It's not hard to get HVAC manufacturers to comment on some topics, especially those where they can present a proactive agenda. When it comes to finding and training tomorrow's technicians, however, it's more than being able to present a positive spin. It's Business 101.

Many digital multimeters have a tilt stand and test leads, meaning it would take three hands to use it. How do you accomplish this when you only have two hands and you are the only tech assigned to this call?

"One-stop shopping" is the big promise HVAC parts suppliers have been making to contractors and their technicians. Manufacturers hope that broad product offerings, technical support, qualified counter staff, and faster response time will help them get to the top of contractors' parts supply lists.

Now that there are just over four months until the industry officially switches from a minimum efficiency standard of 10 SEER to the new minimum of 13 SEER, let's take a moment to look back at how the industry reached this juncture and what contractors, manufacturers, distributors, and dealers need to do from this point forward.

The journey to the current 13 SEER legislation may illustrate more clearly than anything else why this industry and others dislike government interference so intensely.

Watch out, contractors. Engineers in Denver for the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Annual Meeting were asking themselves, "What often-ignored factors affect the performance of residential forced-air systems?"

Residential thermal energy storage (TES) systems have been discussed since the 1970s and 80s. Is the time right for another push in the direction of residential-light commercial cooling systems?

It's hardly news that America's school buildings are aging. In many areas of the country, school HVAC systems range from the inefficient to the decrepit. HVAC systems are now widely recognized as having a big impact on IAQ problems among students and faculty, and making smaller system changes is much preferred to building a new school.

One of the latest catchphrases in the school market is "high-performance school." From an HVAC perspective, you might expect this to be an energy-efficient room. You would only be partially correct.

There are horror stories about permanent HVAC equipment operated while the building was under construction, and the resulting damage. The question of whether a permanent system should be used at all during construction was pondered during a forum at the 2005 ASHRAE Annual Meeting.