By: Joanna R. Turpin

The day Jan. 1, 2010 will bring many changes to the HVAC industry. As of that date, R-22 will no longer be available in new cooling systems manufactured in the United States or Canada, and our neighbors to the north will have a new national minimum energy performance standard for gas furnaces. After the New Year, gas furnaces manufactured for most Canadian residential applications must have a minimum fuel efficiency level of 90 percent AFUE.

This is a significant jump from the current Canadian minimum standard of 78 percent AFUE for gas furnaces, but the new regulation was not a surprise, as the government has discussed raising minimum furnace efficiency standards for more than 10 years. The reasons given for the new efficiency standard are to improve the environment and reduce greenhouse gases; in addition, the more efficient furnaces will reduce energy bills for consumers.

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Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are getting a lot of attention these days, However PHVAC contractors should be more concerned with web technology that allows online customer reviews of their products and services. Customer reviews have taken word-of-mouth marketing online, and strangers are becoming referral sources for each other.

Customers are posting reviews of your service online right now. The problem with Web 2.0 is that every single customer has his or her own printing press.

In fact, contractors should be more than concerned that it takes as many as five positive online reviews to counteract ever single negative review.

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By: David Roberts

On Friday, Matt Yglesias made the point that only socialist state control seems capable of creating a robust nuclear power industry. After all, the only countries building nuke plants these days are the ones where governments are making the decisions. David Frum replied with a series of wildly overbroad assertions ranging from false to highly misleading, with no evidence or links to support them. (Nuclear power has an impressive effect on conservative error-to-word ratios.) Matt replied in turn, and in doing so echoed a familiar misunderstanding:

That said, obviously you need a certain amount electricity that can be relied upon irrespective of how windy it is or whether the sun is shining. So I’d happily see the nuclear share of the pie grow at the expense of coal and oil as the provider of that baseload electricity.

This notion has really grabbed the public imagination. It’s become conventional wisdom that the grid can only incorporate a limited amount of renewable energy; ergo, we need coal and nuclear power plants for “baseload” electricity. Clean energy skeptics wave the word “baseload” around like a talisman.

There’s far less to the claim than meets the eye, though. As Amory Lovins points out, it’s a category error: baseload is a characteristic of aggregated demand, not of any particular kind of supply. He distills the counter-argument:

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by Chris Wade

Penn State’s Natural Fusion House – With expansive opening glass walls and an array of natural materials, PSU’s Solar Decathlon house is as much about being at-one with the environment as it is about protecting it.

From the moment Penn State’s Solar Decathlon house comes into view, it’s easy to see how it earned its “Natural Fusion” moniker. From the Pennsylvania-native plants that surround the footprint to the swath of opening glass walls to the greenery gracing the roof and interior and exterior walls, the team’s effort to connect residents to nature is clear.

The 620-square-foot house, whose basic structure was built in a modular plant, boasts an open floor plan with abundant light and connections to the outdoors on five sides; materials and design touches further evoke a natural connection.

The primary HVAC system in PSU’s entry feature 2 – 26 SEER Fujitsu Halcyon mini-split heat pumps. These units do not require conventional ductwork or mechanical space, and their efficiency rival that of ground source heat pumps.

To visit the PSU Solar Decathlon team website click here.

By: Peter Powell

The refrigerant R-744 (CO2) has gained one of its strongest footholds yet in the commercial refrigeration sector with the announcement that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has “found it acceptable for replacing HCFC-22 in supermarkets.”

“The green light came under the EPA’s Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) program, which evaluates alternatives to substances being phased out to protect the stratospheric ozone layer,” said David Hinde, manager of research and development for Hill Phoenix, the manufacturer of supermarket equipment who provided the submission to the SNAP program.

The move means that R-744 can be used in new installations that might have previously opted to use R-22. The approval does not relate to the retrofit of existing R-22 systems.
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