Some members of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) have taken a vow of practicality in their seminars, and two presentations on chiller maintenance lived up to that pledge.
There are horror stories about permanent HVAC equipment operated while the building was under construction, and the resulting damage. The question of whether a permanent system should be used at all during construction was pondered during a forum at the 2005 ASHRAE Annual Meeting.
Some areas of the world use more air-to-air heat pumps, while others use more geothermal systems. Still others are more heavily into mini-splits. From North America to Europe to Asia/Oceania, there is a lot going on in the world of heat pumps.
The latest research at the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign involves dealing with minimum A/C unit and heat pump efficiencies, finding ways to increase efficiency without increasing size too much and without using R-22.
It's not surprising that the International Energy Agency (IEA) Heat Pump Conference featured information on the efficiency, reliability, and longevity of today's heat pumps. What may surprise some people is just how long heat pumps are living. According to consultant Nance Lovvorn, "The observed median service life of heat pumps ... was approximately 26 years."
What do turf wars, battle lines, and tug of war have in common? They are all being mentioned by people involved in the creation of two rival commercial HVAC load calculation standards, one from the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) and the other from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).
Some people predict that with the coming 13 SEER minimum efficiency standard, all unitary and heat pump units will be high efficiency; selling based on high efficiency won't be a factor. However, the quality of installation will definitely be an issue.
The System Mysteries is a collaborative creative endeavor between The News and Emerson Climate Technologies. These articles are designed to help clear up some diagnosis misconceptions. This article supplies the solution to the System Mysteries article that ran in the March 21 issue of The News.
When it comes to HVAC systems, when is moisture good, and when is it potentially harmful for customers? A consumer brochure and white paper titled "Facts about Humidifiers and Mold" spells it out. The information was produced by the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI).
Technologies that were once used exclusively in commercial-industrial applications, such as air conditioning in its early days, often find their way to home use. The latest such technology to undergo this application shift is combined heat and power (CHP).