Executive Order EO13706 would require federal prime contractors and subcontractors to permit workers employed on covered federal contracts and subcontracts of $2,000 or more to accrue one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) was published in the Federal Register on Feb. 25.

HVAC industry professionals converged March 10-13 in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the return of the ACCA 2016 conference and IE3 Expo: The Indoor Environment & Energy Expo. The combined events drew more than 1,500 people from all over the country.

Upgrading your methodologies may be a costly endeavor, but, I’d wager the price of running in place will end up costing you much more. Don’t be a Borders Bookstore in today’s Kindle world.

While ACCA and its members had a successful year, there were a number of challenges the industry faced as a whole. Some of the biggest were keeping up with the regulatory proposals and bills in Congress.

Steve Lauten, president and CEO of Total Air and Heat Co. in Plano, Texas, started working in his father’s residential HVAC business as a teenager. During high school and college, he gained employment with a commercial contractor, spending 13 years working with one large mechanical contractor before joining the family business in 1987.

The mechanical systems contractor offers large-scale and specialty mechanical construction project management, engineering and design-build services, mechanical system service, controls technology, off-site construction, 24/7 servicing, modular fabrication, and virtual building systems (VBS).

In the new home construction and retrofit markets, tighter building codes and the desire to become more energy efficient is driving innovation in the HVAC ductwork and sheet metal market.