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Rick Haller, CEO of Lititz, Pennsylvania-based Haller Enterprises Inc., jokes that he got his start in the HVAC industry at the ripe age of 16 because the labor laws were different than they are nowadays. In 1981, at age 23, he had left that company and started his own business, operating out of his garage.

While residents and business owners in Texas, Louisiana, and Florida struggle to rebuild their lives following the path of destruction left by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, local HVAC contractors and manufacturers have an opportunity to step in and do what they do best — provide comfort.

Often considered to be an affordable, reliable heating and/or cooling system for a variety of commercial buildings, the standard rooftop unit used to come with a basic thermostat that is limited to turning the system on or off. The advent of new controls has changed all of that by allowing rooftops to monitor operation, analyze conditions, and make real-time decisions that can optimize performance.

The NEWS spotlights the industry’s latest commercial heating products in the following photo feature. The manufacturers provided us with brief descriptions of the features included with each product. For more information, please contact the manufacturers or their distributors.

All technicians at some point will need to call and speak with a manufacturer’s technical support adviser. I have made many calls to these advisers throughout my career and learned how to best get the information I needed from them.

Under normal conditions, there will always be a small amount of oil that escapes a compressor’s crankcase and is circulated with the refrigerant throughout the system. It is for this reason that refrigerant oil and the refrigerant itself must be soluble in one another. It is the velocity of the circulated refrigerant that carries the oil back to the compressor’s crankcase. If the two were not soluble in one another, this phenomenon could not happen.

In supermarkets, humidity not only impacts energy savings and customer comfort, but it also can have a major effect on the performance of a store’s refrigeration equipment.

Effective weld purging is only achieved by making sure that oxygen is displaced from the purge zone prior to and during welding. Any residual oxygen can cause significant loss of corrosion resistance and a reduction in joint strength. It is therefore essential to seal the pipe on either side of the joint and maintain this seal throughout the process.

The high failure rate or inability to grow beyond a few trucks is due primarily to an entrepreneur’s lack of business training. The technical skills acquired, which are, of course, an asset, soon become a liability in terms of not having mastered business skills necessary for success and profitability.

State and local regulations are driving new building construction as well as existing buildings to implement energy-efficient technologies in order to meet future carbon emissions reduction goals. These facilities, known as high-performance buildings, strive to deliver optimal efficiency, reliability, value, and comfort to tenants.