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Try to get the public into AHR Expo. The 13 SEER mandate is causing an increase in energy use.

According to the Chinese calendar, the Year of the Earth Ox begins Jan. 26. Ironically, that is the first day of the 2009 AHR Expo. I know of more than a few contractors who said they were debating on going to the expo because they had to cut back somewhere. It may be that kind of year for one and all. This year may be as slow as an ox.

Contractors can help others be stewards of equipment. Sealing the system permanently.

Occasionally, I have been known to be wrong. That has never stopped me from throwing around a few opinions, four-letter words, warnings, and prognostications. Before I launch the 2009 forecast, it is only fair to check in on a few of my past projections to find out how credible of a source I really might be.

The wildly popular “art” of social networking began with such industry staples as MySpace and FaceBook and have now spun off into many other forms of cyber interaction. “Share” is now becoming a real buzzword for people, groups, or businesses to send their own messages into cyberspace.

Some answers to current HVACR questions. It’s not an extension of the tax credits.

At the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) 2008 Annual Meeting, Keith Coursin, who assumed the AHRI chairman post for 2009, stated that the new Obama administration might very well accelerate standards and regulations that affect the HVACR industry. In my humble opinion, this is a very realistic expectation.

One of the most talked-about issues in the industry’s changeover from HCFC to HFC refrigerants is when the per-pound cost of the former is expected to overtake the cost of the latter. That crossover point hasn’t been reached yet, and a lot of issues are mixing themselves into an already confusing situation.

Running a company in hard times. Taking inventory of inventory. Direct mailing and seeding. Keeping readers informed.

You know, residential contractors seem to be more effective at selling maintenance agreements to their customers than commercial-institutional contractors are. This surprises me; it would seem to me that in the world that these commercial contractors deal in, businesses would have a better grasp of the costs of deferred maintenance.