Editor's Note

Sustainability and environmental impact are core issues of the HVAC market in 2020 or any year. During the last year, HVACinformed.com has addressed multiple facets of sustainability in some of our most popular articles. This retrospective will highlight some of the sustainability articles published during 2020 at HVACInformed.com. An HVACInformed.com Expert Panel Roundtable commented on various aspects of sustainability, including the responsibility of HVAC manufacturers to develop more susta...

Artificial intelligence (AI) provides a tool to deliver significant savings and dramatically reduce carbon emissions, enabling a self-operating building. Because of AI’s ability to be proactive in buildings, rather than reactive, a 25% reduction in total energy costs is possible, along with a 20-40% decrease in carbon footprint. "Our mission is to fight climate change by bringing innovation and cutting-edge artificial intelligence to the built environment, making buildings smarter and gre...

Millennials have been shaped by their experiences growing up with technology and by their heightened awareness of the environment. These facets of a consumer market dominated by millennials will guide the future of the HVAC market over the next several years. Each generation reshapes markets in their own image. In the case of millennials, trends and behaviors are influencing how companies design new solutions, including those in the world of HVAC. Sustainable solutions and personalized experie...

Elon Musk has proclaimed that HVAC is his ‘pet project’ and has even suggested a timeline: ‘Maybe we can start working on that.’ As a high-profile business magnate, industrial designer and engineer, Musk is CEO of automobile company Tesla, whose goal is to accelerate the use of sustainable energy. Tesla is on the cutting edge of technologies that can transform how we use energy, and Musk believes the benefit of that technology will translate well into home HVAC systems....

In an economic sense, the COVID-19 pandemic has created winners and losers. While the tragic human and societal consequences are undeniable, when it comes to economics, some businesses have clearly fared better than others. For example, the hospitality industry has basically been decimated. Meanwhile, the HVAC business has thrived during the pandemic. Part of our success has been driven by increasing awareness of the role of air ventilation in fighting the virus. There has been renewed interes...

The impact of HVAC systems on the spread of the novel coronavirus has been a hot topic since the beginning of the pandemic. However, it is striking that, even given all the discussions and guidance, there is still a lot that we do not know. Vaguely speaking, we know that crowded spaces with poor ventilation and/or low humidity levels tend to promote virus spread that filtration can help to remove the virus, and that measures such as UV-C radiation can help to disinfect indoor air. But even thos...

A 93-year old woman in Glasgow, Ky., lost her husband last November after 73 years of marriage. Thousands of miles away, a disabled veteran in Rancho Cordova, Calif., suffers from asthma. Both were in dire need of a new HVAC unit, and neither could afford it. They are two of the 210 recipients of new HVAC units in the Lennox International “Feel the Love” campaign for 2020, which honors residents and families facing physical, mental or social disabilities, financial challenges, or th...

The cannabis industry offers unique challenges to the HVAC market, including the need to create an optimum indoor grow room environment that perfectly balances variables such as temperature, humidity and airflow at each stage of a plant’s growth cycle. The consequence of a system failure could be the catastrophic financial loss of an entire crop. Despite these weighty challenges, there is opportunity aplenty for HVAC installers in the emerging cannabis industry. Legalized cannabis is expa...

Is wall paint a feasible element in an HVAC system? That’s the supposition that underpins Thermic heat-generating paint, which is applied like conventional paint but then can heat up a room when it is connected to a safe level of 24 volts of electricity. The paint is a water-based, solvent-free and low-pollutant dispersion that provides a wafer-thin carbon specialty coating (about 0.4 mm), which can be connected to a low-current circuit to provide radiant heat. In effect, the product allo...

Closed and cramped environments are especially problematic to the spread of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. A ‘smart’ glass-paneled bus stop shelter, developed in Korea, embodies new approaches to making such spaces safe, including elements of HVAC. Smart shelters The smart shelters are closed-in glass cubes that serve as bus stops in the Seongdong district in northeastern Seoul, South Korea. The local district office collaborated with LG Electronics to develop the futu...

Carrier launched its BluEdge tiered service program after hearing from customers looking for a streamlined experience and a reliable, invested partner throughout the equipment’s lifespan. Carrier conducted a customer survey before launching BluEdge, and the common theme was a need for Carrier to articulate more clearly its value proposition and to simplify its service offering. Carrier launched BluEdge at the end of June in three businesses within the company, including the North America...

As schools work to reopen safely in the midst of a global pandemic, HVAC is at the center of the mission. Adequate ventilation and effective air filtration are critical elements to ensure safe indoor air quality for educational institutions. Many schools are housed in older buildings that may not have been adequately maintained. Transforming them to address the new challenges of minimizing exposure to the novel coronavirus is that much more difficult. In fact, a recent study by the U.S. Governm...

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the power provider in the United States, is offering incentives to businesses and schools to install UV-C germicidal lights to fight germs in indoor air. Customers that buy from TVA’s Preferred Partners Network can receive a $30-per-ton incentive toward adoption of approved UV-C technologies, which remove viruses and bacteria from indoor air. “Schools and businesses realize they need solutions to purify indoor air, and we want to help them insta...

Building Information Management (BIM) software creates an intelligent 3D model of a design or building project and provides documentation, coordination and simulation through each step of the project’s lifecycle, from planning to design, building to operation and even maintenance. Use of a 3D model enables stakeholders across various disciplines to visualize and understand every detail of a project before it is built, makes it easier to document a project, and facilitates communication amo...

The Wyss Institute at Harvard University has developed an evaporative cooling system that uses a specially coated ceramic to cool air without adding humidity. Researchers say the approach can yield more affordable and environmentally friendly air conditioning systems for the future. ‘cold-SNAP’ system The ‘cold-SNAP’ system uses a water-repellent nano-scale surface coating that is applied selectively to surfaces of a 3D-printed ceramic heat exchange. The result is much...

As the Internet of Things (IoT) has evolved, the need has become obvious for stronger unity among brands and ecosystems to enable products within smart environments to work together more easily. Working to serve that need is the Zigbee Alliance, which seeks to promote collaboration in the Internet of Things by creating, evolving, and promoting universal open standards that enable all objects to connect and interact. Their effort took off when Amazon, Apple, Google and the Zigbee Alliance announ...

Panasonic has conducted research that verifies that hydroxyl radicals contained in water can inhibit the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). The nano-sized electrostatic atomized water particles are generated by applying high voltage to moisture in the air. The patented technology - brand-named 'nanoe X' - is already used for air and surface purification in Panasonic’s air conditioning systems. The research suggests that the technology might be useful in fighting the coronavirus that causes C...

For HVAC installers, serving the needs of pet owners provides both challenges and opportunities. The consequences of pet ownership can take a toll on the operation and good health of a home’s HVAC system. Addressing that negative impact represents enhanced business opportunities, but maximizing those business prospects may involve scratching a few canine bellies and/or appreciating finicky felines. Just showing up at a service call might translate into a nightmare encounter with a protect...

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is moving forward with rulemaking that sets limits and deadlines to decrease the use of refrigerants with global warming potential (GWP) in the commercial refrigeration market and in the residential and commercial stationary air conditioning equipment markets. California regulations are widely expected to influence the direction of other states seeking to regulate GWP of refrigerants. Declining to delay planned deadlines because of the novel coronavirus...

A University of Oregon study has found viral RNA from SARS-CoV-2 in the air handling units (AHUs) of a healthcare facility, thus raising new questions about the possible role of HVAC systems in spreading the novel coronavirus. The study collected 56 samples from three different air handling units at the Oregon Health and Science University hospital in Portland, Ore., on four days in May and June 2020. Three areas along the path of airflow were sampled, including pre-filters, finals filters, and...

Lower prices in the oil and gas industry have led to job losses as the sector has contracted recently, and that was even before the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked additional havoc on the national and world economies. The COVID-19 crisis is accelerating what was already shaping up to be one of the oil industry’s most challenging years. More than a dozen oil companies have declared bankruptcy so far in the United States alone, and widespread industry layoffs are expected to continue. Oil field...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has published guidance for businesses seeking to return to work during the coronavirus pandemic. Guidelines include instructions for businesses to ‘improve central air filtration to MERV-13 or the highest [standard] compatible with the filter rack, and to seal edges of the filter to limit bypass.’ MERV stands for Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value. A MERV-13 rating means a filter is able to catch 90% of particles in the 3-10 micro...

As businesses seek a return to normal following the global pandemic, they also face the prospect of new hurdles if the worst of the virus reemerges. Uncertainty reigns, and businesses do not know whether day-to-day operations will return to normal in six months, a year or two from now – or never. In a survey by the American Supply Association (ASA), 27.3% of respondents expect operations to return to pre-COVID-19 levels in two to three months, and 25% say it will be four to six months. B...

HVAC systems should operate to ensure the comfort of individuals, not based on the temperature in a room. That’s the thinking behind a system devised by researchers that uses thermal cameras to measure the temperatures of faces in a room and adjusts operation of the HVAC system accordingly. Among other things, the scheme shifts the focus away from facilities and toward occupants, who reflect a truer measure of system effectiveness. Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed...

HVAC systems are the most common home repair, representing 19 percent of service incidents facing homeowners. More than half of homeowners (53%) have faced a home repair emergency of some kind in the past 12 months. Furthermore, about a third of homeowners have US$ 500 or less set aside to pay for emergency home repairs, with some 17 percent having no money at all set aside for emergency home repair work. 10th Edition of the Biannual State of the Home Survey These are among the results of the...

A new cloud-based solution enables HVAC professionals to access VRF systems remotely to diagnose service issues and lessen the time and costs of providing service. CoolAutomation’s Remote HVAC Service Solution enables HVAC service providers to remotely troubleshoot issues by analyzing real-time and historic data trends and analysis. They receive automatic error and anomaly notifications in their office or on their mobile phones. “The remote service solution provides the tools that H...

Newer buildings tend to be designed to be ‘green’, but what about older existing buildings, which still represent the largest share of environmental impact? There is more work to be done in the retrofit sector; and improving environmental performance of older buildings often involves ‘deep retrofits’ that are costly and impact multiple factors inside a building. In the COVID-19 era, there is also growing concern about needs such as circulating outside air, increasing hum...

Hiring and retaining employees in the HVAC market is an ongoing challenge. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that employment of heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers will grow 13 percent between 2018 to 2028, much faster than the average for all occupations. As the economic emerges from the COVID-19-induced slowdown, the industry’s workforce challenges will again be top-of-mind. Now is a great time for HVAC companies to update and expand their re...

The American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act of 2019 would provide an orderly national framework to guide replacement of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) over the next several years in the United States, with newer refrigerants that have less negative impact on the environment. HFCs are potent greenhouse gases with very high global warming potential. The future of the HVAC industry is tied to the manufacture of next-generation refrigerants and their adoption. Versions of the AIM Act – Sen...

Members of a family were eating lunch in a restaurant in Guangzhou, China, seated at a table below an air outlet and return air inlet for the central air conditioner. At another table sat a family who had just traveled from Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. There was another family seated at a third table. One of the diners experienced the onset of fever and cough later in the day and went to the hospital, later diagnosed with COVID-19. That was on Jan. 24, 2020. By February 5 – some 12 day...