While watching a DVD with my daughter entitled “Envy” starring Ben Stiller and Jack Black, I suddenly began to wonder where the carbon dioxide emissions would go if buried in underground rock formations. The technology is being researched now, and will get additional funding to the tune of $1.1 billion if the Waxman-Markey climate bill becomes law. The objective is to make coal-burning power plants cleaner.

A big capture device at coal plants will first bond CO2 with ammonia, then separate it from the ammonia in preparation for another process of supersonic shockwaves that compresses the nasty carbon emissions prior to them being buried thousands of feet underground.

It all sounds very complicated. Really, why bond the carbon and ammonia if it is just going to be separated again? Weren’t they separated to begin with? Oh well. It is certainly for much smarter minds to figure out the details.

This carbon capture and storage process will be immensely expensive and take nearly a decade to become commercially available.

But, here is what really worries me. In the movie, Black’s character invents VaPooRizer, a spray that makes pet poop simply disappear. Angry environmentalists chanted “Where does the [poop] go. We want to know!”

Stay with me on this one.

John Tombari, an executive at Schlumberger Carbon Services, told the Washington Post, “If carbon sequestration is to have an impact on the CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere, we will need to inject billions of tons of CO2 underground over the next 40 to 50 years and store them for very much longer.”

Herein lay the dilemma: Like everything else in this world, stuff leaks. Water follows the path of least resistance, gas expands to find the tiniest crevices, iron- and concrete-clad nuclear reactors develop cracks, and refrigerant can’t seem to stay put inside the confines of copper coils. Why would anyone expect billions of tons of CO2 to stay underground in what is a fairly porous Earth that we live on? I’d like to know who is going to warranty that piping system.

So, I ask, where does the poop go when it won’t stay underground, and how much damage can it do on the way back up?

I received this letter from a guy who received a letter from a guy who can’t find a job in the HVAC industry. Call me stupid, but I’m betting somebody wants to hire this guy. Let’s find him a job.

Dear NEWS,

I received this letter from a friend today who is in his late 30’s and is looking to get into HVAC.  He currently works in the printing/graphic design industry, and is also a master guitar builder. He is married with kids and is clean, sober, responsible, etc. Here is part of a letter he sent to me:

“I looked for a HVAC guy that I could work part time for but no one wants a rookie close to 40 years old. I’m not sure what I’m going to do.”

That's interesting because there is a shortage of good workers in our industry. There is a shortage of skilled people and rookies who are ready to learn.

It's very short sighted of the guys he spoke to, to dismiss him. I would snap him up IMMEDIATELY. I have 31 years in our trade and 10 as owner/operator of my own HVAC company.

Someone his age and situation is perfect. Old enough to have some prior life/work experience, work ethic, responsibility, and social skills, and young enough to be able to do the work and to have many years ahead. 

Now, if an employer just wants bodies to install flex duct in residential, then I agree that the 'younger the better' if they are conscientious and trainable. But for a rookie to learn service/repair work and install assist/start up — I'll take a competent person who is 30 to 50 years old, anytime.

Anyone who is in decent physical condition and height/weight proportionate will easily be able to do the physical work. In fact you will stay younger by doing this work because it is active. 

I have worked at HVAC shops that had older techs who had been truck drivers, warehouse workers, auto mechanics, soda pop salesmen, motorcycle mechanics, machinists, cabinet makers and more. These guys made excellent techs! In fact, at one shop, we had a tech in his 20s. Oftentimes the office would get a call saying, "please send out an older tech." The general population equates "older" to "wiser". And I have found that many customers, especially women, are more comfortable with an older tech.

This friend of mine is eager to work and go to tech school. He’d like to get a job with an HVAC company and go to school at night. He lives in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Can we please give this willing young man a start in our fine trade?

You can contact him through me: Doug Fergus, All About Air, Ashland, Oregon. E-mail me at Allaboutair2006@msn.com.

My recent experiment with Twitter.com is almost down to its last tweet. Here is a sample from my latest follower: “I'm a shy girl that is looking for a guy to be intimate with me and LOYAL to only me. Please no cheaters. Patti.”

As any HVACR business venture is only successful as long as it can be commercially viable (a.k.a. making some money), I expect that a social network, like Twitter, will soon face a make-or-break point. My shy girl looking for companionship may in fact have found the magic — perhaps she is doing something that is actually making money from tweets. However, I don’t know anyone besides Patti who has figured this out.

Occasionally, I have found some interesting links to information that I care about. But honestly, I don’t care to know that Dan is bored stiff in the grocery line, or that Sheila went water skiing for the first time. The thing that bothers me most about my latest follower — shy girl Patti — is that while she wants me to be loyal to only her, she is currently following 299 other people.

Have you ever thought about what new information or technologies might influence your future? Sure, while waiting in a city log jam you have thought of jet packs that can fly you across town in rush-hour traffic, but have you given consideration as to what might change your business life?

Though almost all of these are in the here and now, and I offer no guarantees as to when they become very mainstream, here is my list of things, in no particular order, that make you go hmmm.

1)      Net zero energy buildings

2)      Radiant heating

3)      Geothermal in places you thought it would not work

4)      The new refrigerant that nobody knows about yet

5)      Cooling beams in ceilings and walls

6)      Building Information Modeling (BIM) 3-D drawings

7)      Required air balancing

8)      Biodiesel burning furnaces

9)      Anything solar as it roars back from the bowels of the 1960s

10)   Certifications for everything in HVAC.

In 2006, the federal government enacted a 3 percent withholding tax on public construction contracts. The good news is that the enactment date is still pending — it won’t go into effect until 2012. The bad news is that it was a bad idea in the first place.

The good news is that the Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA) has been working on this one for a while. MCAA board member, Adam Snavely, president and CEO of Poole & Kent Corp., Baltimore, testified at an IRS public hearing to discuss the problems with the new law. So far, the IRS has published a regulation that says prime contractors can’t pass the 3 percent withholding through to subcontractors. That is also good news. However, the bad news is that the law has not yet been overturned, and IRS regulations come and go.

The Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005, Section 511 mandates that city, state, and federal governments withhold 3 percent from payments for goods and services. The main reason for this extra tax withholding is because a lot of contractors have gotten into trouble with Uncle Sam for not paying their taxes on time — or not paying their taxes at all. The good news is that Uncle Sam really does need the money, what with the big deficit spending binge of late.

The bad news for large contractors is that they will be faced with the additional burden of tracking thousands of payments every year. The bad news for small contractors is that it amounts to a tax burden with no clear answer as to how or if that money ever comes back. A few percent could mean really bad cash flow resulting from a bad project. It is already a fairly complicated task to conduct business with governments. Adding another 3 percent of withholding to the mix is not good news.

The rumor mill is running wide open. Being that The NEWS has its ear to the ground on things of this nature, let’s make an attempt to slow things down just a bit. The basic HVAC system tax credit for 2009 and 2010 that went into effect in January of this year is for up to 30 percent of an installation, not to exceed $1,500. (A geothermal installation can provide even greater tax credits for your customers.)

Here is the skinny on the rumor: it is being floated around that the 16 SEER/13 EER efficiency rating as set by the Consortium for Energy Efficiency (CEE) is very difficult to achieve — that no manufacturer in the market can meet those specifications. A quick visit to the AHRI website (www.ahridirectory.org) for certified matches of indoor units and outdoor units will produce thousands of matches. Really; 28,005 matches to be exact. Some are with manufacturers’ matched coils, some are with third-party coils, but the point is, the tax credits are attainable for your customers.

Several manufacturers have already created locations on their Websites that can help shed light on the rating matches, and some even go so far as to provide certificates for customers. If your supplier brand isn’t quite that far along yet, never fear, http://://www.ahridirectory.org is here.

A few hints when you go to that site: Only enter as much data as needed for an air conditioner search, e.g., Eligible For Federal Tax Credits, click YES; Model Status: ACTIVE; SEER Min: 16; EER Min: 13. That’s all you need to do. If you want to get fancy, enter a manufacturer brand name to narrow your search. If you want to search heat pumps, the minimum numbers are a bit different: 15.5 SEER, 12.5 EER, and 8.5 HSPF.

Now, go hunt for those tax credits.

The NEWS had such great response to a recent blog about computer protection that we have a few more hints that might come in handy for keeping your computer clean.

Let’s start with one of the most pervasive scams on the Internet. How often do you see pop-ups on your screen? Adobe, Hewlett-Packard, Java? They all would seem to be relatively harmless, and who would not want to update their printer if HP offered?

Here is the catch. The pop-ups often are not coming from the source you may think. If you really want to update your software, go directly to the manufacturer’s Website and perform the update there — don’t click on the pop-up. If for some reason you can’t get the pop-up to disappear, shut down the computer and reboot. It might sound like a pain in the butt, but rather a little pain than a lot of headaches later.

Here is one quick way you can determine whether a link is taking you where you think you are headed, or if somebody is trying to scam you.

While in your browser, go to View and click on Status Bar. That will display a bar on your screen that shows the site you are about to visit as you move your mouse across a link. Once you have that set up, here is a little test you will find quite interesting.

Type “Hewlett-Packard” in your search browser. One of the links at the top of your search will be “HP Official Store” with an address of www.shopping.hp.com. Sounds harmless right? As you slide your mouse across the link you will notice that your screen’s status bar is blank. That means you aren’t going where you think you are — you are not going to the HP site. It might be harmless, but somebody is trying to trick you. So, how much do you trust that source now?

Pop-ups will work the same way. If you think you’re going to an Adobe site for an update, slide your mouse on the link and watch what happens in your status bar before you click.

Bottom line: use the manufacturer site for updates.

The NEWS had such great response to a recent blog about computer protection that we have a few more hints that might come in handy for keeping your computer clean.

Let’s start with one of the most pervasive scams on the Internet. How often do you see pop-ups on your screen? Adobe, Hewlett-Packard, Java? They all would seem to be relatively harmless, and who would not want to update their printer if HP offered?

Here is the catch. The pop-ups often are not coming from the source you may think. If you really want to update your software, go directly to the manufacturer’s Website and perform the update there — don’t click on the pop-up. If for some reason you can’t get the pop-up to disappear, shut down the computer and reboot. It might sound like a pain in the butt, but rather a little pain than a lot of headaches later.

Here is one quick way you can determine whether a link is taking you where you think you are headed, or if somebody is trying to scam you.

While in your browser, go to View and click on Status Bar. That will display a bar on your screen that shows the site you are about to visit as you move your mouse across a link. Once you have that set up, here is a little test you will find quite interesting.

Type “Hewlett-Packard” in your search browser. One of the links at the top of your search will be “HP Official Store” with an address of www.shopping.hp.com. Sounds harmless right? As you slide your mouse across the link you will notice that your screen’s status bar is blank. That means you aren’t going where you think you are — you are not going to the HP site. It might be harmless, but somebody is trying to trick you. So, how much do you trust that source now?

Pop-ups will work the same way. If you think you’re going to an Adobe site for an update, slide your mouse on the link and watch what happens in your status bar before you click.

Bottom line: use the manufacturer site for updates.

I don’t know what your Monday’s are usually like, but today is mop-up day for me because Tuesday is going to be spent seeking recognition as the best Novelty Float in the Cleveland St. Paddy’s Day Parade, one of the top five Saint Patrick Day parades in the country. No one knows what Wednesday will bring, so I’m getting as much done today as I can.

Which brings to mind procrastination. We all fall victim to the “I’ll do it tomorrow syndrome” upon occasion. Lucky for me (luck of the Irish, you know) that I started working on the rebuild of a tandem Schwinn bicycle last summer. I had been threatening to get in the Cleveland parade for years, but kept putting off the chore of tearing down and rebuilding the circa 1964 rusted beast in the garage that was going to enable me to make a credible case to the parade committee. They don’t let just any drunk wannabe Irishman in the parade, don’t you know.

Now, a svelte, speedy, green charmer of a bike awaits its first ride down Superior Avenue amid the cheers of thousands of Irish revelers. My buddy and I will be sandwiched between Miss Teen Ohio and Raphael’s School of Beauty. I don’t know what those two groups will be doing, but they will be doing it next to the two happiest guys in the parade!

I, of course, will be the one holding up the HVAC recruitment sign. My buddy will probably need a ride home.

Upon arriving at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, expecting partly cloudy skies and 74°F weather, contractors attending the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) 41st Annual Convention and Indoor Air Expo were not too disappointed. I know I wasn’t. The skies were much less than partly cloudy, and the sun was beaming in around 80°. When I had departed from the Cleveland-Hopkins airport there was no sunshine and 12° which is nothing to jump and down about — unless you’re just trying to stay warm while waiting for a shuttle bus.

The merging of the ACCA Indoor Air Expo and the IAQA Expo turned out to be a pretty good idea. There were two different types of name tags weaving through the show floor, people got a chance to exchange business cards with some new faces, and I heard that HVAC contractors and mold remediation specialists agreed that the Texas Shiner Bock was worth the trip to Fort Worth.

The show opened up on Tuesday with a junk yard band called Vocal Trash, the guys at the CEO Forum did a little trash talking of their own on Wednesday afternoon with a few good-natured jabs, and two guys with chain saws were cutting up with the audience at the closing event on Thursday.

All in all, another good trip to the South for The NEWS, which happened to be a platinum sponsor of this year’s ACCA convention.

Next stop — Scottsdale, Ariz., for the Mechanical Contractors Association of America Annual convention, where I’m looking for more short-sleeve shirt weather.

Where does The NEWS go in the wintertime?

Someplace warm, and as often as possible.

I love the four seasons of the great white North, but there comes a time when a little warmth and sunshine does a body good. This week begins the travels of a NEWS editor, reporting on industry events and getting as far away from snow-blanked Cleveland, Ohio as possible. I will keep you posted on some cool things at the events I cover, while I also gloat about the local weather report.

The Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) is holding its 41st annual national convention and the Indoor Air Expo at the Omni Hotel in downtown cowtown — Ft. Worth. The weather is predicted to be partly cloudy with highs around 74°F. With weather like that, I suggest they hold the Indoor Air Expo outside. People would have a much better time looking at new products while enjoying a little fresh air, and smelling some BBQ wafting through the streets.

Here is an idea: every city in the nation does this at least once per year. Just like there is a Taste of Texas, a Taste of Toledo, a Taste of Tonawanda — why not a Taste of HVAC? Yes, it’s time for a little outdoor flavor for the industry. And what better group of people to provide it than the experts that can make the indoor air as fresh as outdoors?

What prompts this outdoor trade show idea is the same thing you see with Trane representatives in Home Depot kiosks, or local HVAC companies displaying at home and garden shows, or even better, a neighborhood Saturday morning flea market in the park. These people are getting sales leads.

I’ll keep you posted from Ft. Worth this week.

Yes, we all have heard that times are tough. For anyone who has lost a job, or who has had to lay people off, I know how you feel. Been there, done both.

Now, it’s time to do something a little different. Take a look at this from a different perspective.

The silver lining? It’s an employer’s market. There are a lot of good people looking for work. The question you have to answer is: If someone can do a job better than you, why don’t you hire him or her?

That is how companies grow. (I liked that thought from Mark Swepston, Atlas Butler, Columbus, Ohio, so much that I stole it.)

Recently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the Job Openings and Labor Turnover (JOLTS) data for December of 2008. The data show that there were 2.7 million job openings in December, down 6 percent from November 2008 and down 32 percent from the start of the recession in December 2007.

While job openings are becoming more and more scarce, the ranks of the unemployed are growing dramatically — up by 47 percent in the first year of the recession — such that in December there were 11.1 million unemployed workers.

This means that there were 4.1 job seekers per available job.

Given the 508,000 increase in unemployment in January, if job openings experience the same decline in January that they experienced in December, that will translate into 4.6 unemployed workers per job opening in January.

Maybe this is a little weird, but while the economy is shrinking, you could be thinking about expanding your intellectual capital. Now is a good time to hire some good people.

Source: Economic Policy Institute

I love going to Chicago for the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigerating Exposition (AHR Expo). Lots of new product, but the weather is always gorgeous this time of year, even though it can be a bit balmy by Lake Michigan. For some reason, one of our friendly sales reps, Michael O’Callaghan, always manages to drag me into the streets of Chicago for an evening walk-about during the three-day event. He tells me that we are in search of an Irish bar, but he usually walks me in circles until we stop at a Dunkin’ Donuts for something hot to drink. And of course, once there, who can pass up those fat pills with the colorful sprinkle things?

One evening at the end of a long day at the expo, O’Callagan convinced me to get out of the long cab line leaving McCormick Place because, according to him, we could walk about two blocks and pick up a cab much more easily. The wintry mix was blowing sideways, we trudged through knee-high drifts on the sidewalk, we never found a cab — yet O’Callaghan promised there were black and tans just ahead at the local pub. I am a gullible Irishman, so I followed him for nearly two hours.

I can’t wait to get back to Chicago to see the new products coming to a market near you. However, this year if I see O’Callaghan in the cab line, I am running the opposite direction.

I just looked at the November 2008 shipment report for the industry — not too exciting. But, I noticed that year-to-date heat pumps shipments were only down 0.8 percent compared with a year ago. Somebody is still selling something out there. Is it you?

Heat pumps have been on a run for a while now. Utilities are ramping up demand side management programs to entice consumers to purchase high efficiency products as it helps the utility save money in the long run — why else would they be giving money away? As there are so many utilities that sell electricity, it makes sense that a goodly part of the incentive effort is focused on heat pumps.

Now for the coup de grâce (a French term; the definition known only to a few hundred people who attended a Cincinnati Habegger Corp. dealer meeting): Geothermal heat pumps may be carrying a big part of that success. According to sources at the major geothermal manufacturers, sales are pretty good, even during the current economic malaise. (Malaise. I think that’s French too, it means stinking recession.)

The message here is that consumers are still spending big bucks for what they perceive to be high value. If they can spend a little more up front — even in a recession — get more on the back end in the way of lower utility bills, and a sense that they are helping the environment, then voila! (Another fancy foreign word that means “Get me another helping of those biscuits, and pass the gravy.”)

HVAC is going Hollywood. Well almost. At least there is a boatload of HVAC videos at YouTube.com.

Go online at YouTube.com and you will find a bunch of HVAC videos. The number of views is surprisingly high for some — in the tens of thousands.

Here is the assortment of videos available today at YouTube. A search for “HVAC” turned up 2,430 video options. If you should narrow the search, here is what you would find: HVAC repair (1,041), HVAC installation (301), HVAC ducts (192), HVAC design (81), HVAC training (75), HVAC compressor (29), HVAC troubleshooting (26), HVAC tutorial (23), HVAC hack (25), and HVAC charging (13), and an assortment of commercials and marketing videos. That’s quite an impressive tally, but I must admit, I didn’t find the dozens I viewed to be exceptionally entertaining. Perhaps HVAC is not supposed to be entertaining, perhaps it is only supposed to be educational.

Here is a thought. How about edutaining videos for people that want a little something more? Below is a link to one particular video that I found not only educational, but also entertaining — edutaining.

Oops! I thought I would find a video that was edutaining, but it was a difficult task. Some of those on YouTube were not too flattering of the industry, and some were really great regarding technical training. However, I have to admit, if I weren’t looking for how to troubleshoot a capacitor, it wouldn’t hold my interest for very long.

Think like a young person who might be wanting to start a career in HVAC. What would you want them to see online?

My kids like AC/DC; so did I when I was their age. One of them wears my 20-year-old sweatshirts — they’re called hoodies, now. Things that are old can be made new again. I have every tie I have ever owned; a few of them are bound to come back in style. It’s the retro craze, and it even applies to HVAC.

Retrocommissioning a commercial building is a very well-understood concept — at least it is among most commercial contractors. Some building owners are still getting up to speed. As green, sustainable building practices take hold, and owners want facilities that qualify for Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED) points, retrocommissioning of existing buildings is becoming much more popular.

Here are two reasons retrocommissioning is on the rise. Up until recently, there was no enforceable requirement within the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED program for a newly constructed, certified building to be commissioned. That turned out to be bad news, as some buildings were not performing to the level of green that had been anticipated during the design stage. That is now changing as the USGBC has realized that an innovative design does no good if the building and system are not performing. This important emphasis has also shifted to existing buildings that seek LEED status. The second reason that retrocommissioning is cool like an old sweatshirt is because a renewed interest in saving energy is taking hold in not only commercial buildings, but residential as well.

Think about this: At a time in the residential market when new home construction has slowed, and replacement sales may be slowing with homeowners’ reluctance to spend during a recession, they still have a need to save energy.

A lucrative opportunity in the residential market might be to perform energy audits, and then perform the necessary maintenance needed to improve system performance.

You may even discover some repair or replacement opportunities along the way.

What if a customer changed his mind and you had to return and install the old equipment and refund the price paid for a new system you had put in yesterday?

Or, what if you left the new equipment in place because the old equipment had already been destroyed during removal, and refunded the purchase price of the new equipment?

Chapter 39 of the Texas Business and Commerce Code provides for a three-day right of cancellation of certain consumer transactions. HVAC contractors fall under the letter of this law. That means that the two above-mentioned situations could absolutely occur — if you live in Texas.

I once domiciled in the Lone Star State and traveled to Possum Kingdom, Texas with my wife to view a parcel of land. I had no intention of buying the land; I just wanted the free golf clubs the company was offering. Fortunately, for the company, I sincerely fell in love with the idea of becoming a land baron overlooking a spacious canyon. I bought. Unfortunately, for the company, the next day I realized how completely insane I had been, knowing that I would likely never retire to Possum Kingdom, Texas. I rescinded the deal. Thank goodness for the three-day right of cancellation. Fortunately, for me, the company did not make me mail back the golf clubs.

However, if somebody needs a new HVAC system, let’s hope they weren’t purchasing it with the simple dastardly plan of changing their mind in order to get a freebie.

The difference in the land buy and an HVAC system is that Possum Kingdom lured me with the free golf clubs hoping to sell a parcel of land. Contractors don’t weasel their way into people’s homes with the intent of selling them something they don’t really want.

An installed system should not be subject to such extreme penalties as previously mentioned. It is not the same as a vacuum cleaner that a person can easily return upon cancelling a purchase. HVAC systems should be handled differently under Texas Law.

Since the third Presidential debate between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, Joe the Plumber (Joe Wurzelbacher) has gotten more than he bargained for. Joe in Ohio has been chastised for not having a plumber’s license according to a local source, and news and camera crews have been camping out in his front yard. The local union doesn’t seem to be very thrilled with Joe either.

But, I am more concerned for the other common Joe the Plumbers.

Joe Lara owns a company called Joe the Plumber in Ventura County, Calif. Lara has received 180,207 hits on his Website, over 300 phone calls, and hundreds of e-mails. He has been interviewed for several publications and appeared on television four times, given three radio interviews, made the cover of the local newspaper twice, met a lot of people and signed two dozen autographs — all this in a three-day period, according to Lara.

However, there is also a company by the name of Joe the Plumber in Amarillo, Texas that has been in business for 20 years; if you go to the Website you can see an authentic Joe the Plumber t-shirt. Joe Francis owns www.joetheplumber.com and is probably experiencing a ton of Web traffic in Amarillo these days.

And, don’t forget Joe the Plumber in Seattle, and there are probably a few more, but you get the point by now. Joe the Plumber is everywhere!

The plumbing industry got a lot of press time over this one, but everyone seems to have forgotten that the company Joe Wurzelbacher works for is not really Joe the Plumber? It is actually Newell Plumbing and Heating Co. I guess if the more accurate reference, Joe the Plumber & Heater Guy from Newell, had been used, the story wouldn’t have been as appealing to the press.

In the last few weeks I have noticed more new products in the offing than we usually see come through The NEWS desk.

The current economic uncertainties coupled with high-energy prices seem to have jumpstarted a few technologies. Solar is getting eyeballs once again, and contractors are asking more questions about geothermal heat pumps.

But that’s not all. You’ll be hearing more about innovation in products such as expansion valves, and permanent split capacitor motors, and other similar components.

The NEWS will be reporting on some new technologies in coming weeks, and you may be surprised at how revolutionary some of them really are. So, this is not just about a new paint job, or a new logo — it is about products that are actually shaking things up in the industry.

Why the flurry of activity of late?

Perhaps because just as the high cost of gasoline at the pump has actually caused Americans to change their driving habits, so too has the increased energy costs of operating homes and businesses caused people to look for more efficient solutions.

Ironically, even though customers may balk at the cost of newer technology in the early stage, and their own current economic plight might be tough, the need for new products has still been driven primarily because of an economy that is in the doldrums as energy prices skyrocket all around.

Perhaps it is true that when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Heating and cooling accounts for about 30 percent of electricity consumption and about 70 percent of gas consumption, according to a UC Berkeley study. As much as people grumble in the summer months about high energy bills, wait until old man winter rolls in this year!

Natural gas (NG) prices are projected to rise in the winter months (aren’t they always?) to unprecedented levels. Sometimes the prices for NG and fuel oil do go through the roof as demand peaks in the winter, and sometimes the “old man” takes it easy on us. This year, The Old Farmer’s Almanac predicts some major cold weather beginning as early as Thanksgiving in much of the North and severe cold in early December. After that, it’s up and down through early March 2009.

So, how much does it really cost to operate a furnace? To make this easy, let’s just use the Berkeley stats and say my furnace is the low efficient 78 AFUE. The average cost for a 78 percent AFUE furnace is $1,043, the average cost for a 93 percent AFUE furnace is $1,412.

I know my winter bills have hit $300 per month regularly in the past, and given the Berkeley study, that can mean $210 is heating my house, and even more if the water heating is counted.

The simple annual cost of heating my house in Cleveland is going to be about $210 x 6 (mths) = $1,260. Therefore, my total cost is really $1,043 + $1,260 = $2,303.

Over 10 years, the installed and energy costs are actually $13,643.

If I had a 93 AFUE furnace, here is what would happen. My heating costs would be about 15 percent less. My total annual cost would now be the more expensive furnace and the lower monthly bills: $1,412 + $1,071 = $2,483.

Over 10 years, the installed and energy costs of the more efficient system are $12,122.

If the cost of NG didn’t change over 10 years then my investment in high efficiency is worth $1,521. Would most customers be willing to pay a little more up front for about $1,500? Ask them if they are willing to bet that NG prices hold steady for the next 10 years.

Most of us know not to ever buy anything on the Internet from Ghana, and forget about the nubile Nigerian prince with his hand out in the name of Jesus Christ, but who is getting duped by energy con artists? Evidently, the folks in Atlanta, Ga. are concerned. Here is an excerpt from something that crossed my screen.

“Con artists selling energy saving devices and services are turning up the heat to persuade consumers to buy into their gadget bag of hot air. As consumers seek ways to save on their overall energy bills and conserve energy, scam artists are prowling the Internet, airwaves and print ads trying to convince homeowners that they can save big money on energy bills.

“Even legitimate companies are selling big energy savings, but at very big prices. For example, legitimate home improvement firms can indeed save homeowners money in terms of conserving energy; … the pay back on many of these could take 20 years or more. "

It had to happen, the energy efficiency scammers are coming out of the woodwork, and it may be dragging down some good business opportunities for legitimate contractors.

According to some, the best way to avoid the scammers and still take advantage of energy savings is to simply turn down the thermostat a few degrees and turn off appliances, lights, and other devices not in use.

That’s not terribly bad advice, but there really is so much more to be had, if only the consumers knew. It’s tough enough for most contractors to upgrade customers to high-efficiency products during tight economic times, but add green haze to their increasingly skeptical minds, and they may just choose to go into shutdown mode.

Let’s do our best to keep the green haze to a minimum. It’s already a jungle out there.

A pickup truck (Ford F-150) dropped off the list as the No. 1 vehicle of choice of Americans for the first time in decades as more fuel-efficient vehicles are in greater demand. However, it wasn’t until spiraling gas pump prices hit people in the head that they really began to change. Consumers of HVAC products haven’t yet associated the real pinch of energy costs and their heating and cooling systems. When they do, then we will see them change their spending habits for HVAC-related purchases.

The 2007 U.S. Census Bureau statistics show a slight decrease in expenditures for home improvement products. I believe the next upturn in the economy may give cause to consumer investment in energy-saving HVAC products. However, today, people are more concerned about the price of groceries and gasoline.

The industry increased its baseline SEER efficiency from 10 to 13 in 2006, and negotiated boiler efficiency increases with the Federal Government. However, the increased price of these more efficient products has come as a surprise to consumers, and a large number of people are repairing rather than replacing their systems. This is somewhat counter-productive for the nation’s energy conservation goals. There will certainly be some manufacturing economies of scale that help to lower these costs, but for the most part, consumers should realize that fuel efficient HVAC technologies, just like automobiles, come with a price tag. However, total life-cycle costs will be lower. In other words, spend a little more up front to save more on the back end.

Alex Walter, a contractor in Aurora, Colo., has been bugging me for over a year to post his list of places that an HVAC system should never be installed. Now, I admit, he has some good ideas that will make you think . . . but what would happen if all of the following locations were out of the picture for HVAC?

No attic locations unless an equipment room has been constructed within. If mechanical equipment is located in an attic there must be at least a disappearing pull-down stairway for access along with catwalks, electrical receptacle, and lighting in the attic.

Here are some of Walter’s other no-no locations:

No crawl space locations.

No crawl in locations.

No fungi locations.

No locations heavily overgrown with trees, plants, or weeds.

No closely fenced-in locations.

No closely walled-in locations.

No zero clearance locations.

No out-of-reach locations.

No hidden locations.

No insect-infested locations.

No extremely noisy locations.

No we (under water) locations.

No muddy locations.

No surrounded by junk locations.

No rocky, hard on the knees locations.

No long hike, walk, or climb locations.

No locations requiring the use of a ladder more than six feet high.

No locations with less than 42-inch minimum width work platforms that slope toward or away from access doors or panels at an angle greater than 5°.

No downright dangerous locations.

The end.

Well, Walter, there you are. However, I think most people will now have to pick up their tools and go home.

You can get a good cup of coffee a lot of places, but how many of you would prefer to go to Starbucks? People don't want just an iPod; they want the iPod Nano. They don't want just a hamburger; they want what Five Guys offers. You may not have heard of them yet, but Five Guys is an 87-store fast food franchise on the East Coast that is changing the way people think about hamburgers. You could get a sandwich thousands of places, but people go to Panera Bread instead.

All of these examples have one thing in common — they are more expensive.

There is a marketing phenomenon called trading up, which is typically thought to include purchases of high-priced goods. In an environment where people are trading up, everything from food to HVAC is affected.

People are willing to pay more for good hamburgers or good HVAC solutions.

Ray Isaac, president of Isaac Heating and Air Conditioning of Rochester, N.Y., and current Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) national chairman thinks that his company’s growth and huge backlog is due to the fact that homeowners tend to nest during times of economic uncertainty. In other words, they put even more importance on their homes during a slowdown. They aren’t going to move soon, and they want to take care of what they have. They want to make sure they’re getting a good value.

Give real value to those people who want to pay more.

“Look at the Valvolines and Quaker States and auto dealers out there. Every 3,000 miles you need to get your oil changed. Why can’t we do that? If I did not have to work so hard to get into the house, imagine the things we could accomplish. Once my guys are in the house, they know what to do. I just need to get into the house. The growth and opportunity for our industry is just sitting there, unaware that they need to call us.”

John Lombardi
Vice President
Comfort Control Systems
De Pere, Wis.


I can’t say it any better, so I just let my Green Bay Packer buddy say it for me.

Sure, the manufacturers can say that there were big bucks being thrown around to nationally advertise oil changes quite a few years ago. And, your point?

Some of your own national consumer campaigns might be better focused on something that every contracting company can sink its teeth into. If every HVAC national consumer advertising campaign told readers, listeners, and viewers that they have to get an annual or semi-annual tune-up it would be quite interesting to see what might transpire over a few years.

If John Lombardi gets his guys in somebody’s house, something good is going to happen. Multiply that by tens of thousands of HVAC contractors.