Replacing the heating and air conditioning system at the Marjorie McCune Memorial Center in Black Mountain, N.C., proved to be a challenge. Brad Stickels of Stickels Service Co. in Fairview, N.C., successfully confronted the project’s intricacies.
In the world of contracting today, the family-run business is just as prevalent as ever. It’s not unusual to see family members working together trying to make money every day. However, as you’ll see, that family focus can sometimes lead to family failure.
In the April 7 issue, The NEWS introduced readers to three senior service technicians - one was 91 years old and the other two were 88 years old. But the story wouldn’t be complete without traveling to the other end of the age spectrum and finding out what young techs - just starting on their HVACR careers - thought about the trade and their own longevity.
While the Bick Group is proud of having invested time and money into its underfloor air distribution (UAD) system, its headquarters has a lot of other top-notch, thinking-outside-the-box features going for it. After all, it did not get its LEED Gold certification by sticking to traditional ways.
Mechanical Inc. has a solid track record of successful hospital and green building projects, and that made them the mechanical contractor of choice for Sherman Hospital’s $310 million replacement hospital. The facility will be mainly heated and cooled by geothermal energy from a 15-acre artificial lake.
The air-handling units at a medical laboratory needed to be completely refurbished - something that couldn’t be done while the system was in operation. An environmental engineering control was designed that shifted the cooling load to auxiliary equipment during the two-week renovation of the main HVAC system.
“Portable air conditioners are a great solution to a variety of installation and location challenges,” said Mike Delwiche, Comfort-Aire’s sales manager for room air products. “They give the consumer the ability to put air conditioning where it’s needed, when it’s needed.”
The NEWS recently paid a visit to Mobile Air to get a close-up look at the Mobile Air Force. The company works as a subcontractor to mechanical contractors and facility managers in the Great Lakes region, providing mobile air conditioning, heating, and filtration systems for planned and emergency equipment outages.
The trends in portable cooling are similar to those seen in other sectors of the HVAC markets: energy usage reduction strategies under the green umbrella; more sophisticated controls for operation and service ease; and everything possible to help contractors keep their customers happy.
As contractors, we count on people buying from us for our company to be successful. Hopefully, with that in mind, we make the process of buying a pleasant experience. The concept becomes a little frightening to me because of experiences I have recently encountered in making a couple of purchases.
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