The day Jan. 1, 2010 will bring many changes to the HVAC industry. As of that date, R-22 will no longer be available in new cooling systems manufactured in the United States or Canada, and our neighbors to the north will have a new national minimum energy performance standard for gas furnaces - a minimum fuel efficiency level of 90 percent AFUE.
My furnace is just so insensitive. It doesn’t care at all about my economic needs. The holiday season’s extra in-home traffic, increased system usage, and changing of the seasons will equate to more in-home service calls for the 873rd year in a row. Those are givens that can be loosely translated as get ready or get left behind.
The small amount of money that can be saved by reducing or eliminating air filter purchases or by purchasing lower-priced, lower efficiency filters pales in comparison to the energy and operating costs that can be saved by maintaining a robust air filtration maintenance and upgrade program.
Only 100 years ago, 90 percent of Americans burned wood to heat their homes. As fossil fuel use rose, the percentage of Americans using wood for fuel dropped, falling to as low as 1 percent by 1970, according to the DOE. Now that the green movement is taking hold, interest in biomass heating is resurfacing as a renewable energy alternative.
The UNLV Center for Energy Research received grant funding to develop a demonstration project designed to combat the strain on the Desert Southwest grid - a community of homes that incorporate energy efficient features and smart grid technology to cut residential energy use by more than one-half.
As part of its Energy Efficiency Symposium, Modine Manufacturing Co. introduced its Effinity93 with Conservicore™ gas-fired unit heater. Modine CEO Tom Burke told an audience of contractors, distributors, and sales representatives that the new unit “is designed to be the most efficient gas-fired unit heater in North America.”
What does it take to make a good leader? It can sometimes be hard to pin down; however, having good leaders is critical to a contractor’s success. The key components of leadership were spelled out at the Unified Group’s 2009 Service Management Forum.
Oh those wonderful women in HVAC sales! They come from all across the nation, twentysomethings to sixtysomethings who defy the long-held belief that selling in this industry is a man’s job. The sometimes surprising and circuitous paths that brought them into this industry is both fascinating as well as instructive.
Bitzer is making news these days by opening a plant in Syracuse, N.Y. The compressor manufacturer, a subsidiary of Bitzer SE of Sindelfingen, Germany, has taken over part of a former General Motors Fischer Body plant, helping to meet their own needs while helping out the local workforce.
Frank H. Norton, executive vice president of EMCOR Services Northeast Inc., was awarded the D.S. O’Brien Award of Excellence at the Mechanical Service Contractors of America’s (MSCA’s) 24th Annual Educational Conference.
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