The winners in The NEWS’ Dealer Design Awards residential controls category include the ecobee Smart Thermostat (gold), icomfort Touch™ Communicating Touchscreen Thermostat by Lennox Industries (silver), and BalancePro from Arzel Zoning Technology (bronze).

The seventh annual Dealer Design Awards champs in the Tools category highlight the best of what an HVACR tool can be: a device that aids greatly a technician in resolving an HVACR problem of some sort.

Dealer Design Award winners in the Refrigeration & Ice Machines category are Hoshizaki America Inc.’s Professional Series reach-in refrigerators - gold; Heatcraft Refrigeration Products’ E Solutions ½ to 6 HP Air-Cooled Condensing Unit - silver; and ebm-papst Inc.’s diagonal flow fan module with handheld programmer - bronze.

To paraphrase Shakespeare, good IAQ is a blessing to him who gives it, the contractor, and him who receives it, the end user. The right products can be even more of a good thing to contractors when they are easy to install and service. Such were found three Dealer Design Award winners in the IAQ category.

Waterfurnace International’s Versatec Ultra Series, Lennox Industries’ Energence™ rooftop unit, and Trane’s high-efficiency packaged gas/electric and cooling units took the gold, silver, and bronze, respectively, in the Light Commercial category of The NEWS’ seventh annual Dealer Design Awards.

Contractors seek products that are not only good for the customer’s application, but also ones that can be installed and serviced faster and easier. The recipients of The NEWS’ seventh annual Dealer Design Awards in the HVAC Residential Equipment category do just that.

Dealer Design Awards winners in the Testing and Monitoring category include Extech Instruments, a FLIR Co., which received gold for its BR250 video borescope-wireless inspection camera and bronze for the 42509 dual-laser infrared thermometer. The 233 Remote Display Multimeter from Fluke Corp. won silver.

Things have greatly changed in technology over the last 10 years. And while rooftop units (RTUs) and commercial air handling units (AHUs) have been around much longer than a decade, they too, continue to change. The units still execute their original duties, but some of the features and benefits they provide have altered over time.

The state of the compressor sector, as with the industry in general, is heavily affected by laws, regulations, standards, and codes. Many such laws that are enacted these days have to do with energy efficiency. It would be safe to say that trends in the compressor sector are riding the green wave as well.

Bill Phillips sets the tone at Island Temperature Controls Ltd., Victoria, British Columbia. It’s the caring that Phillips has for employees, which is reflected in how he looks after them, and in turn the regard that they have for him that earned Island Temperature Controls the award of NEWS’ Best Contractor to Work For in the Canadian region.