Homeowners are being very careful about making investments in home energy savings. According to a recent survey, they are demanding significant energy cost savings to justify any investments of time and money required to install highly efficient HVAC systems, and they have grown more skeptical about promises of a quick payback.

Because the tax credit on high-efficiency equipment expired, many believe that homeowners will now revert to standard efficiency. Before we throw the high-efficiency equipment out with the bath water, let’s take a close look at how the tax credits affected sales and how they can be replaced in 2012.

A full line of high-efficiency condensing boilers is available. The Creek boiler models — Creek 4.0, Creek 6.0, Creek 8.1, and Creek 12.1 — can be used both as high-efficiency heating boilers as well as once-through hot-water heaters.

Camfil Farr has been honored with the 2011 Product of the Year Award by Environmental Protection magazine for its Hi-Flo ES filter. The Hi-Flo ES is a high-efficiency ASHRAE-grade pocket filter that delivers long service life while substantially reducing the energy used by HVAC systems, says the company.

Expanding the TM9X and TM9V families, two models have been added to the Luxaire® LX Series of multiposition gas furnaces. An input rate of 40,000 Btuh enables the furnaces to provide better heat load matches, avoiding oversized equipment selection.

The features and benefits of high-tech HVAC equipment can often be lost on the end users — homeowners and building owners. What may seem to HVAC contractors like the greatest invention since sliced bread can result in blank stares from customers. But there is a way to make tech trends understandable to customers.

The Tempstar® SmartComfort® 96 percent-plus AFUE gas furnace line is available. The SmartComfort® VC 97 features a modulating gas valve, variable-speed ECM blower motor, 97 percent AFUE, and stainless steel primary and secondary heat exchangers. The SmartComfort VT 96 is a two-stage variable-speed model at 96 percent AFUE.

The Evolution® 987M A unit with an AFUE of up to 97 percent is available in a new high-efficiency line of gas furnaces. The fully modulating gas furnace has load matching performance. A modulating gas valve is capable of adjusting from 40 to 100 percent of capacity.

When the U.S. government offered up to $1,500 in tax credits for higher efficiency appliances, HVAC contractors got their foot in the doors of consumers who might not normally have considered buying high-end. Since the tax credits were reduced in 2011, the same selling opportunities have dried up too — or have they?

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that it has received the first official submission by a manufacturer to its voluntary challenge for a new generation of high-efficiency cost-effective air conditioners for commercial buildings.