For your information news briefs from a wide variety of categories within the HVAC industry. Price increases, mergers and acquisitions, award winners, and more are highlighted here each week.

ACQUISITIONS

Elevate Home Services (Fort Myers, Fla.) acquired St. Clair’s Custom Air (Cape Coral, Fla.).

RESIDENTIAL CONTRACTORS

Home services business platform Zephyr (New York) raised more than $60 million in its latest fundraising effort.

Airmax Heating and Cooling (Wilmington, N.C.) agreed to a partnership with Columbia Home Services (Dallas, Texas).

The Seer Group (Lynnwood, Wash.) will implement the Interplay Learning (Austin, Texas) career development platform to centralize training.

Redwood Services (Memphis, Tenn.) won the Best Places to Work award in the small business category from the Memphis Business Journal (Memphis, Tenn.).

MANUFACTURERS

Ecoer Inc. (Dulles, Va.) picked the low-GWP refrigerant R-454B for its new heat pumps.

Lennox (Richardson, Texas) donated 413 HVAC units to deserving homeowners through the LII Lennox Foundation.

Fujitsu General America Inc. (Pine Brook, N.J.) held its sixth annual National Distributor Conference in Boston, Massachusetts.

Decon7 Systems (Coppell, Texas) hired Doug Gulley as regional sales manager for the Southeast.

Daikin Applied (Minneapolis) made a majority investment in Varitec Solutions (Phoenix), a designer and installer of commercial HVAC systems.

Fieldpiece Instruments (Orange, Calif.) was named one of the Best Places to Work by the Best Companies Group (Harrisburg, Pa.).

Honeywell International Inc. (Charlotte, N.C.) announced plans to spin off its advanced materials business.

DSI Dantech (Aalborg, Denmark) acquired the North American freezing business of GEA Group (Düsseldorf, Germany).

Diversified CPC International (Channahon, Ill.) opened a processing plant in Beaumont, Texas.

DeWalt (New Britain, Connecticut) awarded a grant to the trades education nonprofit Heavy Metal Summer Experience (San Francisco).

Mojave Energy Systems (Sunnyvale, Calif.) was awarded its seventh patent for its liquid desiccant air-conditioning system.

CONTRACTOR SERVICES

Glasshouse (Nashville, Tenn.) will incorporate Textla (Chattanooga, Tenn.) short-messaging service (SMS) marketing into its platform.

ASSOCIATIONS

A study by ICF Consulting (Reston, Va.) and sponsored by the North American Insulation Manufacturers Association (Alexandria, Va.) estimated that 89% of single-family homes in the U.S. are under-insulated.