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If you enjoy business acronyms the HVAC industry offers as many as you could ever want. However, one of the latest movements gaining momentum - Net Zero Energy Buildings - needs a little help. It doesn’t have an acronym, and everybody knows that to gain traction in this market, you must have one.

Refrigerants R-22, R-123, and the Montreal Protocol. The tech shortage elephant in the room.

Christmas came early to my house. Early in November, my husband and I had our regular HVAC contractor, Jerry, install a new furnace and air conditioner. It all started with the air conditioner, which died a timely death (it was about 20 years old) this past summer.

Why don’t you help your customers with those Christmas decorations? Don’t laugh. When you are rummaging through your lists of potential services to add to your market mix, putting up Christmas trees might not be such a bad idea.

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.

It is time to take a serious look at the testing methodology for determining Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER). If the automotive industry is any indication, HVAC test procedures are probably overdue for some changes.

Carbon’s global warming role debate continues.

Retailers have diversified and have included additional products and services to their main offering. I wondered how we could apply these principles to our HVAC contracting businesses. The things that came to mind immediately are maintenance agreements, water panels for humidifiers, and replacement media for media air cleaners.

The front page of this week’s issue carries an interesting, and actually, ground-breaking story. The Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI) and the Gas Appliance Manufacturers Association (GAMA) have taken important steps toward the merger of these two powerful industry organizations.

According to Wikipedia, hot stove “is not actually a league, but the term instead calls up images of baseball fans, anxious for the start of the new season, gathering around a hot stove during the cold winter months discussing their favorite baseball teams.” Now let’s take that sports metaphor and compare it to the HVAC world.