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The HVACR industry, like many others, is always promoting change. And we are always appreciative when that change results in better, more energy-efficient and environmentally-correct products. I suppose change also has to mean a change in the makeup of the manufacturing sector. We have certainly seen it over the years.

Wrongly installed units don’t help save money. The key to enduring the recession is innovation.

The way that the weather has been warming up leads to a lot of emergency calls for contractors, and they may see the increased workload as a good thing. At least the ring of the phones is comforting. But that nonstop ringing could also mean the customer is in need of regular maintenance, and could well welcome such a discussion.

A recent opinion on this page (“Tax Credits Tough to Use,” May 25, 2009) received a lot of attention from our vast readership and we received a variety of comments. Since that point in time, The NEWS has spoken to quite a few people and unraveled a bit more of this very large ball of twine.

Manufacturers have been caught up in a game of warranty one-upmanship for several years, with warranties getting longer and longer to make their systems more attractive to potential buyers. This can affect the amount of time and reimbursement a contractor receives for the callback, but there are still some time-based aspects of in-warranty callbacks that are not reimbursed.

One person’s opinion on the Earth’s history and politics. Read those scientific studies. Where’s the evidence of global warming?

My April 6 column on why it doesn’t matter whom to believe in the climate change debate touched off a bit of e-mail dialogue between several writers and myself. In that column, I cited some research from the 1970s predicting global cooling, then noted that the focus shifted more to global warming in the 1980s.

I’ve been in this industry longer than most. How long? I started reading The NEWS in 1970 when I joined Rheem in Chicago as the sales promotion manager for the Air Conditioning Division. I left for a couple of stretches to see if the grass was greener, but somehow I always came back. Why? A lot had to do with the people.

Some of us have come to the conclusion that the tax credits provided for in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) are very confusing. Unless you are promoting geothermal or other renewable energy products, you may be having a hard time finding tidy little system matches for your customers.

If you read this column frequently, you know that I seem to attract bad service. I’ve written several times about some of the terrible service, which seems to permeate our society today. Well, I am happy to be able to write today about two instances of excellent service I recently received.