When former President Bill Clinton stepped to a podium in New York City to convene the C-40 Large Cities Climate Summit, he was, in effect, opening the door for expanded opportunities for HVAC contractors in areas ranging from the installation of new energy-efficient equipment to major retrofits, with a special emphasis on performance contracting.
Energy-efficient products gained ground in the residential sector this past year. Citing an unprecedented mid-year report compiled by the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI), the average SEER rating for unitary air conditioners sold through June was 13.66.
Boilers equipped with condensing economizers can have an overall efficiency that exceeds 90 percent. A condensing economizer can increase overall heat recovery and steam system efficiency by up to 10 percent by reducing the flue gas temperature below its dew point, resulting in improved waste heat recovery.
Btu Buddy and Bob meet for lunch and Bob has a question about the last service call. The job involved replacing the single-wall flue pipe with double-wall pipe. “You said that we had some unfinished business about the service call yesterday, yet you said that the call was complete. What did you mean?”
Despite revisions to the Fair Labor Standards Act in 2004, determining how to properly classify workers remains an ongoing struggle for many companies. That is evident from the amount of money the U.S. Department of Labor has collected from businesses that failed to properly compensate their employees for overtime.
The key to a successful waste heat recovery project is optimizing the use of the recovered energy. By installing a condensing economizer, companies can improve overall heat recovery and steam system efficiency by up to 10 percent.
In this column, Jim Johnson, director of training for Technical Training Associates, presents a specific HVACR equipment problem and invites readers to submit their diagnosis. From those who submit the correct answer by the stated deadline, there will be a prize drawing.
Rewards are a powerful method for encouraging good job performance. Good work may not be repeated and employees can upset customers when managers don’t recognize, encourage, and reward them for job performance that meets or exceeds customers’ expectations. But rewards must be used effectively.
Bob goes on a call to a house where the residents smell fumes when the furnace is running. He examines the flue connector from the furnace to the chimney and discovers it’s rusted to the point of falling apart. With the assistance of Btu Buddy, he replaces the single-wall vent pipe with a double-wall vent.
At first, the call sounded like one we hear all the time - not enough heat in a room that had been added onto a house. The service guy told me the radiators were big enough, and that the house had an old gravity hot water system. He asked if I’d stop by to look at it.
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