By now, nearly everyone in the HVACR and environmental controls industries is well aware of the massive, international phaseout of R-22. The tedious process of converting to a more ozone-friendly refrigerant, however, has led to a classic example of two industry leaders working together to redesign equipment that meets more than the refrigerant challenge.
A record number of students - 5,411 - took part in some 91 events at the 45th annual Skills USA National Leadership and Skills Conference in Kansas City, Mo. Included were more than 50 students in the Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration event.
Nothing seems to eat up a contractor’s profits quicker than callbacks. That’s why contractor Brian Leech of Service Legends, Des Moines, Iowa, wanted to understand the complete and full cost of a callback. Perhaps more significantly, he also wanted his staff to understand it. The company started an intensive course to get to the heart of the company’s understanding of callbacks.
Shasta Union High School District has undergone a $27 million, district-wide modernization over the past five years. It has been a huge makeover. School administrators were not interested in a quick fix this time - not with this much money being invested. They wanted to make sure that the improvements produced long-term savings and performance advantages.
Ductless systems are making their way into several markets, but perhaps
the technology is making its presence felt most strongly in the school
market. A combination of tight deadlines and even tighter budgets is
helping to move it along.
As
school boards and superintendents develop programs to utilize recent U.S.
economic recovery stimulus funds, projects focused on improving energy
efficiency can result in long-term savings for school districts, reports the
American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers
(ASHRAE). The group says its “Advanced Energy Design Guide for K-12 School
Buildings” can help.
When it comes to schools and their IAQ concerns, these days it involves
two areas that are familiar and one that is relatively new: mold
growth, coil cleaning (affecting efficiency as well as bio growth), and
infectious disease control, specifically H1N1 (the so-called swine
flu). None of these are going to drop off the radar any time soon.
When supermarket engineers, contractors, and technicians gather in Palm Springs, Calif., this Sept. 13-16 for the annual Food Marketing Institute Energy & Technical Services Conference, they will discover that much has changed in their industry since they last met a year ago. In fact some of that change may be going on right up until the presentations by a number of the speakers.
With so much talk these days about HCFC-22, I thought I’d offer a back-to-basics look at this refrigerant that has been so popular for so long - but now is facing phaseout.
As the industry explores alternatives to HCFC-22 in retrofit and new
applications, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
has recently updated its own listing of “acceptable substitutes in
household and light commercial air conditioning.”
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