"This is a site built, developed, and operated by trades people whose interests lie in sharing knowledge among members and giving something back to the trade that we all love," he said. "We welcome students of the trade, active, and retired trade brothers and sisters."

Berlin said the site's membership is exclusively professional and does not accept registration requests from equipment owners, homeowners, or do-it-yourselfers. Membership includes professionals involved in every genre of the trade today.

Forum categories include Commercial Equipment, Heat Pumps, Residential, Controls, IAQ, Refrigeration, Industry Certifications and Standards, Small Duct High Velocity (SDHV), and Mini-Splits. Berlin said the site will have one of the largest on-site Technical Archives available on the Web.

There is a "Front Porch" forum to talk about personal experiences or to just socialize. "We also offer categories for engineering, tools, and instruments, as well as a classifieds forum," Berlin said. "Visitors will enjoy the ‘Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,' a place to share pictures of what jobs should look like and what they should not look like."

Virtual Diagnostics© is a structured troubleshooting contest authored by one member of the forum each month and solved by the members through thread questions and answers, a feature designed to illustrate troubleshooting techniques and the different approaches available to service call resolution. A live TechTalk Chat Room is available for visitors to chat in real time.

"The bottom line is the importance of the members' individual ideals with common interests and goals," said Berlin. "The members of our trade have long been denied the feeling of a fraternal belonging, a seemingly automatic right of passage among other tradesmen. It's good for individual esteem, which means it's good for our industry."

Registration at the forums is free and takes only a moment to complete. Visit www.hvacprotech.net or www.hvacprotech.org.

Publication date: 07/10/2006