BEUTLER 8/8/08 8:57 AM Page 118
profile b e u t l e r c o r p.
Creating New Solutions
+ President Rick Wylie attributes Beutler’s success to its
commitment to innovation. AquaChill, a new product,
promises long-term energy savings. By Fernie Tiflis
Beutler Corp. is known for
innovative, energy-efficient
heating and air conditioning
systems.
> Beutler Corp. says it prefers to shy
away from the heating and air condi-
tioning cookie-cutter mentality.
Instead, its commitment to innova-
tion, President Rick Wylie says, is the
company’s biggest differentiation from
its competition.
“Most of [our competitors] have the
plans and specs mentality: ‘Tell me what
you want and we’ll put it in,’” he notes.
“But, we do things the Beutler way – we
create new solutions.”
118 b&c southwest fall 2008
Beutler foresees its customers’ needs,
sometimes before they even realize it,
Wylie stresses. “We sense their itch and
we come up with solutions before they
even scratch the surface,” he asserts.
For example, when Wylie came into
the office in the early 1980s, the industry
was dealing with Title 24, California’s
energy efficiency standard for residen-
tial and non-residential buildings.
“Title 24 was ramping up back then,”
he recalls, “and new builders were
“We sense their itch and we come
up with solutions before they even
scratch the surface.”
> Rick Wylie, president
Beutler Corp.
www.beutler.com
Projected 2008 revenue: $65 million
Headquarters: McClellan, Calif.
Specialty: Energy-efficient heating
and air conditioning
Employees: 600
struggling with it. They went to energy
consultants who were just emerging
and inexperienced. When we started
researching about it, we analyzed it and
found that [the solutions that were
given to them] were not practical. So,
we started learning more about Title 24.
[Builders] wouldn’t even come to us;
we figured it out ourselves and showed
it to them.
“We identified ways to save them
hundreds of dollars by better matching
up the home’s insulation, windows,
HVAC systems and water heating sys-
tems in ways that the energy consult-
ants were unable to do. In that process,
we became the industry/energy consult-
ant for our builders, working with them,
the utilities and the product manufac-
turers to find the most cost-effective
and homeowner-beneficial energy solu-
tions for the homes they were building.”
Long-Term Savings
Another iteration of Beutler’s innova-
tive ways is AquaChill, a highly efficient
air conditioner that uses water – instead
of air – to cool the refrigerant. “We’re
trying to bring to the market what it
needs and sometimes recognize it
before the market does,” Wylie states.
Beutler coordinated with a manufac-
turer to bring AquaChill to fruition,
Wylie notes, “but we realized that if we
want something done right, we have to