Abinand Rangesh: So right now, the service expansion has been predominantly in the areas that we’ve already got service. Yes, but we will add additional service if we see a certain concentration of engines in a region, we’ll put a service center there.
Operator: Your next question comes from Michael Zuk, a Private Investor.
Unidentified Analyst : Good morning. There are new mandates coming down from a federal government with regard to converting systems, utilizing heat pumps. We have a legacy heat pump technology. Is there any opportunity to expand that area for us?
Abinand Rangesh: So my view and this is where I think there is an opportunity. We’re still looking at this very carefully. There — the heat pump market is pretty interesting in the sense that there are a lot of legacy buildings that would go heat pump for heating. But the way heating is usually set up in a lot of these buildings they’re designed for boilers, which operate at relatively high temperature. So where we see a potential opportunity is retrofits on those buildings because they hit — most heat pumps that you buy electric heat pumps are really designed for lower temperature. So if you did a retrofit, you’re either going to lose capacity on an electric heat pump. You’ll need one much larger than what you would have had before with the boiler or you have to change all of the hot water distribution system in the building.
Where we think there’s an opportunity by having an engine-driven heat pump that’s much larger that could be built on the back of our air-cooled chiller that might be able to boost the temperature. But this is something that we are very early on just looking at it as a potential opportunity. We don’t how big that opportunity is. If we think there is enough potential then we may put a product out. The Ilios heat pump is still there. It’s something that the customer really wants we could, but we don’t see that as being where the market really is going to go. We see it really in the retrofit where people are trying to do this. They don’t have necessarily enough electrical capacity or they don’t want to replace everything, it’s all the piping inside the building, where we might have an advantage.
Unidentified Analyst : Good. Fair enough. And then can you give us an update on the activity in Florida?
Abinand Rangesh: So we’ve definitely been pushing for new projects over there. We — some of what’s in the backlog already right now is down in Florida. We’ve got a few other projects that are brewing out there that we hope to close over the next 3 to 6 months that are all, again, very good market for us, both cogen and chillers. So that’s a market that we’re really trying to expand right now.
Unidentified Analyst : And refresh my memory, do we have a service center in Florida?
Abinand Rangesh: Yes, we do.
Unidentified Analyst : Is there the potential to add a second center at some point in time?
Abinand Rangesh: So yes, what we’re — we may do is expand the service center more towards the Georgia, Alabama region, where we see some opportunities there as well. So our service center right now is closer to having something a little further north. You might help us also handle some of that region.
Unidentified Analyst : And then a question on a personal note. Would I be able to stop by sometime in July and see the new facility? I’m going to be in the New England area for a couple of weeks.
Abinand Rangesh: Of course, any time just let me know and feel happy to host you.
Unidentified Analyst : All right. And congratulations on the progress of moving to the new facility. It sounds like we’re going to be much more efficient in our new plant facility.
Abinand Rangesh: Thank you, yes. And I mean, it’s the other thing that we didn’t mention, but it’s taken a lot of energy from some of our key people here. So we’re also going to see improved productivity just by not having that move looming in front of us. So hopefully, we’re going to see much stronger results over the second half.
Operator: At this time, there are no further questions in queue. I’d like to turn the call back over to our presenters for any closing remarks.
Abinand Rangesh: Thank you all for attending our Tecogen Q1 2024 conference call. If anybody has any further questions, feel free to e-mail me, and I’ll be happy to answer them by e-mail or set up a separate call. Thank you.
Operator: This concludes the first quarter 2024 Tecogen Investor Update Call. Thank you for attending. Have a wonderful rest of your day.
Abinand Rangesh: Thank you. Bye-bye.
