A self-described “prairie voice” sees refrigeration contractors and technicians as not having a lot of influence in their industry, but still able to thrive because of their skills and ability to adapt.

We in the HVACR industry have wrapped ourselves in a cocoon to protect our HFC refrigerants and tried to hide from the global warming attacks being leveled at those refrigerants.

The compressor may be the ‘heart’ of an HVACR system, but it is a constantly changing component. With the dust finally settling from the most recent AHR Expo, The NEWS decided to check in with a few manufacturers of compressor and compressor-related technologies and ask them to do a bit of crystal-ball gazing.

It is probably safe to say that anyone who works in and around the HVACR industry knows what a scroll compressor is. It is now almost a household name. Of course, this wasn’t always the case.

More than ever before, today’s computer cooling systems are using conventional refrigeration designs. One of the newest twists involves using the thermostatic expansion valve and the compressor as control elements.

A DuPont Webcast event noted increasing pressure to further regulate HFCs and industry efforts to find refrigerants with lower global warming potential (GWP).

Let’s say you have a new service van or truck and you want to fill it with the tools and test instruments you need on the job. Or you’re driving a van you’ve had for a long time and you’ve gotten around to cleaning it out and now you want to figure out what you really need in there. One way to develop a checklist of needed items.

One good way to get an overview of what’s new in tools and test instruments, leak detectors, and recovery equipment was at the most recent Air Conditioning, Heating, Refrigerating Expo in Dallas. There, a lot of what’s new was on display. The article is an overview by categories of some of the new equipment.

Technicians who handle refrigerants need to be EPA certified to do so. The ways to get that done these days can be very high tech, and fairly easy compared to the early days of sitting in a classroom and taking a written test.

When the new compressors at the expo are identified as scrolls, semi-hermetics, discus, screws, recips, and rotary, you realize that variety remains the theme of the sector. But the latest generations of those technologies have more emphasis than ever before on digital and variable-capacity options.