Efficient refrigeration and HVAC systems are essential to energy management and operational cost of residential, commercial, or industrial buildings.

Four core components work together to control when refrigerant is absorbing heat, and when it is releasing heat.

IoT-enabled HVAC systems can accommodate a seamless user experience while reducing environmental impact.

The proper application of modern HVAC technologies can help maximize indoor air quality while minimizing losses in operational efficiency.

When changing the refrigerant within your pumping application, it is worth discussing the application with a process specialist.

Saving one compressor will cover the cost of a voltage monitor and then some.

The first time a technician has to tackle a ductless mini-split can be nerve-racking, but by following these 10 tips, the job can be done without all the anxiety.

CO₂ refrigeration systems demand both classroom knowledge and hands-on experience, which is why blending theory with practice creates top-notch technicians.

Economizers used in rooftop units and air handlers are multipurpose devices that can improve both the energy efficiency and indoor environment in a wide range of commercial buildings.

In supermarkets, where HVAC and refrigeration equipment use 50 to 60 percent of all electricity consumed, new technologies and advanced control strategies have been developed to help boost energy efficiency as well as reduce emissions.

RetroFIT+ is the next iteration of the Belimo retrofit program, which offers online resources, including a product-selection tool, as well as personal support to provide quick and easy access to HVAC replacement solutions for actuators, valves, and sensors.

While many in the industry are pleased the DOE has taken the opportunity to work together to develop its final rule, exactly how much of the working group’s recommendation the regulatory agency will adopt remains to be seen.

On Dec. 17, 2015, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) finalized new negotiated energy conservation standards for commercial air conditioners, heat pumps, and commercial warm-air furnaces, otherwise known as rooftop units (RTUs).

More than half of U.S. commercial building space is cooled by packaged HVAC equipment, according to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). So it comes as no surprise that energy efficiency is the biggest trend driving the rooftop market.

Technological developments are consistently improving the tools technicians have to use.

EPA is counting on increased recovery and reclamation in order to maintain existing HVAC equipment, and finally, the numbers are going in the right direction.

Is reducing a facility's energy consumption by over 130,000 kWh annually through HVAC optimization possible?

In the seventh installment of this series, we ask if there are any special storage requirements for A2L refrigerants.

GreenChill recognized nine supermarket and commercial refrigeration leaders for exceptional achievements to reduce the impacts of commercial refrigeration systems on the environment. 

NASRC has launched a workforce development program that focuses on recruitment, training, and retention, in order to combat the critical shortage of refrigeration technicians. 

Here in the Santa Fe, New Mexico, area — and all across the nation, it seems — everyone wants to be “green.”

HVAC has a critical role to play in the future of building automation and digitalization.

Small- to medium-sized buildings make up about 94% of all commercial buildings in the U.S., according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, yet only 13% of those buildings have a building automation system.

Here are some of the top benefits of commercial HVAC automation and how new technology may soon make automated systems even more valuable.

The expected surge in smart thermostat sales will have equipment manufacturers, many of whom have their own proprietary controls, competing with the well-known universal thermostat brands, such as Nest, Honeywell, and ecobee.

Dick Foster has been preaching the positives of zoning for years. As the owner of ZoneFirst, he has dedicated his life and career to this technology, and it has been a bit of an uphill battle.

Contractors need to equip themselves to be ambassadors when it comes to zoning.

For years, ZoneFirst President Dick Foster has used the light-switches-in-the-home comparison while promoting the benefits of zoning. At their AHR Expo booth, they introduced a product that brought new meaning to that comparison.

“The acquisition of California Economizer and its Zonex Systems brings together the two oldest manufacturers of zoning dampers and zone-control systems,” said Dick Foster, the president of Zonefirst and its parent company, Trolex Corp.

This e-book includes a summary of sustainable HVAC developments, in particular of heat pumps and refrigerant changes to address climate change.

To meet the ambitious environmental goals being proposed at all levels of government, residential air-to-water heat pumps are emerging as a transformative solution to lower carbon emissions, enhance energy efficiency, and reduce utility bills.

The latest rule will require every mobile home gas furnace — and every new residential, non-weatherized gas furnace — to have a minimum annual fuel utilization efficiency (or AFUE) of 95% starting in late 2028.

Residential gas furnaces must all have a minimum AFUE of 95% beginning in five years. Some in the HVAC industry say the new Department of Energy rule will ultimately hurt homeowners.

If contractors don’t have a plan in place to handle red tag furnace second opinions, they can expect some mistakes.

A homeowner in Pickering, Ontario works with an experienced HVAC pro to improve comfort, efficiency, and energy savings with a high-efficiency hydronic forced-air furnace upgrade.

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Changeable software has been a goal of several technique in software engineering. Probably the most important is Refactoring, changing the code without changing the behaviour (or at least without breaking the tests). In this episode Eberhard talks with Martin Lippert about this technique. The episode covers a history of refactoring, a definition of code smells and how to actually do refactorings in your everyday work. Also some advanced topics - like the ROI of Refactoring or Refactoring in dynamic languages - are covered.

In the first episode on Refactoring we talked about the basic ideas behind refactoring and some base principles why refactoring is a key part of software engineering. Now we move on to more complicated refactorings and discuss three major situations, their problems and possible solutions: advanced refactorings in large projects that can hardly be finished in a few minutes or hours and refactoring in larger teams. Also covered are the refactoring of published APIs and how merciless refactoring could be aligned with backward compatibility of published APIs, and refactorings that affect more than just code like for example database schemas.

In this episode we talk with Jeff DeLuca about Feature Driven Development (FDD). As one member of the agile methods family FDD is not so famous as Scrum or Extreme Programming but is becoming more and more popular, especially for situations where you have fixed price contracts. As the inventor of FDD Jeff gives short introduction to the method itself, talks about the basic ideas behind FDD and discusses with us how FDD relates to other members of the agile family.

In this episode we discuss REST (Representational State Transfer) with Stefan Tilkov. We started out by discussing the 5 steps to REST: IDs, links, Standard Methods, multiple representations and stateless communication. We then looked at how to use HTTP for REST, and discussed about how to use it for Web Services. We then we discussed whether and how to use REST for enterprise applications, and not just for apps on the internet. We concluded the discussion with a couple of recommendations.

In this episode we talk with Jeff McAffer about building platforms. We start with a brief discussion about what a platform is in contrast to a framework or an application. Drawing from his experiences working on the Eclipse platform for years, Jeff talks with us about how to develop platforms, why developing a platform is different from developing an application, what makes a good platform great, and why API design becomes so extremely important for platforms. He provides us with some insights on how the development process and the client collaboration for platform development could look like and what has and has not worked in the past.

Recording Venue: Phone Guest: Jeff Frey System z, or the Mainframe, holds most of us in awe — the ultimate computing platform, referenced in Hollywood as well as by those who thought they were dealing with “legacy” systems — but what does Mainframe really mean? What does its stack look like? This leading virtualized infrastructure […]

Micro services is an emerging trend in software architecture that focuses on small, lightweight applications as a means to avoid large, unmaintainable, monolithic systems. This approach allows for individual technology stacks for each component and more resilient systems. Micro services uses well-known communication schemes such as REST but also require new technologies for the implementation. […]

Kief Morris talks to Sven Johann about Infrastructure as Code and why it is important in the “Cloud Age”. Kief talks about the practices and benefits and why you should treat your servers as cattles, not pets.