Solid working knowledge of the correct application of damper actuators can be the key to commercial HVAC system operation and troubleshooting. Choosing and installing the correct damper in the first place means winning more than half the battle.

It was the last morning of ASHRAE’s 2003 Annual Meeting. However, meaty sessions were scheduled, we assume, to encourage people to participate to the very end. That’s what happened when papers were presented at 8 a.m. on the “Effects of Unitary Cycling on Unitary System Performance.” The session was standing room only, and for good reason: Researchers were discussing moisture loads from unitary air conditioners.

Do commercial flow hoods work well for residential systems? According to a researcher at the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers’ (ASHRAE’s) 2003 Annual Meeting, they don’t always work as well as some homemade flow hoods.

Can air terminal units be quiet? Yes, if proper attention is given to their placement and installation. This was the opinion of four speakers at “Controlling Noise From Terminal Boxes,” a seminar given at the 2003 ASHRAE Annual Meeting.

Perhaps the title of the seminar held at the 2003 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) should have been “Mold And The HVACR Industry,” rather than “Mold In The HVACR Industry.” With the major contractor and manufacturer associations actually looking to the federal government for standards and regulations, the thinking was anything but moldy.

A lawsuit over the shape of a thermostat — the round-shaped thermostat design with federal trademark registration for Honeywell International Inc. dating back to 1946, and recently used in a new thermostat from Eco Manufacturing LLC — has gone through its first stages.

There are increasing numbers of residential chillers, as well as a wide variety of commercial and process chillers. Not many topics apply to all categories, makes, and designs; the use of antifreeze, however, is one that does.

For many contractors in the Midwest and in the northern and eastern parts of the United States, the 2003 cooling season started off chilly and damp. While cool, damp weather is not ideal for cooling sales, it can be a boon for products that address indoor air quality (IAQ), which suffers when mold and fungi are in bloom.

Robin Pharo of Aprilaire agrees “absolutely” that some contractors are skeptical about UV. This could be because “A lot of companies weren’t straightforward about UV when it first came out, when it works and when it doesn’t,” she explained.

Today’s products designed to help improve indoor air quality (IAQ) range from refinements of older technologies to new developments. This article offers a sampling of some products contractors may consider adding to their existing arsenal of IAQ-related weapons.