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One of the most talked-about issues in the industry’s changeover from HCFC to HFC refrigerants is when the per-pound cost of the former is expected to overtake the cost of the latter. That crossover point hasn’t been reached yet, and a lot of issues are mixing themselves into an already confusing situation.

Running a company in hard times. Taking inventory of inventory. Direct mailing and seeding. Keeping readers informed.

You know, residential contractors seem to be more effective at selling maintenance agreements to their customers than commercial-institutional contractors are. This surprises me; it would seem to me that in the world that these commercial contractors deal in, businesses would have a better grasp of the costs of deferred maintenance.

Contractors need their own web addresses. One man’s answers to industry questions.

Hey Murph, you can’t maintain a good argument by sitting on the fence. Either green is greed or green is green. I think you have the whole thing wrong or twisted. Green is a means to be greedy, but it is not greedy in and of itself.

Though I have touted green opportunities for contractors, I now ask you to consider the green wash that is all around you. The green movement, rooted in some sense of good, has unfortunately morphed into a mere marketing tool in far too many instances.

Are you ready to step into the efficiency market with confidence and a whole-system approach? Or, are you riding the financial green bandwagon as you continue to install higher efficiency units without addressing the issues of refrigerant disposal, ductwork sealing, proper maintenance, programmable thermostat education, etc.?

Contractors who are on the lookout for qualified service technicians know that getting them is only one-third of the equation. The next two steps involve training and keeping them. There are many dynamics in those last two and their relation to each other.

Provide better value with better air-handling system. Been there, done that.

An idea occurred to me; why not bump up the price of a service agreement to include two more filter clean/changes every year? That would mean four visits to the home and the opportunity to sell additional products or services during the visits. Voila! I struck pay dirt. Or did I?