INDUSTRY LEADER PROFILE
Sippin has more than 8,000 accounts and some 15 technicians; as the service manager Breda oversees the selling of equipment, installations, servicing and repairs. “This is the most automated place I’ve been – and I like it that way,” Breda said, referring to the use of information technology. “We’re pretty far advanced. We’re very close to being paperless. It’s possible for a technician to go through the entire day and never talk to the dispatcher.”
installation of heat pumps, for example, and Breda has also taken instruction in solar system installation. He is waiting for the state of Connecticut licensing authority to offer a test for that license. “I do see solar as a supplement coming down the road,” Breda said. “Back at Hillcrest Fuel, I installed my first solar hot water system – back around 1981,” he recalled. At that time a 40 percent tax credit was available, “so it made a lot of sense,” he said. “And then as soon as the tax incentives went away, solar died.”
Now with four dollar oil, tax incentives might be in the offing again, and solar could shine again.
Sippin also offers energy surveys, which are performed by a subcontractor. Customers can go to the company’s website to request a survey, and Sippin will manage the process. The com- pany also is a bioheat provider, delivering B5. Breda said customers like bioheat, in part, because they feel they aren’t “funding Middle East palaces” quite so much. l FON
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