Contractors familiar with oil-lubricated compressors may want to start thinking magnetically. Turbocor, from Montreal, PQ, Canada, is introducing a compact centrifugal compressor that uses magnetic bearings and variable-speed drives to deliver what the company claims to be better efficiencies than conventional oil-lubed recips, scrolls, and screws.
Florida Forum newsletter, published by the Florida Roofing, Sheet Metal, and Air Conditioning Contractors Association, carried a special report in a recent issue dealing with new state building codes.
When he was a service technician, Jim Tieken and his coworkers “daily experienced the lack of simple-to-use, efficient, and economical refrigerant recovery equipment.” This prompted Tieken and his colleagues to develop, design, and patent the Spooter II and Spooter 134 refrigerant recovery pump. Tieken’s company, ICOR International, Indianapolis, IN, has expanded to include a variety of refrigerants and refrigeration products.
Corbin Comfort Systems of Lake City, GA, has won the 2002 Residential Excellence Award for Category 1 (companies with fewer than 10 employees or less than one million dollars in revenue).
Like their counterparts in the U.S., contractors and technicians in Canada have been required to carry government cards to purchase and use refrigerants. When the Canadian Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP) program went into effect in the mid- 1990s, there was every intention of having cardholders undergo upgraded training and a retest every few years. But over the years, the upgrades and retests never came about. Extensions were simply granted. Now, new training and a new test appear to be in the offing.
Honeywell Automation & Control Solutions (ACS) Service recently began work on a major energy-conservation upgrade project at the Fort Bragg, NC, Army post intended to save $1.8 million per year.