REFRIGERANTS INTERVIEW
The dark art of humidity control explained
John Barker of Humidity Solutions talks to ACR News about his business, customer service and the essential role humidifi cation has to play in HVAC applications.
Could you give us a brief overview of your professional background? I have always been interested in how things are made, even since I was a young boy, so my route onto a B/TEC in Engineering instead of A levels made perfect sense, and from there I went on to Mechanical and Production Engineering at Portsmouth University. My fi rst job was for a small humidifi cation company which at the time only sold compressed air and water humidifi ers, but I was brought in to sell the electrode boiler humidifi ers for which the UK distribution rights had just been gained. After helping to grow the company to become number one in the humidifi er market, serving as sales manager for 16 years, a change was required so I moved to become the UK sales manager for a German high-pressure water company – again building the market from a low base.
After fi ve years it became clear that the company was not willing to off er the service that the customers expected and what I wanted to deliver. I therefore set up Humidity Solutions in 2008 to allow me to provide the quality of service that I was comfortable with – and that customers deserved. I still love talking to customers about
production or climatic issues and to be able to use my 35 years of experience in humidity control to fi nd the solution.
What is your biggest achievement to date?
Humidity Solutions – not the company, but the team. Football is my sport of choice and how managers build their teams has been my motivation to create the best team possible for our sector. I am confi dent that I have achieved this with the help of many key people along the way. We now have 25 team members across on-site technical support, design and sales, customer support, purchasing and accounts. We recruit young and train them to become
experts in this niche sector while also adding energy and innovation which many of our competitors sadly lack. Matthew Syed wrote about diverse thinking in ‘Rebel Ideas’ which has inspired us to consciously make sure that we bring in diff erent skill sets to the company where possible – which allows us all to learn from each other and grow as individuals and as a team. Creating and allowing this culture to develop is, I believe, my biggest achievement.
What’s new at Humidity Solutions? What have you been up to recently? We have great momentum in the industrial/ commercial humidifi er sectors becoming market leaders in many of the product areas. But we also have strong growth plans. Over the past three years we have been pushing hard into the dehumidifi er market which, in some cases, are new industry sectors such as
food, cold stores, storage and pharmaceutical applications. Using our business model of exceptional customer service, reliable solutions and equipment, plus off ering the full turnkey solution where required, we have secured a very encouraging market share in this time. Our partners – Cotes desiccant dehumidifi ers and Hidew refrigerant dehumidifi ers – are innovative, forward-thinking companies which allow us to provide new and exciting solutions. Planned maintenance has also been a big focus
for growth, showing triple digit growth over the past year where our fl exible approach and the quality of our on-site engineers has provided to be an attractive off ering.
What are customers’ biggest challenges at the moment?
Maintenance – on-site engineers are becoming a rare sight these days. Off - or on-site facilities managers now look after sites managing many equipment specialists to maintain their lifts, AHU’s, humidifi ers etc. It is therefore their requirement to have a reliable and fl exible partner to provide these specialist services. I am exceptionally proud of our team of on-site engineers. You can have maintenance engineers who change fi lters or steam cylinders and look at the unit in isolation. Our team members are all service engineers who not only look at the equipment to be serviced, but also understand the wider systems that they form part of, making sure that the whole system works well. For instance, if water is leaking out of a duct it may be the case that the water comes from the humidifi er’s steam output. However, the humidifi er may be working correctly, but it is the control signal going to the humidifi er that may be wrong, or the heat creating suffi cient heat to absorb the moisture may have failed. Our engineers will work this out and report back identifying the issue, and won’t walk away just saying that the humidifi er is fi ne. This provides a service to the customer to help resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
18 July 2023 •
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