Niki Ramirez, her husband, and their four daughters live in Levittown with a very old, original oil boiler that was beyond repair and needed to be replaced years ago. Every year, Niki’s husband was working miracles on their oil boiler until one day it ended up in smoke and flames. Sadly, a replacement was not in their budget. Their priority was taking care of their four daughters' medical expenses and supplies, as all four children suffer from a rare brain disease and connective tissue disorder. While they have made it by the past couple of winters with space heaters and an electric fireplace in their living room to give the house some heat, it was not a permanent solution. Luckily, Jim and Barb Perugini -- family friends they have made through their daughters' love for softball and long-time customers of ECI -- found ECI’s March Sadness Giveaway and knew it was a great chance for ECI to give back to a family in need.
The Chance to Win a Brand New HVAC System
How March Sadness works
March Sadness is a giveaway ECI Comfort runs for the community to participate and win a brand new HVAC system worth up to $20,000. The rules are simple: you submit an entry of your system and why you need a new one, then ask your friends and family to vote for you. When voting closes, you receive a seed number based on your votes; more votes equals a higher seed number. Your seed corresponds directly to a team in the real NCAA March Madness tournament. Then fate is left to the March Madness games; whichever team wins is the team that wins in our March Sadness tournament.
Deciding to enter the giveaway
After speaking with the Perugini's about their relationship with the Ramirez family, Jim told us that he coaches two of the girls who are cleared to play softball. He emphasized how tough these girls are with their condition, both on the field and in their hearts. They told us that they have attempted to raise money for the Ramirez family during a softball tournament to help with medical costs and whatever else they needed, but Niki and her family insisted on donating it to the foundation to research a cure for her daughters' brain disease.
“They were never looking for handouts, they were always the ones to give. They are always grateful, no matter what their situation was. They were just grateful," Barb told us.
Jim and Barb reached out to Niki with the information they found on our Facebook about ECI’s March Sadness giveaway and Niki agreed that it wouldn’t hurt to try and enter. She sent them back some photos of their unit and Barb wrote the prompt for the entry. Without heat for years, and just getting by with space heaters and a fireplace in their living room, they thought surely, "why not try?"
During the tournament, they were in the top four as far as votes. Every person was assigned three teams last year, so they were assigned No. 1 seed Gonzaga, No. 10 seed Miami, and No. 11 seed Michigan. The team that went the furthest for them was Miami, who ended up losing in the Elite 8. Niki told us how fun it was to watch basketball with her family, even if she has never watched it often before.
Even though they lost to our customers Nolan and Christine who had Kansas as one of their teams, Jim and Barb reasserted their friend's need for heat and ECI agreed that we needed to do whatever we could to help out a local family. With the help of Trane, we were able to install a brand new Trane XR16 heat pump, which included one outdoor unit and one air handler in the attic for completely free.
The Install: Trane XR16 Heat Pump
The Trane XR16 is a single-stage compressor that runs at 100 percent capacity when kicked on. This heat pump is durable and delivers reliable cooling and heating to tailor the temperature needs of the homeowner in any season. With a SEER2 rating of up to 16.2 and an HSPF2 rating of up to 8.1, this is a very efficient heat pump by Trane.
Our goal was to create an easy installation process for the Ramirez family and leave them with comfortable heating plus supplemental cooling. The new heat pump will provide many great benefits that we'll explain below.
Some features of Trane XR16 Heat Pump
Climatuff® Compressor
Trane's Climatuff Compressor is only used in residential systems. It's known for low noise levels, high efficiency, and superior durability, leading to a longer life and quieter operation. This makes the XR16 superior to all other single-stage compressor heat pumps.
Spine Fin
Trane has added an all-aluminum coil to their heat pumps resulting in more resistance to corrosion and greater heat exchanging capabilities than the typical copper/aluminum coil. This makes for a longer life for the heat pump.
Cleaner, healthier indoor air
This system is compatible with Trane CleanEffects™ for advanced air filtration that can remove pollen, dust, odors, etc. from your air. Indoor air quality helps minimize illness throughout your home and keeps the air that your family breathes free of airborne viruses. This system can also be used year-round and is asthma and allergy friendly.
Durable and built to last
Trane products go through vigorous testing at the SEET (Systems Extreme Environmental Test) lab in Tyler, Texas. Units are exposed to extreme heat and bone-chilling cold conditions during a sixteen-week toucher test. They are also followed by a full seven days of salt spraying to monitor corrosion resistance. These tests solidify the company's philosophy of creating a product you can rely on.
Barb and Jim told Niki that their friend was going to come over to look at their system. After Ron, owner of ECI Comfort, looked at her system, she started to worry about the cost when he was talking about needing a replacement. He then surprised her with his next sentence: that it was going to be completely free.
Niki was so excited to tell her husband when he got home and felt overwhelmed with happiness that her family was going to have heat throughout their home. ECI installed the heat pump that same week for the Ramirez family. The first couple of days, their kids would come home from school and be in awe of how warm it was in their home. Niki even said they all cuddled on her bed the first night because it was so warm in her bedroom. She is also super excited for the summer and to have her windows back and receive full sunlight throughout her home without the need for their window AC units anymore. The Ramirez family is unbelievably thankful for the amount of love and support they have received from their community, friends, and ECI Comfort.
ECI Comfort's second March Sadness Giveaway starts NOW. If you want to enter or nominate someone else, click the link below. It only takes a few minutes to sign up for the chance to win a brand-new HVAC system worth up to $20,000!
