles to my final destination, which was for business purposes There I stayed for about 30 hours, plugged in to a residential 120V outlet at 12 amps. I got my charge up to about 90% before making the return trip… back to Knoxville, then to Florence, then home. Similar to my first-leg, I made it back to the Florence charger with about 6 miles to spare.

Lessons Learned. For one, my tire pressure was relatively low when I left my house. It took the necessity of my thin battery margin to realize the impact it had on my mileage efficiency. So, I filled them almost to max-pressure and the Bolt was ‘intelligent’ enough to roll this new information into its algorithm, thus giving me an increased range by about 10 miles from where I was before. Second, I noticed that by turning off my air conditioning, the algorithm gave me another 10 mile boost in my range. Also, I tried to keep my speed (on I-75, no less) at around 65 mph. You’ll notice in this chart the relationship between speed and range; the faster you drive, the less efficient your mileage.

In order to change the world, we’ve got to do things differently. Otherwise, if we continue to do the same things, nothing will change. This trip wasn’t easy. An otherwise normal five-hour trip took me about seven-hours, one way. I didn’t want to leave the house at 5am and I certainly didn’t want to get home at 2am. But I wanted to demonstrate it could be done, in the hope that just maybe it inspires others to make the leap, not only to an EV, but to a brighter future.

Top 5 Negative Building Pressure Problems

Posted on by Lindsey Burbee

The difference between outside air supplied to a building and air removed from inside a building is the building pressure.  Typically, a slightly positive (or more air being supplied than taken out) building pressure is wanted for most buildings.  Negative building pressure can cause many issues for customers from high energy costs to hot and cold spots in a building.  Here are the top five problems a building with negative pressure can experience:

  1. Difficulty Opening and Closing Doors:

One of the first signs that a building is negatively pressurized, is when the front door is not easily opened.  After finally opening the door to a negatively pressurized building, a large draft will be felt on your back as the door is slammed closed.  Because buildings are typically designed to be positively pressurized, you should feel a soft gust of air blowing outward when this is set properly.

  1. High Humidity:

If your building is negatively pressurized, the building will pull in unconditioned outside air through all openings including doors, windows, and other leaks in the structure. This is very noticeable in the summertime when outside humidity is especially high.  This can cause mold or mildew in the building.

  1. High Energy Costs:

Studies have shown that correcting negative building pressure can save a facility owner as much as 20% on their HVAC energy costs.  By ensuring your facility has a positive building pressure, you are avoiding unnecessary costs and maximizing comfort in the facility.

  1. Outside Debris:

In a facility that is negatively pressurized, owners are more likely to see outside debris being pulled into the facility through various openings. These items include, leaves, flies, dirt, as well as smells brought in from outside.  In many facilities, this could create major issues with production as the outside debris could be contaminating the products.

  1. Hot and Cold Spots:

Another symptom commonly noticed in buildings with negative building pressure is noticeable hot and cold spots that are created by the disrupted airflow.  This could cause the customers to become angry because they can’t reach a comfortable temperature in the building.  In a restaurant, this could also cause food at the counter to become cold.

Meet Bryan Evenson, Sr. Development Engineer

Posted on by Lindsey Burbee

Business Unit and Job Title

I am a Senior Development Engineer in the Product Development group.

What does your job entail?

When I started at Melink, my job was highly focused on embedded software development for Intelli-Hood.  In short, planning and designing how the Intelli-Hood system should operate and writing all the code for the system.  I was also directing the contracted hardware engineer to ensure the electrical hardware met the needs of the Intelli-Hood system.

Today my job is similar, except I’m no longer purely dedicated to Intelli-Hood.  Now that we have Evan Risley as an employee, we’re doing our hardware designs in-house instead of hiring a contractor.

What did you do before coming to Melink?

I worked for about nine years as an embedded software engineer for a military contractor in the Cincinnati area.  It was a great opportunity to work on some very interesting projects.  Unfortunately, the company shut down due to an acquisition, which led me to finding an opportunity here at Melink.

What is your favorite aspect of working at Melink?

My favorite aspect is the freedom I have in my job at Melink.  This is especially apparent to me when I compare my work life at Melink to my last job.

What do you like to do in your time off?

For some reason I seem to enjoy hobbies that take a long time and has an unknown outcome.  I do a little home gardening.  I don’t yield much for vegetables from my garden, but I’d say most of the worth is in teaching my kids that vegetables come from the ground and not the supermarket.

I’ve also enjoy homebrewing, which is a fantastic hobby in which you can get as technical as you want to get.  I think I’ve learned more about water chemistry through homebrewing than I did through either my high school or college chemistry classes.

 

The Test and Balance Professional

Posted on by Lindsey Burbee

The HVAC industry is vast; there are many products and services that make up the build of any one system. Test and Balance is a very important niche of the large HVAC industry. Many HVAC companies have offered test and balance services throughout the years, but very few of them have employed technicians dedicated specifically to Testing and Balancing. Enter Steve Melink, circa 1987. Steve knew there was a service gap in the HVAC industry and addressed it. Does it really make sense for an owner to allow an installing contractor to verify the HVAC system they installed is correct? Would it not make more sense if an INDEPENDENT, CERTIFIED and SELF PERFORMING entity verified that the mechanical engineer’s design was met? Of course, it would!

Fast forward 31 years and Melink Test & Balance is still going strong thanks to our dedicated team of technicians. These Balancing Professionals are dedicated to Melink Corporation’s core values of Integrity, Innovation, and Service Excellence.

What is a Test & Balance Technician and What Do They Do??

Our National Network consists of more than 30 professionals across 19 states. Our technician tenure’s range from 15 years to less than a month! 100% of Melink balancers are NEBB trained with more than half of the network being NEBB Certified Technicians. Our technician’s experience prior to Melink varies from HVAC service technicians to general contractors to aircraft systems mechanics. Our team currently services more than 50 major accounts and we are adding more every year. As you can imagine, Melink Technicians have seen nearly every type of commercial HVAC unit utilized by the commercial retail market. There is no typical ‘day in the life’ for our T&B technicians. Between the location, business type, and scope of work, every week is a new adventure!

The lifestyle of our techs is unique, but very rewarding and profitable. All techs are road warriors, traveling across the United States each week to different jobs. Melink covers all travel expenses and supplies each tech with a company vehicle. Not only does this allow the team to see the U.S. on the company dollar, but their personal expenses decrease since most of the week they are being covered by the company. Food, gas, and vehicle expenses add up!!

This position is also very independent and needs a disciplined self-starter. With most projects only needing one tech, most of the travel and work is done alone. Even so, the Melink National Network is a family. Each tech knows that a fellow balancer or office support is only a phone call or an email away if they are ever in a tight spot. Even after hours, our technicians constantly interact with one another to help each other grow and support our customers. This is not just a career or a steady job, this is a lifestyle.

On top of it all, our technicians are also partial owners of the company. Melink Corporation is now an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan), which gives all Melink employees even more incentive to push the envelope with innovation and succeed as a business. Thanks to our National Network Technician team, Melink Corporation has been listed as a Best Place to Work for 3 consecutive years. Melink Corporation encourages input and recommendations for improving the business and improving the lives of the technicians. Melink works hard to address everything to better the position and the experience, for our employees. Striving for the best possible work/life balance is something very important to Melink Corporation.

One can find challenges in any profession they choose. But Melink’s National Network chooses to be challenged on a daily basis and to thrive in it! Their dedication and their commitment to service excellence is the backbone of Melink T&B!

Click here to learn more about Melink T&B.

We Just Became An ESOP….But What Does That Mean?

Posted on by Lindsey Burbee

We want you to join our team. Not only is it a special place to work, Melink became an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) in 2018 and here’s what that means to you as an employee of Melink.

Melink is unique. An ESOP is a rare and valuable benefit. Melink offers this unusual opportunity for employee wealth building.

Another unique feature at Melink is that it is provided to employees with no out-of-pocket cost.  And is a qualified defined contribution retirement plan that is invested primarily in the common stock of the sponsoring company. Unlike a 401k plan, which requires an employee to contribute his or her own money, there’s no cost to employees.

Melink’s ESOP directly correlates to our company culture.  We act like a start up every day and our ESOP helps us to further build our ownership culture that rewards people both monetarily and intrinsically.  Employees are part of something bigger at Melink, because everyone is working to build his or her (and everyone else’s) successful future.  Increased company performance typically leads to a higher share price and therefore a higher balance in employee ESOP accounts. Simply put, when the company does better so will our employees. The ESOP plan provides a return on their sweat equity.

At Melink, we value our employees’ ideas, opinions and inputs to successfully serve our customers and growing the business.  Melink is building and sustaining an environment that fosters an ownership culture.

Committed to You: A Customer-Centered Focus

Posted on by Lindsey Burbee

Customer Service Excellence is not only our responsibility, it is the cornerstone of our values at Melink. Since 1987, we have made a conscious effort to make the customer our sole focus each and every day, working to create the absolute best customer experience possible.

This year, in an effort to provide a greater experience for our Test & Balance customers, we restructured our internal account teams. Our decision to revamp our customer service team’s layout was in response to our ever-growing business, and the continually changing nature of what it means to provide a first-class experience. We choose not to be complacent, but rather question daily whether we are utilizing the most efficient customer service tactics in executing our goals and serving customer’s needs.

The new teams are made up of a dynamic group of skillsets to ensure a well-rounded support system, with the customer as the center focus. There is an Account Manager that acts as the point-person in daily communications; an Account Coordinator or Specialist who works directly with customer site contacts to effectively and efficiently schedule our National Network; and an Account Engineer offering specialized technical support for their team’s customers.

We even restructured our office space and customized our email system to provide a more cohesive and resourceful team environment. By rearranging our internal office space, our team members can better communicate proactively and at the speed of business. By providing account-specific email addresses, our customers have the comfort of knowing they are communicating directly with a dedicated team focused on their needs. By scheduling our National Network more effectively, we increase productivity and meet our customer’s needs in a timely and efficient manner.

To most, our Test & Balance division is known for providing first-class HVAC services. We go beyond what others in the industry do. We offer more than just a balance – a hands-on support system providing a full customer service experience from order to invoice!

World Environment Day

Posted on by Lindsey Burbee

“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”

– Robert Swan, Author

What is World Environment Day?

Focused at home in your local community, nationally, or globally, World Environment Day is a day for global citizens to do something to take care of the Earth.

Why Should I Get Involved?

You have the opportunity to  share your ideas and activities for making our world cleaner, brighter, and greener– one action at a time! Each year on June 5th, World Environment Day is organized around a specific theme that highlights a particular environmental concern. For 2018, World Environment Day is focused on the issue of plastic pollution. Plastic pollution in our water is killing marine species, polluting beaches, and poisoning human diets. According to the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, on average 60-95% of worldwide marine litter is composed of plastic. These plastics take 450-1,000 years to degrade, yet the plastic material never fully breaks down and it leaves in its toxic wake, micro-plastics. These micro-plastics end up in the stomachs of our marine life and subsequently in the stomachs of humans as we consume seafood and other meat poisoned with plastic pollution.

What Can I Do?

“Raise your voice, not the sea level!” — Message from World Environment Day

  1. For World Environment Day, go out to your local community either solo or with an organized group and pick up trash that may be littering streets, parks, or other landscapes. While picking up this waste, you and your fellow volunteers can take an extra step to ensure the proper materials are being recycled. Recycling is easy and recycled materials help reduce the amount of garbage in landfills, waterways, and the stomachs of animals! Just check with your local recycling center to see what materials they may accept.
  2. Bring re-usable bags when you are shopping. Many think to take their own bags to the grocery store, but think about taking your own bags to the mall or as you run normal errands to any store! Many retailers like Ikea, Adidas, Whole Foods, and most recently Disney have eliminated the use of plastic bags as well!
  3. Re-purpose plastic arts and crafts in an exhibit that focuses on sustainability. For example, convert plastic drinking bottles into planter’s for herbs and flowers, just cut a rectangular hole in the side of the bottle, fill with soil, and add your plant or seeds.
  4. Ditch the single use plastic water bottles. Travel with your own reusable water bottle, there are water sources everywhere that you can use to fill up your bottle. It can even help you save money at airports where a bottle of water can be expensive!
  5. Utilize reusable or compostable cutlery (you can easily order on Amazon!), and compostable and sustainable food wrap instead of plastic versions. Keep a set of silverware in your desk or purse!
  6. Educate yourself on misconceptions about recycling! Not all plastics can be recycled through your local provider and not everything that says biodegradable is a better alternative.