United States of America (USA) HVAC News & Trends

The Manufacturing Institute estimates that there could be as many as 2.4 million vacant skilled trade positions in industry across the country by 2018. This is a huge gap that can only be overcome by partnering with other organizations and companies to make a meaningful difference. GE Appliances, a Haier company, believes that partnerships matter and the industry would do better together. That idea has never been more important as they tackle workforce development issues going forward. So, when...

Although women fill nearly half of all jobs in the U.S., they hold less than 25 percent of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) jobs, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Nonprofit organization, Project Scientist is helping to close this gender gap by exposing a diverse population of young girls to STEM education. Project Scientist in partnership with Trane, globally renowned provider of indoor comfort solutions and services and a brand of Ingersoll Rand, hosted a group of...

Registration is open for the 2020 ASHRAE Winter Conference, to be held February 1-5 at the Hilton Orlando. Registration for the conference provides entry to the co-sponsored AHR Expo, held February 3-5 at the Orange County Convention Center. The ASHRAE Winter Conference features eight conference tracks, tours, social events and a keynote speech from retired NFL referee Ed Hochuli. The conference presents the latest topics in the HVAC&R industry through a technical program featuring more than...

Heat Transfer Products Group, LLC (HTPG), manufacturer of commercial refrigeration equipment sold under the recognized brands of Russell, Witt, Kramer, and ColdZone, was recognized for excellence in product design in the 16th annual Dealer Design Awards Program sponsored by The Air Conditioning Heating & Refrigeration News magazine. An independent panel of contractors acted as judges in the contest that had 79 entries. HTPG’s EcoNet® Enabled Unit Cooler with EcoNet Command Ce...

Heat Transfer Products Group, LLC (HTPG), manufacturer of commercial refrigeration equipment sold under the recognized brands of Russell, Witt, Kramer and ColdZone, was recognized for excellence in product design in the 16th annual Dealer Design Awards Program sponsored by The Air Conditioning Heating & Refrigeration News magazine. An independent panel of contractors acted as judges in the contest that had 79 entries. HTPG’s EcoNet Enabled Unit Cooler with EcoNet Command Center won th...

Heat Transfer Products Group, LLC (HTPG), manufacturer of commercial refrigeration equipment sold under the recognized brands of Russell, Witt, Kramer and ColdZone, was recognized for excellence in product design in the 16th annual Dealer Design Awards Program sponsored by The Air Conditioning Heating & Refrigeration News magazine. An independent panel of contractors acted as judges in the contest that had 79 entries. HTPG’s EcoNet Enabled Unit Cooler with EcoNet Command Center won th...

ECR International has announced the release of a new video technical support tool to assist contractors in the field. This powerful new tool, called Rescue Lens, will enable ECR Technical Support advisors to see in real time exactly what the technician is seeing on the job site. ECR Rescue Lens The only requirement for the dealer is to have a smartphone with internet access either over cellular data or Wi-Fi Occasionally, a technical issue comes along that isn’t identified immediately....

Two Goodman brand products were recognized for excellence in product design in the 16th annual Dealer Design Awards (DDA) Program sponsored by The Air Conditioning Heating & Refrigeration News (The NEWS) magazine. A panel of independent contractors acted as judges in the contest. The AlumaFin7 evaporator coil design won the Gold DDA for HVAC Residential Equipment, while ComfortBridge technology received a Bronze in the highly competitive Residential Controls category. A system with ComfortB...

Whirlpool Corporation is recognized among the top companies engaging in effective practices of diversity and inclusion on the 2019 Diversity Best Practices Inclusion Index. The annual index is intended to help identify gaps in representation within the workplace and creates a road map to drive internal change. Whirlpool Corporation is one of 15 organizations named as a Leading Inclusion Index Company out of 148 participating organizations. “We are proud and grateful for this recognition o...

A 100 percent Thermo King refrigerated trailer fleet since 2003, Frock Bros. Trucking understands how protecting its assets can lead to ongoing success – for both itself and its customers. Thermo King’s SVC Guaranteed Maintenance Program was a big contributor to the company’s fleet transformation (Frock Bros. was an all-competitor fleet in 1997). Business Evolvement “The focus on preventive maintenance increased our odds of delivering customers’ products on-time,&...

The Big Ass Fans family continues to grow. The HVAC solutions company is excited to announce Watts Engineering Sales, Inc. as the distributor of Big Ass Fans products for the design and new construction market in Alabama. HVAC solutions expert WES Inc., a 100 percent employee-owned business, has provided expertise in the HVAC industry for more than six decades. From its creation in 1959 up till now, Watts has grown to exceed customer expectations by providing the highest quality products and c...

Air Movement and Control Association (AMCA) International Inc. welcomes Tim Mathson to its staff in the role of principal engineer. Mathson, the primary developer of AMCA’s new fan-efficiency metric, fan energy index (FEI), joins AMCA after more than 30 years with a major fan manufacturer and AMCA member. His experience includes both engineering and test-laboratory management. Certified Aerodynamic Performance Rating He has been very active with AMCA, serving as chair of the Fan Committ...

Thermon Group Holdings, Inc. (the “Company”) announces that John T. Nesser III has been appointed to succeed Charles A. Sorrentino as the non-executive chairperson of the board of directors of the Company (the “Board”) in order to provide for an orderly succession for the Board’s leadership. Mr. Sorrentino will continue to serve as a member of the Board. “We want to thank Chuck for his contributions to the company as chairman. His leadership, insights, and gu...

Good news for building owners, engineers/architects, and HVAC contractors who can now save energy, construction costs, and space in commercial facilities with this approved code addition. Doorway air curtains were approved as alternatives to vestibules on most commercial building entries in the upcoming ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2019 Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low Rise Residential Buildings. The professional association’s approved addition requires that the air curtain performance b...

Airedale International, the British-based air conditioning solutions provider, has announced the launch of a new range of R32-optimized air conditioning products. Azure range The Azure range, which has been under development for almost two years at Airedale International’s state-of-the-art research and development facility, is the latest technological innovation from the UK manufacturer which was founded in 1974. The range has been optimized to operate at the same high level of output a...

Significant changes to refrigerant container color protocol will commence in January 2020, as outlined in the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute’s (AHRI) Guideline N, Assignment of Refrigerant Container Colors. Guideline revisions, first published in 2015, specify that all refrigerant containers should have the same paint color, RAL 7044, to reduce confusion among similarly colored refrigerant containers. Preventing safety issues “Misidentifying refrigeran...

Around the world, people are flocking from rural areas to cities. By 2050, there will be more than six billion people living in megacities, twice as many as now. Over the same period, the volume of urban traffic is set to increase threefold, not least because the continuing boom in online commerce will feed further growth in delivery traffic. A denser population and more traffic mean deteriorating air quality. Across the globe, from Paris to Shanghai, major cities face an enormous challenge, wh...

Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) attended an event at the White House with President Trump to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Pledge to America’s Workers. This initiative recognizes the crucial role companies play in educating and training the American workforce. Representing ACCA at the event were, Barton James, ACCA President and CEO, Eric Knaak, ACCA Chairman of the Board and Vice President and General Manager, Isaac Heating and Air Conditioning, and Luis Serrano...

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) have been evaluating energy use and environmental trends for many years. Although legislative organization began nearly a dozen years ago, trends have largely remained consistent. R-22, or HCFC-22, along with other refrigerants, is being phased out because of its impact on the environment, contributing to the depletion of the ozone layer. Shortly after the current president took office in 2017, the DOE established...

Following a successful service delivery for the past three years, Adcock won a tender for the service and maintenance contract for all hospital’s air conditioning and refrigeration equipment. The engineers provide care for a wide range of systems from roof topwater to small split air conditioning units and kitchen fridges and are on hand 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to support the smooth hospital’s operation. reactive support services By providing ongoing maintenance and reacti...

Having launched the Knight low NOx range in 2018, Lochinvar is now pleased to introduce the Charger low NOx range of gas-fired water heaters. The Charger low NOx range is built along the same principles as the well established Charger water heater products, but with a newly developed low NOx burner which meets the most recent ErP legislation. Providing further installation flexibility Charger low NOx water heaters are capable of providing up to almost 90kW output; that’s 1600 liters per...

ECR International announces Jared Kachmar as their new Technical Procurement Analyst. In this position, Jared will primarily be responsible for supporting the Procurement function, the Procurement financial analytics (MPV/PPV, budgets, inventory) and sourcing new components with the new product development teams. Culture of Continuous Improvement ECR is focused on creating a culture of Continuous Improvement in support of our BDR initiatives, and Jared will play a key role in creating and supp...

LIXIL Americas, pioneer of water and housing products that solve day-to-day, real-life challenges, have announced two new positions that will drive brand-led growth and market share gains. Effective immediately, Gene Barbato has been named the new vice president of brand management for American Standard and Matthew Farwell has been selected as vice president of brand management for DXV and GROHE for LIXIL Americas. American Standard, DXV and GROHE brands Both Barbato and Farwell are leading th...

For the third year in a row, Whirlpool is recognized as one of the best places to work for people with disabilities. Whirlpool Corporation has been named one of the best places to work for people with disabilities as part of the 2019 Disability Equality Index (DEI), the nation’s most comprehensive annual benchmarking tool allowing America’s corporations to self-report their disability policies and practices. For the third year in a row, Whirlpool Corporation joined a small league of...

Air conditioning and commercial refrigeration major, Blue Star Limited, has won a prestigious air conditioning and tunnel ventilation system order valued at Rs.253 crores from Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL). AC, tunnel ventilation and environmental control system The scope of this order includes design, engineering, supply, installation and commissioning of the air conditioning, tunnel ventilation and environmental control system for nine underground stations and associated tunn...

“Evaporative cooling, direct, indirect, and two-stage solutions, are being used across the board in a wide variety of commercial and industrial solutions,” said Randy Niederer, Director of Marketing, Cambridge Engineering Inc. “It is currently experiencing a renaissance, as large manufacturing and distribution facilities are choosing this technology to provide cooling relief for employees.” This renaissance, along with several new technology factors, creates a backdrop f...

ASHRAE has announced a call for abstracts for the 2020 Building Performance Analysis Conference and SimBuild, to be held Aug. 12-14, 2020, at the Westin River North in Chicago. Co-organized by ASHRAE and IBPSA-USA, the theme of the conference, "Integrated Building Design and Analysis to Achieve Zero Carbon,” focuses on improving the decision making process through the application of simulation and modeling over the entire building life cycle. “This conference brings together the bui...

ASHRAE announced a call for papers for the Fourth International Conference on Efficient Building Design to be held Oct. 1-2, 2020, at the American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon. “Efficient building design is important to the overall performance of buildings,” says Nesreen Ghaddar, conference chair. “This conference not only offers presentations on latest findings relevant to hot humid climates in the gulf region, it will address the impact of low-energy design on occupa...

The Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Technology Institute (AHRTI), the research arm of the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI), released the results of a benchmarking study on A3 refrigerant R290, which evaluated the potential risks of R290 leaks and ignitions in a whole room-scale setting. All the tests were conducted by AHRTI's subcontractor UL under the supervision of a technical committee consisting of industry experts from AHRI member companies and sta...

The European F-gas Directive is all about the restriction of fluorinated greenhouse gases, which includes hydro-fluorocarbons (HFCs), commonly used as refrigerants for air conditioning. This is a regulation that has been adopted by the European Union to phase-down the usage of refrigerants, which have a high Global Warming Potential (GWP). Since the most common refrigerants used (e.g. R410A, R134a), by individuals and industry wide, are affected by this regulation, there has been a drive lately...