“Brazed plate” was the catchphrase in the heat exchanger sector at the 2008 Air-Conditioning, Heating, Refrigerating Exposition (AHR Expo). Companies were showing a range of exchanger technologies, but brazed plate proved to be the most frequently seen and most highly touted by their advocates.
Condensers and coils drew much attention among the new products in the refrigeration sector of the 2008 Air Conditioning, Heating, Refrigerating Expo as did several technological twists with names like “chilled-beam cooling” and “hybrid refrigeration.” Here are some of the latest products by category.
Figuring out what refrigerants contractors will be using in the years ahead and for how long remains an issue in flux, based on presentations and conversations at the 2008 International Air-Conditioning, Heating, Refrigerating Exposition (AHR Expo).
Ball valves were the most frequently seen new valves shown at the 2008 Air-Conditioning, Heating, Refrigerating Expo (AHR Expo), and terms like “dual positioning” and “bi-directional” were the most often promoted technological twists.
That magical moment of midnight Dec. 31, 2009, where manufacturers will no longer be producing new equipment running on HCFC-22 - but on HFC-410A instead - may not be that magical of a moment after all. A closer reading of the EPA regulations seems to say that equipment can no longer be pre-charged with virgin R-22, but the buyer could have it charged later.
Any time a press release calls what is being offered as the ‘world’s first’ it still does catch the eyes of us world-weary journalists. Such was the case with a press release passed along to me a month or so ago with the heading “World’s First CO2 Refrigeration Interactive Course.”
What do free haircuts, a song by Sheryl Crow, and the TV series Band of Brothers have in common? They all are components of a successful contracting company, LPAC, in Bradenton, Fla., which was chosen as Best Contractor to Work For in the South region.
Well, one New Year’s resolution for 2008 is clear cut for contractors: to recover, recycle, and reclaim more R-22. It has been a recurring call for many years, but it recently took on a greater sense of urgency because of a recent study from DuPont Refrigerants.
When will the crunch come? When will the demand for R-22 surpass the supply? For a number of years the best guess was around 2015 when the phase down in the production of R-22 would no longer be offset by an adequate reclamation effort on the part of contractors.
Frequently one of the targets at which to aim blame for the technician shortage is high school guidance counselors. And for a long time I shared that frustration. That is, until I read an editorial in the Rockford (Ill.) Register-Star.
