Olivia Braund and Jacob Michel, third-year apprentices with Local 455, inspect the furnace of a disabled homeowner in St. Paul.
Members of St. Paul Steamfitters Pipefitters Local 455 teamed up with Minneapolis-based Local 539 and local union contractors Sept. 19 to provide no-cost heating repairs for low-income, elderly and disabled homeowners across the Twin Cities.
The annual day of service, known as Heat’s On, sent two-person crews to make minor furnace repairs, check for dangerous heat-related health conditions and replace smoke detectors for homeowners identified by two area nonprofit agencies, Community Action Partnership of Ramsey and Washington County and CAP of Hennepin County.
At a home in St. Paul’s Como Park neighborhood, third-year apprentices Olivia Braund of Stillwater and Jacob Michel of Carver, both members of Local 455, ran the furnace through a series of service tests. They checked the heat exchanger, tested the environment for natural gas leaks and ran a combustion analysis.
Michel also checked the gas pressure after hearing from the homeowner that a different technician had replaced a valve on the furnace earlier that week. Michel wasn’t surprised to discover the pressure was well below the recommended 3.5 inches of water column.
Volunteers gather for a recognition breakfast before making their service calls.
“They just slapped it in and called it good without adjusting the pressure,” Michel said of the other technicians. “That causes the flame to burn dirty, and it’s a really easy thing to do, too.”
Situations like that are what keep Braund, a Heat’s On volunteer for the last three years, coming back.
“It’s always interesting,” she laughed. “And it’s good just to know these homeowners are safe and ready for winter. They’re always super nice, too.”
Before union members picked up their call sheets for Heat’s On this year, they gathered for a 7 a.m. breakfast at St. Paul Local 455’s union hall, where several lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, thanked union members for volunteering their time and expertise.
Since its launch in 1986, Heat’s On volunteers have provided over $4 million in services and repairs to 8,606 households in the Twin Cities, logging nearly 40,000 hours of volunteer service.
– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor
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