HVAC Equipment Shipments Spike in 2013

Some interesting news from the Air Conditioning|Heating|Refrigeration News:

HVACR equipment was selling in 2013. In fact, some would describe 2013 as a banner year for HVACR shipments. According to the Air-Conditioning, Heating, & Refrigeration Institute (AHRI), shipments of residential storage water heaters, commercial storage water heaters, warm-air furnaces, central air conditioners, and air-source heat pumps increased in 2013, when compared to comparable data recorded in 2012.

Things are Looking Up

The numbers support the growing consensus in the industry that things are definitely improving. At the 2014 AHR Expo, held this January in New York City, Steve Yurek, president and CEO at AHRI, agreed that manufacturers are feeling more optimistic than they were a year ago.

“I think everybody’s feeling pretty good about 2013 — it was a good year for the industry,” Yurek said in a recent NEWSmaker podcast. “I think everyone is [feeling] very positive. I think the industry itself … has a positive outlook for 2014, both in the residential and commercial space.”

Francis Dietz, vice president of public affairs, AHRI, said the organization is happy with the shipment data and hopes to see the trend continue

"We are pleased to see an uptick in shipments in the year-to-date numbers for these products,” he said. “[We] hope it bodes well for the industry as a whole in 2014 and beyond.”

According to the data, which was released in February, equipment shipments increased in every category AHRI tracks, but one — oil warm-air furnaces, which decreased 10.7 percent to 32,144 in 2013, compared with 35,980 units shipped during the same period in 2012.

U.S. shipments of central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps increased 9.9 percent to 6,169,700 units in 2013, up from 5,613,665 units shipped in 2012. Year-to-date shipments of central air conditioners increased 7.3 percent to 4,201,068 units, up from 3,915,869 units shipped during the same period in 2012. Year-to-date heat pump shipments increased 16.0 percent to 1,968,632 units, up from 1,697,796 units shipped in 2012.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about Indoor Air Quality and other HVAC topics, click here to visit our website

PORTABLE HEAT PUMPS

Just some information I wanted to share with our readers.

Less than 30 inches wide, the PACSlim-5 portable heat pump delivers 57,100-Btuh cooling capacity and 55,700-Btuh heating capacity. It may be used for outdoor spot cooling and heating or for indoor areas such as offices and conferences rooms, lobbies, stores, classrooms, health care facilities, and more. The PACSlim-5 can be used as a portable cooling unit only, a cooler with electric resistive heat, a conventional heat pump, or heat pump with auxiliary electric heat. Units are available in either 208-230-V single-phase or triple-phase, or 460-V triple-phase power supply, with or without 10- or 15-kW resistive heat. Features include lockable casters and removable 16-inch supply and return duct collars. The unit is factory-charged with an environmentally friendly refrigerant. A secure, weather-tight control panel and
color-coded Camlock power connectors contribute to the unit’s installation and maintenance ease. Options include a remote thermostat or condensate pump. The PACSlim-5 has an operating range of 65°-115°F in the cooling mode. In the heating function, the range can vary depending on the mode (electric heat versus heat pump).

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about Indoor Air Quality and other HVAC topics, click here to visit our website

GPS in SERVICE VEHICLES

Here at Action Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc., all of our vehicles are equiped with a GPS Tracking device. We find it very helpful to keep in touch with our technicians and to better serve our customers. An example would be when a customer calls in to the office and would like an estimated time of arrival at their residence. We can pull the vehicle up on the computer and find the location of that vehicle. The GPS enables us to track the amount of time a vehicle is on a job. This is very helpful with billable hours. The GPS tracking system has improved our business.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about Indoor Air Quality and other HVAC topics, click here to visit our website.

WINTER MAINTENANCE

There is still plenty of time to call and set up a maintenance on your system. Give our office a call and we will explain our Action USA (Ultimate Savings Agreement) Service Agreements. Choose one that fits your budget. We service and repair all makes and models.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about Indoor Air Quality and other HVAC topics, click here to visit our website

HEAT PUMP DEFROST CYCLE/MODE

When the weather is colder, we get a lot of call from our customers stating that they saw smoke coming out of their outside heat pump condensing unit and there is ice on the unit. My first question to them usually is, "Is it ICE, or is it FROST?" Then they usually respond that it is frost. So I explain to them that the heat pump is in the defrost cycle/mode and it was steam, not smoke, that they saw and NOT to turn the system off because this is a normal function of the heat pump system.

When a homeowner sees a puff of steam coming out of their heat pump condensing unit, and it is a cold day, the heat pump is probably in the "defrost cycle/mode". The defrost cycle/mode is a normal function of a heat pump system in colder weather. Icing/frosting on a heat pump condenser is normal in cooler weather. The outdoor unit, which is normally an air conditioner, reverses the process and becomes a heater. In the heating mode, the outdoor coil becomes cooler than the outdoor air in order to absorb heat from the outdoor air and pump it indoors. The heat pump has a defrost cycle/mode that will reverse the heat pump back to the air conditioning mode when it detects ice/frost on the outdoor coil. In the cooling mode, the outdoor coil is hot from the heat absorbed from the indoor air. The hot outdoor coil melts the ice and then the defrost control returns the heat pump to the heating mode. During the defrost cycle/mode, the indoor coil is cold, so the auxiliary heat is used to temper the cooler air.

If you see ice (about a 1/4" thick), turn your thermostat to the auxilary/emergency heat mode and call your service provider.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about Indoor Air Quality and other HVAC topics, click here to visit our website.

Air Scrubber Plus: Air Purification System

Applicable in homes, hospitals, schools, offices, and more, the Air Scrubber Plus® with ActivePure™ technology cleans, freshens, and purifies the air using specialized germicidal UV light waves along with a proprietary catalytic process that creates enviroscrubbing molecules of oxygen and hydrogen. It cleans the air and surfaces of a home or building, reducing up to 99 percent of surface microorganisms and a dramatic amount of airborne contaminants and allergens, said the manufacturer. The system works via a combination of UV light, oxygen, and water molecules reacting together and passing through the honeycomb cell coated with a proprietary formulation of non-nano titanium dioxide and other highly reactive metals. The oxidation process produces superoxide ions, hydroxyls, and hydrogen peroxide, which in turn cleans the air and surfaces in the indoor environment. It has a simple installation process that allows it to be incorporated into virtually any indoor heating and cooling system according to the company.


Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about Indoor Air Quality and other HVAC topics, click here to visit our website.

SLICK LOCKS

Welcome to 2014. We hope you had a very nice Christmas and continue to have a great New Year.

Along with homeowners protecting their equipment, we in the service field also have to protect our investments. Below is an article we found that is quite interesting.

The commercial vehicle locking system, Slick Locks, is a no-drill puck lock security system. The system’s patented blade bracket design uses stainless steel hasps that pass between a vehicle’s doors and easily bolts to existing factory mounting points. According to the manufacturer, work vehicle security is a major issue for contractors, tradesmen, and fleet managers, due, in part, to remote job sites and valuable equipment that is stored inside the trucks. The locking systems install rapidly and are a cost-effective way to meet a truck fleet’s security needs, said the company. The Slick Locks locking systems are available for work vehicles, including the Ford Transit Connect, full-size Ford Econoline, and Chevy Express in both sliding and 60/40 hinged-door models.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about Indoor Air Quality and other HVAC topics, click here to visit our website.