It used to be that a soda drinker would have, at the most, eight to 16 choices of beverages to choose from at those self-serve dispensers in fast food restaurants or convenience stores. Well, those days of hoping the dispenser will have just the right blend could be a thing of the past.
On Earth Day 2009, Raley’s boasted opening what it called its “greenest store yet,” complete with secondary loop technology and CO2 as a refrigerant. The Petaluma, Calif., store was part of Raley’s response to joining, earlier in the year, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership to fight climate change and protect the earth’s ozone layer.
HFC-134a is the alternative refrigerant of choice to replace CFC-12 in many medium- and high-temperature stationary refrigeration and air conditioning applications. However, R-134a is not a direct drop-in refrigerant for R-12. Retrofit guidelines must be followed carefully when converting a system from R-12 to R-134a.
In the United States, increased restrictions on the use, production, and importation of R-22 have been introduced, which will result in higher prices and reduced availability. So, how do we deal with these issues related to HCFCs such as R-22? The scale of the problem is little short of daunting.
It’s a tricky balance. Techs are technical; salespeople are salesy. (You can quote me on that if you like.) Combining the two is like finding an accountant who’s the life of the party. Yet, the combo of a selling technician can give you a radically effective one-two punch.
Staring down the barrel of economic uncertainty, two contractors - one in Phoenix and one in San Jose, Calif. - have determined that they will not embrace recession without putting up a good fight. Both face different circumstances, but each is addressing economic challenges while keeping a watchful eye on the bottom line. To do this, they are fine-tuning day-to-day operations.
The first installment of this series featured ways for office workers to recession-proof their jobs. The second installment showed technicians how to avoid becoming the next HVAC layoff victim. Now, it’s time to go inside the service department to focus on the individual that manages the flow of service revenue - the service manager.
With smoke you can see them, with your nose you can smell them, and unfortunately for the workers in restaurant kitchens, they can feel the heat. Cross currents are air patterns that enter a capture hood and push the radiant heat, smoke, and odors from the cooking surfaces away from the hood, and into the kitchen.
The portable cooling market has a lot of things in its favor. Up to the beginning of June, however, the weather was not one of them - and the weather is still a driver in the portable cooling market. Once the weather does set that part of the market in motion, there are a lot more opportunities on the horizon.
Portables are really more than window air conditioners that you can move around, said Mike Delwiche, director of sales-room air products at Comfort-Aire. Of course, portability is the key benefit. The units can be moved from room to room, wherever cool, conditioned air is needed. And they can be installed quickly and easily.
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