Gold Heat

to a thermostat – we put a sensor in to control the temperature of the floor, then hook the thermostat up to a dedicated circuit breaker in the coach and off you go.” Part of what makes Gold Heat special is that the product is built so a problem can be diagnosed and then repaired instantly. “Every once in a while, there is an ‘oops’ moment,” says Bishop, “when someone is repairing the tile or doing a remodel and they don’t know our product is there, so they might damage the mat. It happens all the time, so we have what the industry calls a TDR (time domain reflectometer). Basically it means we send pulses down the wire and time how long they take to come back. Almost like radar. Based on that time to return, we know how far down the break in the wire is and then we bring up that drawing and go into AutoCAD and it tells us where the break is.” The company actually has a drawing for every mat they’ve ever shipped over 19 years. They send back a drawing to the tile vendor or whoever is working on the floor and tell them where the problem is – they pull that tile and inevitably that’s where the fault has occurred. Bishop adds, “We send them splice kits, so they can repair the wire and then they’re back in business. Our bigger customers have the TDR tools onsite, the smaller customers, we will overnight them the tools so they can hook up and send us the numbers.” As well as RVs, Gold Heat customizes mats for tiny houses and they’re now starting to work in residential homes. Because the company has such a large market share in the RV space, the obvious growth opportunity was outside of that market. The tiny homes sector was a natural fit because they are on wheels, very much like trailers, and encompass many of the same features and systems found in an RV. Bishop admits, “That’s an area where we’ve demonstrated expertise; it’s always good to go into a market with credibility and there’s a lot of GOLD HEAT