This year, the Energy Star program is encouraging Americans to prepare their homes for summer and educating them about the benefits of servicing their cooling equipment.
There’s no doubt that the man who stole the ACCA show was keynote speaker and economist Dr. Lowell Catlett, who outlined for contractors the changing demographics that will impact their businesses.
Combined U.S. factory shipments of 454,683 central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps for February were up 2 percent compared to shipments from the same month last year, according to the Air-Conditioning & Refrigeration Institute (ARI).
It’s time again for The News’ annual Cooling Showcase. For those who are unfamiliar with the Cooling Showcase, it has traditionally introduced the latest air conditioning units available for the upcoming summer season.
In addition to the Cooling Showcase commercial products chart (provided on The News home page), The News is featuring the industry’s latest commercial cooling products in this feature.
While high efficiency remains important, humidity control has become an increasingly sought-after benefit. As a result, contractors must now consider more than just efficiency and reliability when looking at system quality and performance.
Marketing’s true goal — whether through image, branding, all-purpose, or pure direct response — is to efficiently produce leads that result in paying, referring customers. Yet HVAC contractors continually do three things that almost ensure this goal isn’t met.
When concern arose six or seven years ago over the amount of refrigerant in supermarket systems, the industry looked for ways to create refrigeration other than the traditional direct expansion approach. Two approaches have garnered attention.
John Garofalo believes that in today’s fast-paced world, contractors need to focus their efforts on those areas that produce double-digit profits. He asserts that in order to run a profitable residential service business, selling service agreements is essential. “You buy into the need for having a service agreement,” said Garofalo, a partner with Callahan/Roach and Garofalo, during his seminar at the 2003 ACCA convention.