The day Jan. 1, 2010 will bring many changes to the HVAC industry. As of that date, R-22 will no longer be available in new cooling systems manufactured in the United States or Canada, and our neighbors to the north will have a new national minimum energy performance standard for gas furnaces - a minimum fuel efficiency level of 90 percent AFUE.
Only 100 years ago, 90 percent of Americans burned wood to heat their homes. As fossil fuel use rose, the percentage of Americans using wood for fuel dropped, falling to as low as 1 percent by 1970, according to the DOE. Now that the green movement is taking hold, interest in biomass heating is resurfacing as a renewable energy alternative.
HVACR contractors and technicians are busy people who often find it difficult to attend training courses held during their hectic workdays. Though it’s important to make time for ongoing training during regular circumstances, it becomes even more crucial when a major change occurs in the industry - such as the current transition from R-22 to R-410A.
It’s not every day that a contractor has the pleasure of replacing equipment he installed more than 30 years ago. But that is all in a day’s work for Angelo Sardinha. He recently replaced the five 300,000 Btu cast iron atmospheric boilers he installed years ago at the Truesdale Clinic.
The No. 1 reason why customers choose to install a hydronic/geothermal system is comfort, according to Bill Landis, sales manager, J.K. Mechanical Inc., Willow Street, Pa. And the No. 2 reason? That would be comfort as well, he joked.
“I defy anyone to show me a building that can’t be retrofitted with hydronic radiant heat,” declared Dave Yates, president, F.W. Behler, York, Pa. “I can come up with a solution for any structure. I can’t think of any situation that would prevent us from being able to install radiant heat.”
Congress is back in session and the HVACR industry is waiting to see what the Senate has to say about the Waxman-Markey bill, H.R. 2454 - the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES). The bill, which already passed in the House, contains sweeping environmental reform that will change the way this industry and America does business.
Much of the focus lately has been about how the phaseout of HCFCs will affect a/c equipment; however, commercial refrigeration will also be significantly affected by the phaseout. Consider all the supermarket food cases, walk-in refrigerators/coolers/freezers, ice cream machines, etc., that currently utilize R-22, and you’ll get an idea of the magnitude of that market.
A huge portion of the commercial refrigeration market is still utilizing R-22 equipment. In fact, Grady McAdams of Heatcraft Refrigeration Products noted that research and analysis of the 1997 to 2007 installed base showed the retrofit market for HCFC condensing units for commercial refrigeration applications could be as high as 2.5 million units.
When CFCs were phased out, commercial building owners and managers had to decide whether to keep existing chillers that used refrigerant such as R-11 or invest in equipment containing HCFCs such as R-22. Now that HCFCs are being phased out, owners and managers are faced with the same decision: keep current equipment or move to chillers using HFC refrigerants.
