Associate Member Feature: E.I.P. team delivers high performance dampers and solutions

Energy Improvement Products (E.I.P.) has been a staple in solutions to enhance building health throughout Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana since the company was founded by Jim Karambelas in 1983.

Today, E.I.P. is run by Christine Greco, Karambelas’s daughter, who officially took over as president in January 2017. The proud woman-owned business maintains a lean team of 11 throughout office, field and sales positions, which includes Christine’s husband, Jim Greco. “Pre-pandemic, we’d get up every morning at 4 a.m. and go to the gym together before starting our day. We enjoy spending time with each other, so running a business together works out pretty well for us. We’re really fortunate in that way,” said Jim, E.I.P. Vice President. “Both Christine and I are passionate about our business and manage all day-to-day operations both inside and outside of the office.”

E.I.P. joined SMACNA Greater Chicago as an associate member about four years ago at the suggestion of others who were already involved in the association. Because of their work with mechanical and sheet metal contractors, Jim jumped on the chance to develop more meaningful business relationships.

“Our business thrives on getting to know the contractor better, getting to know their needs and how to best work with them,” Jim said. “We pride ourselves on the personal connections we’ve developed and delivering value to all our contractors and end users.”

E.I.P.’s line of products meets the energy efficiency needs of a variety of industries, including commercial/ public, government, light industrial, education, universities and healthcare/laboratories. Their team has performed work on many high-profile projects in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, including work for 500 W. Madison, AON Center, Argonne National Labs, Northwestern Medicine, O’Hare Airport, UIC, Wrigley Field, Willis Tower and countless more. E.I.P. is proud to represent the best manufacturers in the business, TAMCO (high performance control dampers) and SecureAire (fixed and portable air purification/ particulate filtration) among them, allowing E.I.P. to continually deliver top-of-the-line, solution-based products to their customers.

“Everything we sell is geared toward saving energy and improving building efficiency, our products are highly accurate and designed to give owners and engineers more information for better control of their buildings,” Jim said. “Every building is different. We meet on-site to evaluate and see exactly what their needs are and how to meet their specific goals, whether it’s saving energy, improving ventilation or cleaning the air inside the building. What we do is not cookie-cutter. It’s very customizable and everything is made to measure, not something you just pick out of a catalog.”

With the widespread (and continuing) disruption of COVID, indoor air quality has become a hot topic, with more and more end users educating themselves on the benefits of healthy buildings. The products and solutions E.I.P. offers are specifically intended to improve the indoor environment of the buildings they serve for the safety and comfort of all occupants.

For more information on E.I.P.’s products and services, visit eip-hvac.com.