Commercial building owners and managers count on HVAC contractors to take care of their buildings in many ways. They’re expected to keep their facilities cool and comfortable, ensure their processes and procedures continue to hum along, provide quality IAQ, and, of course, maintain their equipment. On this last point, the proper maintenance of chillers takes top billing.
Is it time to remake the image of the refrigeration technician? Could a new title for the role help the hardest-working men and women in the HVACR industry get more of the respect they so richly deserve? And, more importantly, could a new image help attract more young people to our industry? If so, maybe it’s time to introduce the newest member of the HVACR industry: the thermodynamic energy specialist.
On March 28, Trump issued the Energy Independence executive order, which directs the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to begin reviewing — and presumably weaken the provisions of — the Clean Power Plan. The order is also designed to decrease the nation’s dependence on imported fuels, mainly by helping revive the coal industry.
Refrigeration contractors don’t get many opportunities to “slam dunk,” but when it comes to energy savings opportunities for their supermarket clients, they can soar like NBA all-stars.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there were 6.3 million police-reported vehicle crashes in the U.S. in 2015. Those crashes resulted in more than 35,000 fatalities and 2.4 million injuries.
The case can be made that recovery and reclamation begins with keeping refrigerants in the system where they belong; refrigerant that leaks out into the atmosphere is never going to be recovered or reclaimed.
Springtime means many different things to many different people: Love in the air; baseball, golf, and grilling; shorts and sunscreen; a rebirth; a triumph of the dogged determination of life to begin anew after winter. Or, for those in the refrigeration industry, spring of 2017 means just three more cooling seasons until the only R-22 on the market will be what’s available through reclaimers or in individual inventories (a.k.a. stockpiles).
Carbon dioxide (CO2) as a refrigerant is gaining increasing industry acceptance in commercial and industrial refrigeration systems in North America, according to a survey conducted by Danfoss. The survey also identified barriers to greater CO2 use in refrigeration.
Compressor burnout is a very specific mode of failure that may be caused by high temperatures in the motor windings or discharge area of the compressor.
Several leading compressor manufacturers weighed in with insights and advice for contractors and technicians as they learn how to work safely with the equipment utilizing these so-called alternative refrigerants as they transition into primary refrigerant choices.