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For climates with moderate heating and cooling needs, heat pumps offer an energy-efficient alternative to furnaces and air conditioners. Like your refrigerator, heat pumps use electricity to move heat from a cool space into a warm, making the cool space cooler and the warm space warmer. During the heating season, heat pumps move heat from the cool outdoors into your warm house; during the cooling season, heat pumps move heat from your cool house into the warm outdoors. Because they move heat rather than generate heat, heat pumps can provide up to 4 times the amount of energy they consume.
The most common type of heat pump is the air-source heat pump, which transfers heat between your house and the outside air. If you heat with electricity, a heat pump can trim the amount of electricity you use for heating by as much as 30% - 40%. High-efficiency heat pumps also dehumidify better than standard central air conditioners, resulting in less energy usage and more cooling comfort in summer months. However, the efficiency of most air-source heat pumps as a heat source drops dramatically at low temperatures, generally making them unsuitable for cold climates, although there are systems that can overcome that problem.
For homes without ducts, air-source heat pumps are also available in a ductless version called a mini-split heat pump. In addition, a special type of air-source heat pump called a "reverse cycle chiller" generates hot and cold water rather than air, allowing it to be used with radiant floor heating systems in heating mode.
Higher efficiencies are achieved with geothermal (ground-source or water-source) heat pumps, which transfer heat between your house and the ground or a nearby water source. Although they cost more to install, geothermal heat pumps have low operating costs because they take advantage of relatively constant ground or water temperatures. However, the installation depends on the size of your lot, the subsoil and landscape. Ground-source or water-source heat pumps can be used in more extreme climatic conditions than air-source heat pumps, and customer satisfaction with the systems is very high.
A new type of heat pump for residential systems is the absorption heat pump, also called a gas-fired heat pump. Absorption heat pumps use heat as their energy source, and can be driven with a wide variety of heat sources.
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Yellowed by age, a copy of ?Koldfax,? the official monthly newsletter of the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute, documents the big news: On May 18, 1953 the ARI Board of Directors met for the first time, elected officers and began its long evolution into an Institute of Excellence.
Born a month earlier from the merger of the Refrigeration Equipment Manufacturers Association (REMA) and the Air Conditioning and Refrigerating Machinery Association (ACRMA), the new ARI had an important role, according to the chairman of the committee who handled the joining of the two organizations. He declared that ARI should: ??put the important story across of how and why, in peace and war, the refrigeration and air conditioning industry is vital. A united industry is needed to insure the continuance of the mechanical cooling industry as a prime industry entity and to prevent its descent to secondary status.?
The following November, 13,500 attendees and 234 exhibitors jammed an ?All Industry Show? at the public auditorium in Cleveland ? a worthy precursor to the AHR Exposition in Chicago this year with its tens of thousands of visitors and over 1,500 exhibits spread over nine acres. Similar turnouts are expected in Annaheim in 2004 and Orlando in 2005.
For expo attendees of 50 years ago the Cleveland venue offered a unique opportunity for entertaining business prospects. The Cleveland Browns played the Pittsburgh Steelers and a block of 500 tickets was arranged. Ticket cost: $3.60 each. In reviewing Koldfax issues of 50 years ago, it is fascinating to read the excitement that accompanied publication of ARI?s first standards and the creation of product sections. Other items detail business opportunities such as the fact that the number of U.S. motels had doubled from the 25,000 counted in 1948 and that 500,000 room air conditioners would be in use in U.S. homes.
One early Koldfax item notes: ?Air conditioning in modern super markets is now a must? while another item notes: ?You can remember when automobiles had no self starter?no heater?no radio. Today they all have them. Now comes the announcement that air conditioning will be available in 1953 Cadillacs and Oldsmobiles as optional equipment. This might well be the beginning of a trend.?
Who among the original organizers of ARI could have conceived that by this February the industry would ship over 132 million central air conditioners and heat pumps?. Who could imagine the scope of the annual replacement market or that more than 85 percent of new homes would be built with central air conditioning? Who could imagine that Koldfax would be delivered electronically and that ARI?s standards, performance ratings and thousands of additional pages of information would be housed in hyperspace at www.ari.org?
While those prospective achievements were not being dreamed about a half century ago, the reality of a fast-growing market did inspire ARI?s founders to invest in the future by launching worker training and recruitment efforts.
For example, three ARI Educational Conferences were held in 1954-55 with technical sessions to demonstrate installation and maintenance techniques. Today, with the industry dependent on hundreds of thousands of installers and technicians, the challenge is even greater.
The HVACR industry needs to recruit at least 20,000 new technicians each year just to fill vacancies. With retirement looming for many thousands of skilled workers, the challenge is becoming more difficult, especially with industries like information technology and the Internet/computer explosion siphoning away many potential recruits.
To help fill this void the North American Technician Excellence (NATE) program provides enhanced value through its certification program. Also, the Career Education Coalition, a cooperative effort of 12 industry associations, has launched a number of efforts designed to attract the best and the brightest to HVACR careers.
CEC hosts a Web site at www.coolcareers.org where prospects can learn more about lifetime opportunities in heating, cooling, plumbing, ventilation and refrigeration. The site includes information about scholarships including those from the new Clifford H. ?Ted? Rees Jr. Scholarship Foundation which is chaired by former ARI Board Chairman Daniel W. Holmes, Jr. The Foundation will be making its first awards this year to students attending HVACR training. The Foundation is looking for support to build its endowment so that many more scholarships can be provided in future years. There could be no better way to celebrate ARI?s 50th anniversary year than to donate to this worthy cause.
Our future is as bright, if not brighter, than the future seen by those who established ARI. By recruiting quality workers to rewarding careers this industry will be building for the future in the same spirit that motivated visionaries 50 years ago to plan for the future.
Downloadable software- cheap oem software.
Modern bedroom furniture- Modern bedrooms.
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Ductless split air conditioning offer higher efficiency and reduced noise without a large hole in the wall or an open window. By separating compressor and condenser fan from indoor blower, the noisiest components are outside and away from the room. The indoor part of the ductless air conditioner has remote control capabilities and a timer to cycle the system only when needed.
Since mini split air conditioners have no ducts, they avoid energy losses associated with ductwork of central forced air AC systems. Duct losses can account for a significant portion of energy consumption for space conditioning, especially if the ducts are in a unconditioned space such as an attic.
Ductless air conditioning offers Higher Efficiency vs. window air conditioning, less noise, and no costly ductwork.
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