Bob Yaciuk (pronounced "Ya-chuck") was born in the Bronx, the eldest of six children to Walter Yaciuk, an IBM Manager and his wife Doris, a Nurse. All of the children were involved in sports and competed extensively. Hockey was the family's favorite sport, and Bob was scouted by the Chicago Black Hawks early in his teens. He played Junior "A" hockey in various towns in Canada and had an opportunity for a career with the NY Islander organization but was severely injured. After a series of knee surgeries, he came back to play in the NAHL for the Mohawk Valley Comets in Utica, NY for a short period of time.
As a professional and semi professional athlete in Upstate New York in the mid seventies and early eighties he developed a great appreciation for the rural setting and made a comfortable transition into Sales and Business.
During this period he developed a sales career by taking on increasing responsibility in a medium sized family owned Industrial Equipment Business. Starting in service and parts, he learned quickly and graduated to inside, and then outside sales. After about 10 years, he opened and managed a new branch for the firm in Albany, NY.
In the early to mid eighties he performed a modular manufacturing plant design evaluation for investors planning to open a plant in Marlboro, NY (near Poughkeepsie). He worked with them to outfit the manufacturing plant with equipment and helped them begin the production of modular homes.
Recognizing his aptitude and the contributions he had made, the new company offered him a position as Sales Manager, which he accepted. He moved to Highland, NY with his wife and two children. Within a few years, Bob became the Vice President while continually stepping into any role necessary to help the new business thrive. The eighties later became a period of economic depression and Bob's job turned into learning how to help the company survive this period. Working directly for the owners, he was repeatedly placed in the "hot spots" to insure stability until the crisis of the moment was quelled. He personally oversaw nearly every aspect of the operation at one time or another and gained valuable perspectives that strengthened the depth of his experience.
It was during this career period that he saw the potential of integrating many heating and cooling technologies into the modular manufacturing industry which, at that time, only provided electric or hot water baseboard heat in its custom floor plan offerings. The most promising technology was small duct high velocity heating and cooling systems. Bob was introduced to Space Pak and Unico Systems in 1987. He experimented with integration methods and became extremely knowledgeable with the superior performance this type of system provided. He began delivering partially installed SDHV systems late in the eighties and had excellent results with homebuyers of the custom modular homes the company manufactured during the next five years.
In the mid-nineties the company suffered the loss of the key principle which Bob had been working with to run the company. This loss and the restrictions his estate placed on the company, eventually caused Bob to re-evaluate his path and embark in a new direction.
Bob moved his family back to Upstate New York and joined a long time associate in a recycling equipment manufacturing business in Richfield Springs, NY, near Cooperstown, NY, the home of The Baseball Hall of Fame. The timing of this move was unfortunate as it happened to coincide with the consolidation of the very close knit waste industry which controlled recycling. This greatly reduced the customer base and the momentum in recycling causing him to reconsider where to place his energy.
He took his strengths, desire to help and body of technical experience and began a business that was a technical link between the 20 or so modular manufacturing plants in the Northeast and the home sites in the locations where the homebuyers had arranged to have them installed to live in. Immediately, one of the products that became most successful was Unico Systems small duct high velocity heating and cooling systems.
Bob hired and trained his own crews, while training and working with modular manufacturers (which partially installed components of the systems within their structures). As each home was shipped the crews would travel to meet the homes at the installation sites all over the Northeast to finish and start up the SDHV systems.
It was an enormously complex undertaking. The two party (at the modular plant and at the home site) design and preparation, the logistics of material supply, the physical distances to the manufacturing plants/home sites, and the scheduling were much more complex than doing the same job locally. It required lot's of planning in advance and carried a tremendous learning curve to become successful. The results are, that today, the companies name is still held in high regard and remembered most for the quality of the work combined with the service and attention it provided its clients projects.
During this time, due to the success and unusual mobility of his companies services (plus its very high quality feedback to the manufacturers on many issues), the high velocity industry began to request that Bob visit other home sites and report back to the manufacturer on homeowner complaints about performance issues. This was immediately successful because of Bob's ability to evaluate, diagnose, and perform the repair of another HVAC installer's poor installation of the manufacturers' equipment. It is why we believe that the performance of the equipment is in the installation.
For over 12 years, through a variety of partnerships and name changes, Bob's expertise and integrity have been unparalleled in providing the most knowledgeable and accurate equipment selections and installation practices regardless of the type of construction project that he is presented. He is aware of the "art", as well as the "science", in each project he sees.
His ongoing work in the evaluation and repair of the most complex installer problems has resulted in the most endearing customer references that can be attained. He has worked through, and resolved with his clients, some of the most criminal contractor issues imaginable and has always remained a close and highly valued friend and resource due to his honesty, empathy, broad and thorough base of construction knowledge, exceptional conceptual grasp and nearly photographic memory.
Bob and his wife, Diane, an RN, have been best friends since they were children. They have helped guide a blended family of 5 children to adulthood in career paths that include Business/Sales Management, Accounting/Teaching, Opera Performance/Teaching, Engineering, and Graphic Artist/Wilderness Guide. An influential and public client once told Bob, "My children are like the fingers of my hand, they are all completely different, but they are all mine". It was good advice.
Their household is an eclectic mix containing substantial understanding and deep appreciation of the Outdoors and Traditional Archery, Avian Specialties (Exotic Birds), Dogs and Cats, Alternative Health Sciences, Many mediums in Jewelry making, and luckily, home construction because they live in an 1870's vintage home that they will always be rebuilding and repairing.
And yes, it does have Small Duct High Velocity heating and cooling systems. When the home was purchase in 2001, the original systems cost them $5,500.00 a year to heat. In 2003, the insulation was upgraded, the systems were converted to SDHV Systems, and an Energy Kinetics System 2000 Boiler was installed. The next year this cost dropped to $1,400.00.