Going where only some HVAC products have dreamed to go, the winners of The NEWS’ eighth annual Dealer Design Awards’ HVAC High-Efficiency Residential Equipment category have staked out gold, silver, and bronze positions with their abilities to provide improved technology in new applications.

In the case of the winners of the 2011 Dealer Design Awards in the category of Residential Equipment, the fame and recognition bestowed on these units is rightly earned, especially from contractors and technicians for the ease of installation and service the products provide.

The condenser is the component that rejects the heat from the system. Most equipment is air cooled and rejects heat to the air. The coils are copper or aluminum and both types have aluminum fins to add to the heat exchange surface area.

After 85 years, it takes more than cosmetics to keep a publication fresh; the right attitude needs to permeate the organization. “This publication, The NEWS, was started by my great-grandfather in 1926,” said BNP Media co-CEO Taggart Henderson.

Congratulations to Bernard Nagengast, an engineering consultant and industry historian who found the oldest NEWS issue among our readers. His oldest issue was dated Nov. 30, 1926. The very first issue of the magazine was published in September of that same year.

After being in the HVAC industry as a contractor and a rater for 30 years, I’ve seen a lot of things that have been done wrong. But really, there has never been a system in place that required contractors to do things correctly - and verified that they had. All that is changing with the Energy Star for New Homes version 3.

In 1926, F.M. Cockrell started Business News Publishing Co., now BNP Media, in Detroit. The first issue of the Electric Refrigeration News, now The Air Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration NEWS, had a publication date of Sept. 11, 1926. It was created to help recognize the importance of the expanding electric refrigeration market.

You may be familiar with the Energy Star® label on energy efficient heating and cooling equipment, but did you know there are also Quality Installation (QI) guidelines to help ensure that heating and cooling equipment is installed properly? Nearly half of all heating and cooling equipment in U.S. homes never performs to the advertised capacity and efficiency due to installation problems.

In celebration of its 40th anniversary as a non-profit center, the Edward Hopper House will exhibit some of the painter’s early works, which are on loan from the Whitney Museum of American Art. But before the exhibition could take place, the home first had to meet the stringent climate control requirements of the Whitney Museum.

The HVAC landscape is changing now, as the tax credits have been reduced, the economy is still recovering, and prices on equipment keep increasing. Add in declining home values and higher-than-normal levels of unemployment, and many contractors are facing larger challenges when it comes to selling high-efficiency units.