Don Prather

Donald Prather is technical services manager for ACCA. He is the author of “Technician’s Guide for Quality Installations” and “Manual B Balancing and Testing Air and Hydronic Systems,” licensed as a master HVAC contractor in Florida, and holds a first-class stationary engineer license in Maryland. Contact him at don.prather@acca.org or 703-824-8867.

Why R-32 May Be the Refrigerant of the Future

All options have pros and cons, but R-32 makes a good case for itself

Don Prather

January 9, 2017

R-32 is an HFC refrigerant that has a GWP of 675 over the 100-year duration period by which refrigerants are rated.

The CAZ Razzmatazz

Failed CAZ tests should be evaluated by licensed professionals

Don Prather

March 7, 2016

Tightening a home’s envelope may reduce the air supply needed for combustion, and when there’s not enough combustion air, equipment could have combustion ventilation problems. Thus, the people who sealed up homes (often referred to as the weatherization industry) needed a way to determine if sealing a home up would undermine the safe operation of combustion equipment. To meet this safety need, they embraced combustion appliance zone (CAZ) depressurization testing.

On Demand As AI workloads and high-density computing push traditional cooling methods to their limits, the data center industry is accelerating the adoption of next-generation HVAC technologies.

Don Prather

ARTICLES

Why R-32 May Be the Refrigerant of the Future

The CAZ Razzmatazz

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