The Dealer Design Awards are judged by 20 contractors from across the U.S. who are active in the industry and have their collective fingers on the pulse of what’s happening. This year’s competition saw numerous themes across each category, as manufacturers shared the broad goals of making products smarter, more consistent, and innovative in new and unique ways.
Don’t do like we did and wait for something to happen. Give a little thought to how the business would handle not having any one of its key employees. Quick, do it now, before the next disaster strikes.
The Intelligent Equipment® cloud-hosted technology platform from Daikin Applied received the gold award in the 2016 Dealer Design Awards’ Commercial Controls category. Intelligent Equipment is specifically designed for the small- to mid-sized building enterprise and operates independently or in parallel to a building automation system (BAS).
Each date offered three keynote presentations and supporting breakout sessions that focused on specific sales, leadership, and operational topics related to running a successful home improvement business and overcoming common challenges that contractors currently face in today’s marketplace.
To understand airflow, one must have a firm grasp of the rules driving its characteristics and behaviors. Many of the most complicated issues a tech encounters often tie to an airflow problem, so let's look at five airflow rules that can help anyone in the industry master the airside of the profession.
The gold award winner in the Contractor Services and Software category, TimeAnywhere model 2.0 from Data-Basics Inc., is a browser-based web portal for remote time entry and expense management. Its updated design offers a convenient dual-pane view of data-entry options, and touchscreen-friendly navigation helps contractors accurately track time, labor, and expenses.
Mastercool Inc. invested more than 10 years of research and design into the Refrigeration Flaring and Swaging Tool, and that attention to detail helped the product bring home the gold in the Electronic and Hand Tools category of the 2016 Dealer Design Awards.
Fluke Corp.’s 902 FC True-RMS HVAC Clamp Meter is winner of the gold award in the 2016 DDA Testing & Monitoring Products category. The product is a wireless Fluke Connect-enabled meter that can document measurements, email results to customers, and collaborate with colleagues in real time directly from the job site.
The GPS-iClean's ease of installation as well as its nearly nonexistent maintenance requirements have earned it gold in the Indoor Air Quality category.
Since its August 2015 release, the iComfort® S30 Smart Thermostat from Lennox Intl. Inc. has made a name for itself as a dealer-friendly product loaded with features both contractors and end users can enjoy. The thermostat’s attractive interface, installability, connectivity, and diagnostic abilities have earned it gold in the Residential Controls category.
Variable-speed compressors and motor control drives that enable system manufacturers to achieve 25-plus SEER, 13-plus HSPF, and 29 IEER earned Emerson Climate Technologies Inc. the gold award in the Dealer Design Award’s (DDA’s) Components and Accessories category.
The 2016 Dealer Design Award gold-winning ventilation product, the Horizontal Mount Damper in Non-Concrete 2 Hour Fire Rated Barrier from Greenheck Fan Corp., was designed to protect duct penetrations and air-transfer openings going through horizontal non-concrete barriers.
The winner of the 2016 gold award in the Dealer Design Awards (DDA) Refrigeration and Ice Machines category is JB Industries' F6 dual-piston refrigerant recovery unit. The F6 features a 1-horsepower (hp) motor, a dual-piston compressor, and a high-efficiency microchannel condenser, which helps it to quickly recover refrigerants.
The Dave Lennox Signature® Collection SLP98V Gas Furnace is designed for residential applications, but may also be used in light commercial applications requiring 110,000 Btuh of heat or less. Its functionality and versatility helped Lennox Intl. Inc. take home the gold award in the HVAC High-Efficiency Residential Equipment category of the 2016 Dealer Design Awards.
The Aaon LZ Series air- and evaporative-cooled condenser chiller and packaged outdoor mechanical room is designed to provide energy-efficient full- and part-load operation while being easy to configure, install, and maintain. The company’s focus on versatility and ease of installation helped the LZ Series earn gold in the Commercial HVAC Equipment category.
Weil-McLain’s Evergreen® boiler offers many features that make it a favorite: 95 percent AFUE performance, a 10:1 turndown, control logic customization, and more. And the 2016 Dealer Design Awards judges agreed, naming it the gold winner in the contest’s HVAC Light Commercial category.
Enertech Global LLC’s Element Series ZS/ZT Compact Horizontal Packaged Geothermal Heat Pump features a small footprint and enhanced serviceability, making it an ideal solution for both retrofit applications and new construction — and the judges first choice in the 2016 Dealer Design Awards’ HVAC Residential Equipment category.
HomeAdvisor awards this distinction to the top 8 percent of companies in the HomeAdvisor network. These companies maintained an average review of 4.0 or better from at least three homeowners in the last six months and also had zero homeowner complaints in that time frame.
At www.achrnews.com, The NEWS’ Extra Edition page is home to hundreds of online-exclusive service and maintenance, technical, and business management articles. Here are some of the best.
Michael Matz of Mt. Kisco, New York, the son of Matco-Norca’s cofounder, died suddenly June 5 at the age of 44. Matz was the Eastern region sales manager for Matco-Norca and was employed for 20 years at his family’s company.
ICB/TABB is a function of the National Energy Management Institute Committee (NEMIC) — a not-for-profit organization jointly funded by the SMACNA and SMART, the International Association of Sheet Metal Air, Rail and Transportation Workers.
Antonelli’s presentation will help contractors discover how a strong brand and logo can provide a solid foundation on which to build a powerful marketing strategy upon. His class will discuss truck wrap and fleet branding, sales brochures, and digital marketing efforts.
Time of Savings makes it possible for the Nest Thermostat to learn the price of energy for customers on Time of Use (TOU) rate plans so it can automatically adjust itself to help customers use less electricity when energy prices are most expensive.
North America is the world’s most advanced smart home market; and the region had an installed base of 12.7 million smart homes at the end of the year, a 56 percent year-on-year growth.
Comprehensive Energy Services Inc. ranked among Orlando Business Journal’s 2016 Best Places to Work in Central Florida for the seventh consecutive year.