Contractors and manufacturers all said essentially the same thing when asked why they do business with Famous Enterprises — customer service.

Today, approximately 90 top executives are gathering in Park City, Utah for a strategic summit. There, they will meet face-to-face, and they will talk.

Everyone has been challenged (more than once) to prove why their product is better. When customers ask “why?” they really want to know: What’s in it for me?

Sometimes HVACR is a hot job in the literal sense; evidence the cover story in this issue. Our friends at the Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA) and Mechanical Service Contractors of America (MSCA) make a particularly consistent and strong statement among their respective memberships - safety is Job One.

Green buildings: How’s that working out for you? After the huge rush for energy efficiency in new and existing buildings - a laudable and needed effort - it appears that the line at the picnic is starting to thin out.

According to 300 member companies of the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) that represent more than 90 percent of the residential and commercial air conditioning, heating, water heating, and commercial refrigeration equipment made in North America, business is heating up.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will not acknowledge the fact that seven major HVAC manufacturers will build upwards of 600,000 dry R-22 units in 2011, an amount that will begin to gnaw away at the energy efficiency savings that resulted from the 13 SEER Rulemaking of January 2006.

Young people who have an entrepreneurial spirit or who have an artisan/craftsman aptitude may want to consider Toni’s career and education strategy. A lot of people get into the routine of thinking: Get an education, get a job. Toni took a different tact: Get an education, get a job, then get more education.

Carrier Corp. recently filed a petition with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), formalizing a request to reclassify a residential condensing unit as a subsystem of a system to extend the manufacturing prohibition to dry R-22 condensing units. The petition urges EPA to reconsider its current position and to issue a new rulemaking.

The 2011 SkillsUSA Ohio Regional Challenge was held March 26 at the W.R. Timken Center, Stark State College of Technology. The Akron Canton Area Chapter of the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) has sponsored the regional competition for high school students since about 2002.