When you started out in the HVAC industry, did you ever think that someday you’d be marketing your company with online photo albums and short 140-character posts? How could you imagine any of this since Facebook and Twitter didn’t even exist back then?

The NEWS is continuing to celebrate the 85th anniversary of our commitment to publishing excellence this year. We have been celebrating so far by looking at how our history syncs with that of the HVACR industry. Now we would like to learn how it syncs with your history.

Congratulations are in order for the winners of The NEWS’ eighth annual Dealer Design Awards program. Judged by contractors from the HVACR industry, the products chosen proved that they were dealer desirable. Their names will be added to a long list of competitors who ran the program’s gauntlet and emerged victorious.

HVACR contractors who deal with commercial buildings are involved in one of the most incentive laden sectors. The sector may be in somewhat of a doldrum now due to the economy, but once it bounces back it will be interesting to see how owners and decision makers factor in those incentives as they pertain to mechanical equipment.

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.

Unlike many of our loyal readers, I am a lot less like Bob Vila and a lot more like SpongeBob Squarepants. So when my wife and I decided to get our basement finished, it was not a question of if we would contract out the work but to whom. I think I might be able to paint it, but that is about it.

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.

New products are nice, but when it comes to technology, there are only so many functions that users find useful. With the above concept in mind, it could be considered that one of the keys to success as a product or a service provider could simply be to ask, “What do you want from us?”

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.

I had the occasion to attend three functions over a period of five nights recently, each of which included a number of contractors, and in two of the cases, their employees. I was very disturbed at what I saw as I went around the rooms. I’m referring to the dress and appearance of these contractors and their employees.

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