In keeping with the theme of the recent Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) National Meeting — “Out of the Comfort Zone & Into a More Profitable Future” — the St. Louis and Southern Illinois ACCA chapters hosted a skills competition for HVACR students.
Ronnie Head Sr. sees a lot of business opportunities in mold. He’s not referring to detecting or eradicating it, but rather telling building owners about its origins and what steps they can take to avoid the pitfalls of a moldy environment.
“We don’t want anyone else telling us our business because we know it best.” That’s the message that Chris Colditz used to open her ACCA meeting seminar.
It was subtitled the “Power of Three” by Pete Gasiewicz, vice president of sales and marketing for International Comfort Products (ICP). He was referring to the manufacturer/distributor/dealer-contractor alliance that was evident during ICP’s “Power of Potential” meeting.
Most HVACR contractors know the basic rule governing overtime pay for service technicians: After working 40 hours in a week, the employee must be paid “time and a half” for the excess hours. But while this rule seems simple, the overtime regulations enforced by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) are anything but, especially when applied to the service-oriented HVACR industry.
The most recent misconception regarding zoning involves the use of variable-speed indoor blower motors with a forced-air zoning system. Many contractors believe they can’t install a zoning system with a residential variable-speed air handler or variable-speed furnace. This is not so.
The headline above is a reminder that a fan and a damper, when assembled, become a fan + damper system, which is more than a simple sum of the two individual items of equipment.
When it comes to system design principles for healthy buildings, Glenn Hourahan, P.E., believes the two fundamental objectives of environmental control are to provide desired temperature conditions and prevent adverse health and safety effects.
Arzel Zoning Technology is one of many manufacturers beating the drum for zoning. In fact, Arzel is part of the Zoning Marketing Alliance (ZMA), a group of companies whose goal is to reach contractors with the message that zoning can be profitable and beneficial to businesses.