So just when was it that the phrase ‘global warming’ went out of vogue and ‘climate change’ became the ‘in’ term? I’m serious. We all used to say ‘global warming’ as in that great evil of which HVACR was said to be a contributor. In fact, that’s the term that begot ‘global warming potential’ as in GWP.

But more and more I hear ‘climate change’ being used. “It’s a climate change bill.” “We need to address climate change issues.”

Frankly, it sounds like a bit of a cop-out, especially given the extremely mild weather we’ve had in the Upper Midwest during the summer and I know in other parts of the country. And I haven’t a clue what the term means. After all, if it is colder or warmer from one day to the next, that’s a ‘change’ isn’t it?

In fact, when I see the phrase ‘global warming’ crop up from time to time now, I’m starting to think, “Boy, are they behind the times.”

One example is the April issue of a general circulation consumer magazine that had a short article on the supposed effects of global warming on seasonal allergies. Apparently the warmer earth causes the release of more spores and pollen in the air.

See, the magazine came out in April. That means the article was probably written months ago, when ‘global warming’ was still in vogue. But it is not now. ‘Climate change’ is the new term, whatever it means.

Most service techs spend several years in classes to learn the basics of a/c, followed by on-the-job training. Manufacturers have R&D departments spending years developing the most energy-efficient, cost-effective equipment.

But all that training and cost may mean little according to a two-page advertisement, done up like a news story, in a recent issue of one of those Sunday newspaper inserts.

“Public Staying Cool For Just Pennies. Free giveaway launches the home cooling breakthrough that uses about 96 percent less electricity than air conditioners. It easily rolls from room to room to quietly blast out cold air for just pennies a day and uses no windows, no vents.”

The ad says one unit costs about $300, but you can also get a second one free if you order within 48 hours (I’m not sure how that is calculated) and if you call at certain times depending on what part of the United States you are living in (I’m not sure why that matters).

I won’t pretend to understand the product in question, although it appears to be some kind of portable cooler, and seems to use those ice bags you can keep in a freezer and then dump into a cooler prior to an outing. The ad does include a “How it works” section that doesn’t explain how it works.

As for me, I’ll stick with a basic home air conditioner made by a reputable manufacturer and serviced by someone who has had lots of training.

Back on July 8, I got the following e-mail:

“Has there been a final ruling on this topic yet (referring to an earlier article of mine about an EPA ruling regarding an R-22 equipment timeline)? In particular, the one having to do with the sale, after Jan. 1, 2010, of R-22 units built before Jan. 1, 2010?”

It just so happened that I had heard a few days before that there had not been a final ruling and one was not expected until fall.

I noted that in my reply to the e-mailer, then added:

“Way back in January there was furor over the precise wording of some of the regulations regarding equipment and the EPA ended up issuing an interim clarification that seemed to satisfy the industry. In the most basic sense, entire a/c units coming off the assembly line as of 2010 can’t contain R-22; but components such as compressors, valves, etc., designed for R-22 can still be manufactured to service the aftermarket. In regards to your specific question, a piece of R-22 equipment manufactured before midnight Jan. 1, 2010 can be shipped to wholesalers at any time and can be purchased and installed at any time by contractors. I think we have to go on the assumption that will be the final ruling. I can’t guarantee anything, but for now we have to assume that what I just wrote about will be the situation come Jan. 1.”

That’s the latest as of July 8. Any more updates would be appreciated.

One thing I’ll miss about the Tonight Show With Jay Leno is the Monday night “Headlines” section that featured poorly worded headlines, sentences, or advertisements from various publications. Often the strangeness came in the juxtaposition of a headline for a story that followed with an unrelated photo to one side. Something like “Hot Wind Blows Across Plains,” next to the picture of a politician in a totally unrelated context.

Long before Leno, there were paperback books of newspaper bloopers that included at least one quote from a paper I was working on at the time. The reporter wrote, “The driver swerved to avoid missing the pedestrian,” and the copy editor managed to miss the mistake.

Ever since then, I am always looking for bloopers and juxtapositions. An example of the latter surfaced recently at a softball/baseball field where I noticed a sign saying ‘Foul Ball Area/Park At Your Own Risk” right next to a sign noting that particular spot was also for handicapped parking.

I suspect Leno would have had more than a few comments wondering why a person allowed to park in such a spot should be allowed to assume a higher risk of foul balls.

I know many HVACR technicians would love to be able to park vans closer to job sites only to have to deal with no-parking zones or handicapped restrictions. But in the case of this particular field, at least they would avoid a possible broken windshield by parking a bit further away.

I haven’t been traveling all that much for business recently (it’s the economy, you know), but I did have a recent 90-minute drive to the Milwaukee area to attend a press function presented by Milwaukee Tool, which is be featured in the July 6 issue of The NEWS.

The trip did give me a chance to really test the Global Positioning System (GPS) I got for Christmas and haven’t had much use for since then. Where we live, the roads are pretty flat and straight and having been on them repeatedly for several years now, the car seems to know where to go.

Fact of the matter is I sometimes know routes that make more sense than the way the GPS wants me to go. In fact, have the volume turned on, and veer away from the GPS route and a very polite, but very firm female voice will announced, “Perform a U-turn when possible.” It is kind of fun to really mess with “her” mind and make “her” make that announcement as often as possible — kind of a variation on the old “Hello Bob” college drinking game based on a catch phrase from one of the old Bob Newhart TV shows.

The GPS did indeed find Milwaukee Tool easily enough which definitely shows that the company is an established presence in its neighborhood. By contract, the street in the newer subdivision where my wife and I live it apparently isn’t GPS’d yet, since it never seems to be able to find our home.

According to an Associated Press article, at the University of Oregon in Eugene, 20 elliptical machines have been retrofitted at a cost of $14,000 so they can be connected to the electrical grid on campus and electricity can be generated when they are in use, which is often, I guess.

But, the project is more a demonstration of environmental concern than actually helping to reduce the amount of power the campus needs to draw from fossil fuel-burning sources.

“We’re not going to get off Middle Eastern oil by connecting up all the ellipticals all over the country,” according to Steve Mital, campus sustainability director, as quoted by the Associated Press.

“We bought it and installed it mostly because it’s an educational opportunity.”

Well, I’m ready to do my part. I work from my home and when I go to the local YMCA (to work out on an elliptical), or to go to the health food store (for stuff my wife makes me eat), or to do some banking (which on my income doesn’t take long), I ride my bicycle, weather permitting (I’m only so hardy, you know).

Now, if some folks can find a way of hooking my bike to an electrical grid, I could help out. Then again, when I bike (doing my part to help the environment), I do a lot of heavy breathing so I’m probably exhaling a lot of CO2 (not so good for the environment).

On some days, I’m suspecting I give off a lot more CO2 than my car does.

A trip to Chicago for the National Restaurant Association trade show a while ago proved to be a commuting adventure — which thankfully had a plan B.

The 80-mile trip from my hometown to downtown Chicago is usually done on a non-stop regional bus and lasts a couple of hours. But on the day in question another bus that goes non-stop to O’Hare Airport was so full that overflow O’Hare travelers had to go on the downtown bus meaning the normally non-stop-to-downtown bus needed to make several stops at O’Hare before continuing the remaining 15 miles into Chicago.

Traffic gridlock that morning along with the extra stops at various O’Hare terminals would have delayed my arrival until well after the start of the show.

Plan B is the fact that one of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) subways runs from O’Hare to downtown. So by getting off at Terminal 2, heading down an escalator and shelling out a couple of bucks, I was able to continue on into the city arriving in plenty of time. The subway made many stops, but even then it kept well ahead of the gridlock.

All things considered, the non-stop regional bus is the best option all the way. After all, I can sleep on it in comfortable reclining seats and even be awaken by the driver once downtown. But it is good to have a backup plan. And thankfully the Chicago area has many public transportation options.

I know there is an upfront cost for installing green HVACR technology. But is there also a premium charge for maintaining green equipment? Are they more exacting and more finicky than conventional systems? Or are they actually more forgiving and better running?

My mind-set, geared to design and operation, often doesn’t consider costs, and I always raise an eyebrow with quotes concerning payback and energy savings in percentages. But a small item in a weekly newspaper that I get free of charge at local businesses planted this bug in my mind.

The publication is very environmentally-focused with a renewable energy column on the front page of every issue. In one recent issue, a local politician was caught in the crossfire over what seemed to be his opposition to a major renovation project involving city streets that included some environmental aesthetics — an opposition he denies.

A quote from him that caught my eye was, “A lot of cost and time goes into maintaining projects that have green areas after they are done.” He was referring to green space — but it did jump-start my thoughts concerning the mechanical green in our industry.

I suppose I could do a lot of research into this question. But then I thought that is what a blog is for … to gather feedback from those in the better know than me. So, dear blog readers, what’s the deal? Do “green” systems cost less or more to keep running than conventional systems?

The radio show Car Talk on National Public Radio has on its Website (www.cars.com) a number of “famous last words,” several of which can pertain to the daily lives of service technicians. And as you will notice, most relate to personal safety, which should be No. 1 priority, but often isn’t.

These include:

• What does this button do?

• Are you sure the power is off?

• Which wire was I supposed to cut?

• I’ve done this before?

• That’s odd.

Of course that, as we know, barely scratches the surface of phases we hear tossed about in the HVACR industry.

To those I can add:

• But we’ve always done it that way.

• What’s the “rule of thumb” for servicing this?

• Close enough.

• The refrigerant is probably still OK to reuse.

• I remember my grandfather told me to …

• I’ll get the manifold gauge. It is right under the refrigerant tank in the van.

I don’t need to:

a) Read the manufacturer’s manual;

b) Call the manufacturer;

c) Figure out who the manufacturer is.

Then there are those phrases that are often offered customers:

• Sure, I’ll give you a ballpark guess on what this will cost you.

• Be done in 90 minutes, two hours max.

• I’m the cheapest price in town.

• I do great work. You’ll be totally satisfied. (To be followed by: “I’m not getting much return business. Must be the economy.”)

By the way, if you have some more phrases too often (mis)spoken in the industry, let me know.

I was complaining recently to my colleague Angela Harris about how tough it is for me to come up with topics for my monthly column much less the weekly blogs — with the blogs being especially challenging.

She, being a good blogger, told me she tries Google searches with variations of industry words to see what comes up.

I, instead, rely on print newspaper items, e-mails, press releases, and Rush Limbaugh tirades against global warming alarmists. That may be part of my problem.

Thinking I’d give Angela’s way a try, I did type in various combos of HVACR words into a search engine and did indeed come us with some stuff worth exploring.

However, when I typed in “Cooled By Refrigeration” I was led to a Website of a somewhat questionable nature that on the surface seemed far from the technology of our industry.

The site (which shall remain unnamed here) was a review of a set of DVDs of some rather sleazy videos under the title ‘42nd Street Forever, Vol. 4: Cooled By Refrigeration.”

Since none of the movie titles related to James Bond, Andy Griffith, or Agatha Christie (my only video collections), I didn’t read the hype too closely, so I’m not sure how “Cooled By Refrigeration” figures into the equation. It may have something to do with signage on movie theatre marquees in the early days of air-conditioning. Or it may have something to do with dealing with the bodies that seemed to accumulate in such films.

One thing for sure, not all Googles head you in the best direction for HVACR blogs — although this one did fill this blog.

I’ve been a writer/journalist for 45 years, going back to working for the high school newspaper. My wife has been a teacher/educator for 35 years with an emphasis on English and English as a Second Language. She is a constant reminder of how little I know about the English language even though I write in that language every day.

She understands terms such as subject, predicate, preposition, adverb, adjective, and gerund (whatever that is), and she knows how to diagram a sentence. I haven’t a clue how to diagram sentences I write, or even if they are diagramable.

Most recently, she has begun scoring essays for a standardized testing service that includes evaluating how the writer “integrates interpretation of the text with text-based support.” Well, I’m happy for her because I have no idea what that phrase means much less how to do it.

One “rule” I vaguely remember from English is to never end a sentence with a preposition, which is something I am guilty of. It is something I don’t agree with. It is something I never steer away from. It is a rule that Mark Twain, my favorite author, also sought to violate as much as possible.

Twain has also provided me with my favorite quote: “It is a poor, uncreative mind that can’t come up with more than one way to spell a word.”

I never understand why the proofreaders here at the magazine don’t accept that wise adage.

Someone e-mailed me a short time ago wondering how much of President Obama’s aggressive environmental agenda would get derailed because of more overriding economic concerns.

I am not sure, although I have heard that the cap and trade legislation regarding carbon credits could be way-laid for a time.

But no sooner do I write that than I see this item from the Associated Press published on April 8.

“The president’s new science adviser said that global warming is so dire, the Obama administration is discussing drastic options to cool Earth’s air.

“John Holdren told The Associated Press in his first interview since being confirmed last month that the idea of geo-engineering the climate is being discussed.

One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun’s rays. Holdren said such an experimental measure would only be used as a last resort.

“As he put it: ‘It’s got to be looked at. We don’t have the luxury of taking any approach off the table.’”

Wow! Shooting pollution into space. Something doesn’t sound right there. Then reflecting the sun’s rays from us? What if too many get reflected and there is not enough rays to get a good tan at the beach in the summer?

And who is this John Holdren? Ends up he taught at University of California Berkeley and now at Harvard. And he has a beard.

He and Obama may march to their own drum. But how in-step with scientific reality are they?

The big issue regarding energy efficiency relates to the United States burning so much fossil fuel — mainly coal — and how that can be an environmental negative. So, we talk a big talk about nuclear, except we don’t want such plants in our backyards — any of our backyards. We talk about hydro but can’t seem to build the dams to do it due to maybe dislocating folks. We talk solar, wind, and biomass but can’t make it cost effective.

But then there is China whose National Development and Reform Commission is in the midst of a five-year plan that accelerates the construction of nuclear and hydroelectric power plants.

At least four nuclear plant construction projects are in the equation and the Three Gorges dam project on the Yellow River has already been talked about much in the media, mainly due to huge migrations of people from areas that will be underwater as the result of the project. Meanwhile, the country is paying the typical lip services to wind power generation, biomass power generation, and solar energy, just as we do in the United States, without much result so far.

It will be interesting to see how many pieces of the energy puzzle fall into place over in China. If they work, we will know that a country can come up with ways to rely on alternatives to coal.

Of course, in China the government simply decrees that something will be done, and it is done. The United States relies on the voice of the people and — for better or worse — that can be a roadblock.

The Hotline that appears from time to time in The NEWS is a Q&A in which technicians send in questions about real-world situations they are encountering. Then we at The NEWS send that question off to an expert in the industry — whether someone from a manufacturer or a consultant — and get an answer. Often the person offering the answer has to do some research to be assured the answer is the best.

So you can see, the idea is for one technician’s situation to be shared and answered for the benefit of many other technicians sure to eventually be facing a similar situation.

What the Hotline is not is an instant response to an emergency. Yet, every so often or so, I get an e-mail via the Hotline from someone in the field facing a situation that he feels needs an immediate answer. I do immediately e-mail back and say that I am totally unqualified to even attempt an answer. Nor is the Hotline answer procedure structured in such a way as to give an instant answer.

My response in such a “need an instant answer” situation is to tell the tech to get as much info as possible on the component in question and call the manufacturer of the component. Many such manufacturers have 800 numbers for troubleshooting. Or call a colleague in your company or a service manager for help.

The Hotline is one form of communication. There are others.

I started writing about carbon footprints and carbon offsets a number of years ago in terms of building projects, especially regarding HVACR.

Now knowing one’s personal carbon footprint is apparently becoming a big thing. There is a Website www.terrapass.com where you can go to find what is called “the impact of your travel choices.”

We at BNP Media actually don’t have to go to that site because our own internal travel center allows us the option to book flights with a bunch of airlines and every flight includes how many pounds of CO2 emissions will be given off during that flight.

I confess the emission issue is not high on my booking list. First of all, I’m trying to get from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible on a specific date. Then the company, of course, wants me to do that as inexpensively as possible. So I spend time playing around with departure times on that specific date as prices can vary considerably depending on the time of day.

Yet another consideration is that airfare costs for a particular flight at a specific time on a specific date can change day-by-day leading up to the departure date. So you always are playing a guessing game as to exactly when to book.

With all that jumping through hoops, factoring in what aircraft might have the lower emissions does not enter into my calculations. I guess I should feel guilty about that — but to be honest, I don’t.

“A rocket carrying a NASA satellite crashed near Antarctica after a failed launch, ending a $280 million mission to track global warming from space,” according to an Associated Press story published Feb. 24.

The story went on to say, “The 986-pound satellite was supposed to be placed into a polar orbit some 400 miles high to track carbon dioxide emissions. Scientists currently depend on 282 land-based stations — and scattered instrumented aircraft flights — to monitor carbon dioxide at low altitudes. Measurements collected from the (satellite) mission were expected to improve climate models and help researchers determine where the greenhouse gas originates and how much is being absorbed by forests and oceans.”

The fact that there was a need to launch a rocket to really make sure information about the negatives of CO2 emissions was really correct is yet another instance of “how factual are the facts” concerning climate change upon which the HVACR is assigned part of the blame for using so-called global warming gases and letting them leak into the atmosphere.

But while it is interesting to report of such matters, it doesn’t change the fact that keeping systems leaktight and energy efficient is the best policy for the industry to be on the ‘correct’ side of the environmental debate, and for contractors and technicians to, in the long run, remain profitable and perceived as providing the best comfort cooling or food preservation options to customers.

“Climate Warming Gases Rising Faster Than Expected” was the headline of an Associated Press story published in mid-February.

It summarized a report from the Carnegie Institution for Science given at a Chicago conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It was a report on carbon emission increases, claiming they have been growing by 3.5 percent per year since 2000 up from 0.9 percent in the 1990s.

Oh no, I thought, here come HFC refrigerants into the environmentalists’ cross hairs since they are considered global warming gases.

But, the blame game in this case was leveled elsewhere and at a much more worthy target. “The largest factor (for global warming) is the widespread adoption of coal as an energy source,” said Carnegie’s Christopher Field. “And without aggressive attention, societies will continue to focus on the energy sources that are cheapest and that means coal.”

Well now, here is the HVACR industry in which HFCs are kept in contained systems so they don’t leak into the atmosphere. And we are constantly coming up with more energy-efficient equipment and technologies designed to burn less fossil fuels like coal.

Frankly, we as an industry welcome solar, hydroelectric, or wind as a generator of power, because we can certainly plug our heating, cooling, and refrigeration equipment into any such generator.

Let’s hope this most recent finding has environmentalists focusing more attention on the generators of power, than us users.

I think I know something about mechanical ice making. But I apparently don’t know much about mechanical snow making.

Did you know it can get too cold to make snow artificially? At least that appears to be the case with a snow sculpture event that took place in the Midwest in January.

It seems the event had to be postponed for a week. One reason was that it was too cold physically for sculptors to create their works of art. But the chunks of snow needed to start the creative process initially fell victim to the cold as well.

According to one published report, “The park district depends on cranes, trucks, end loaders and a massive snow blower to create tightly packed blocks for carving. While temperatures feel like they are -14˚F, snow is freezing into rock-hard clumps, which would prevent preparers from creating appropriate canvases for the event.”

The week delay did allow the event to proceed even though temps rose above freezing over the event weekend. Then organizers said the sculptures would stay on exhibit as long as the weather held out. That was promptly followed by temperatures reaching into the 50s.

Once upon a time, cooling relied on cool weather, including putting produce in root cellars and underground storage sites. Freezing relied on ice chunks pulled from rivers and lakes and set around the goods to stay frozen.

We should never take for granted the mechanical means we have today to keep things cold and frozen.

The recent announcement of a proposed rule by the EPA that would create about a 20 percent shortfall in supplies of R-22 as early as next year is stirring up even more calls for reclaim.

So here’s the deal: I’m looking for feedback from you about your feelings on this whole reclaim issue.

• If you are a contractor, are you submitting questionable refrigerant for reclaim? How are you doing it? Going through a wholesaler? Working directly with the reclaim company? And, most importantly, how’s it working? Any problems? Is it worth it to you?

• If you are a wholesaler, how’s it going? Are you getting much refrigerant from your customers to make the process worth it to you? How is it working with your vendors who offer reclaim services?

• If you are a reclaimer, what do you think about the relationships you have with wholesalers or contractors or both? Are you getting the amount of refrigerant — especially R-22 — that you think is needed that can be reclaimed and put back into the industry pipeline to prevent shortfalls next year? If not, what needs to be done to make that happen?

I am gathering information for a story I’m doing on this topic in the spring. You are welcome to include your name and affiliation and I’d really appreciate that. But if you want to be anonymous, just indicate that.

You can e-mail me at peterpowell@achrnews.com or call me at 815-654-7270.

I do crossword puzzles in the daily newspaper. The idea is to keep my brain functioning beyond work hours and learn a bit more about matters beyond HVACR.

I can sail along for a while, then get bogged down and have to set it aside. When I come back, I get rejump started and can usually finish it up.

But a recent puzzle had one word that really bogged me down — and it is embarrassing what that word was.

The vertical clue was “Restaurant fixtures,” 8 letters. Working horizontally I came up with _ _ E E _ E _ S.

Lot of help there, right? (OK, some of you probably got it already.)

After a bit more struggle and erasing for a couple of horizontals, I figured out “Ramon” was the first name of “Catcher Castro” and a “1994 sc-fi film” was “Stargate.” That gave me _ R E E _ E R S.

You’d think I’d have it by now. But no. I had to recall that most crosswords have parallel patterns for some words. “Stargate” had a parallel pattern with the word “Stargaze” for “Act the astronomer.”

That added a “Z” to my mystery restaurant word and I finally got the answer: “FREEZERS.”

Nothing is sadder than to have the refrigeration editor of a major HVACR publication have to figure out the word “FREEZERS” by knowing baseball players and sci-fi movies.

One aspect of living somewhat near the Chicago metro area is that I am sometimes asked what the weather might be when someone or some events are coming this way.

This picks up every third year when the International Air-Conditioning, Heating, Refrigerating Expo comes to Chicago, as was the case this past January.

The accuracy of Chicago weather forecasters are no better than any other part of the country, so when asked what the weather will be like, I just say, “It is January and it is Chicago.” Most people then know how to pack.

Certainly cold weather was part of the AHR experience this year. But aside from a few snowflakes one morning, Chicago weather wasn’t the issue. In fact, more significant storms out East created more interesting travel challenges than did Chicago.

The dearth of snow didn’t prevent someone in the hotel elevator one morning saying that he “heard” that “someone” had “said” that Chicago was supposed to get 12 inches of snow one day during the expo.

I knew that wasn’t possible because even if Chicago weather forecasters were usually wrong, they would never pass up the chance to create major panic by reporting on any possibility of snow as a major disaster on the way and 12 inches as the end of the world as we know it. That was not the case during expo week.

I see the next two AHR Expos are in Orlando and Las Vegas. That means no problems with weather in those cities - except for those of us in the Chicago area trying to get there should there be a major snow disaster of epic proportions.

Any time we complain about government regulations, just remember: We are not alone.

Brian Baker of Custom Vac Ltd., an HVAC contracting company in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, passed along a news item from the London Telegraph. He prefaced it by saying: “It's amazing that as a business we try to get young people into the workforce helping out and doing basic jobs. (But) you will see that there (can be) many barriers to accomplishing this.”

Here’s the news item.

Karl Walker, 16, got a job at Apollo Cleaning in Chippenham, Wiltshire, England. But after a week, a regional manager ordered his supervisor to take him off the job. According to government guidelines, until he passes a "safety clearance" a 16-year-old isn't allowed to operate machinery — and that includes vacuum cleaners. That's not all: hot water is unsafe for someone of that age, and he can't use chemicals, either, such as cleaners and furniture polish.  "How can I be too young to use a vacuum cleaner?" Walker asked. "It is so stupid. I just want to earn a living." In Britain, 16-year-olds can buy lottery tickets, join the army, and consent to marriage and sex.

To which Brian added: “Sure, they’re old enough to join the military and carry a loaded automatic rifle; but unless they’ve been through custodial boot camp, keep them away from that deadly Dyson!”

In order for me to escape for an evening from all the environmental and government regulation issues I’ve been writing on recently, my wife and I headed out to a classical music concert in early January. The main piece of music was a Beethoven symphony, but it was the opening work that blocked my escape route.

It was called “Global Warming,” believe it or not. It was written way back in 1991 to mark the collapse of the Berlin Wall and imply the possibility of a more-friendly world.

At least that was the idea of the middle section of the eight-minute work as that portion included a variety of folk music elements from various parts of the world. But the opening of the work depicts, according to composer Michael Abels, the heat and desolation of a world experiencing environmental global warming.

He said, “The opening section of the piece is a vision of the traditional idea of global warming — a vast desert, the relentless heat punctuated by the buzzing of cicadas, and an anguished, frenetic violin solo.”

The work was performed the day after another 10 inches of snow fell on our area bringing the seasonal total to close to 40 inches. The annual amount at this point is typically 16 inches.

As we trudged through the snow and cold to reach the concert, we wondered about the reality of global warming and why anybody would want to write a piece of symphonic music on the topic.

There is so much change going on in the supermarket sector that it is hard to keep up with it. Refrigeration technology is constantly being either tweaked or totally overhauled. Stores are striving for maximum energy efficiency while still providing an attractive shopping experience.

The newest twist could well be electrical outlets in the parking lot for you to plug in and recharge your electric car.

That was one thought from Sheila Millar, one of the speakers at the Food Marketing Institute Energy Conference this past fall. The lawyer was talking about a lot of energy issues facing the industry.

She was noting legislation to encourage use of such vehicles, and the corresponding expectation that providers of parking places for such vehicles will provide a way to re-charge the vehicles. “Grocery stores may be required or may want to provide chargers to fuel electronic vehicles (EVs),” she said. She said more than 4,000 EVs are on the road today and they can travel about 50 miles on a charge. (“Perfect for local errands,” she said.)

I suspect the recharging parking spots will end up similar to the handicapped parking requirements we currently have.

This, of course, raises some interesting situations.

For example, will the environmentally motivated folks with EVs be willing to park and plug some distance from the store entrance in order to get a bit of health-motivated exercise into the trip?

They had better be, because if the electric outlets were close to the store as a motivation for being environmentally correct, it is a sure bet that some insensitive folks with gas-guzzling SUVs will illegally park in those spaces—just as they often do in handicapped spaces.

The market research firm Freedonia Group has just published some predictions regarding global demand for commercial refrigeration equipment and it certainly looks good despite these tough economic times.

“Worldwide demand for commercial refrigeration equipment is projected to rise 4.6 percent per year (including price increases) through 2012 to $29.3 billion.”

Among other findings:

- “A growing number of food retailers and restaurants will contribute to growth.”

- “The ongoing expansion of fast chains will be especially beneficial, since these outlets utilize a wide range of commercial refrigeration equipment.”

- “The strongest opportunities are in Latin America and Asia.”

- “The developed nations of North America, Western Europe, and the Asia/Pacific region comprise mature markets for commercial refrigeration equipment.”

- “The U.S. will remain the largest market in the world, as replacement demand continues to create opportunities.”

- “Reach-in and walk-in coolers and freezers are expected to be the fastest growing product group.”

The research was published in October 2008 and more than likely reflects feedback garnered within the current recession the was said to have started in 2007. It also shows growth continuing  through at least 2012, which falls beyond the range of the current recession cycle, if this is a typical cycle.

The message is pretty simple: There are opportunities (translation: jobs) in HVACR especially the ‘R’.