Recap of the 2012 AHR Show in Chicago
Green isn’t just for the eco-conscious consumer anymore – it’s become an industry standard as was quite apparent at the 2012 International Air Conditioning Heating Refrigerating (AHR) Expo in Chicago last week.
The event featured more than 60,000 professionals from all over the world. It also featured experts from 35 countries presenting truly unique wares with a common thread – good for the environment.
The words to describe the products showcased at more than 6,000 booths have become more than buzzwords – efficiency, smart technology, green tech are where the HVAC industry is moving. We want better technology and better choices for our customers. Well, the industry delivered.
With record attendance and three days to meander more than 428,000 square feet of HVAC tech, the AHR 2012 was the largest show yet and delivered what we promised in our preview blog – more ideas for saving our customers (and ourselves) money.
InfoMill (@infomill), a data management company focused on the HVAC and materials handling industries, made a wise summation of the show in a recent Tweet – Impression from @ahrexpo is that business [is in a] slightly better state than 2 years ago but need to be lean, smart and flexible to win business.”
New products from Goodway focused on indoor air quality
Our new RamPro portable chiller tube cleaner won an honorable mention in the 2012 AHR Expo Innovation Awards
Goodway presented new products at AHR 2012 including the RamPro Portable Chiller Tube Cleaner. This award-winning tool makes fast work of creating better indoor quality and is specifically designed to handle the demanding environment of commercial tube cleaning. In addition, we presented a mold deterrent for coils, grills, duct work and more with our CoilShine-BC. This new solution keeps mold from coming back and going with our green focus for AHR – it’s EPA-registered and essentially nontoxic. You can apply it when the building is occupied. How’s that for better air?
Innovation awards and entry fees for a better community
This ought to make you feel all warm and cozy. Several companies including Goodway were recognized at the AHR Expo Innovation Awards for their commitment to improving the industry in 10 categories. Our RamPro Chiller Tube Cleaner made the cut in the Instruments category. But the most rewarding part of this competition is what the organizers do with the entry fees – they make a donation to a charity in the host city. This year, the competition generated more than $12,000 for Metropolitan Family Services, a nonprofit that serves thousands of families on the southwest side of Chicago.
The funds will help the organization save money on heating and cooling costs at its Head Start pre-kindergarten facility. The donation was used to purchase HVAC controls upgrades, which will help the two rooftop units serving the Midway Head Start Center run more efficiently. Currently, the Metropolitan Family Services spends more than $50,000 to operate all utilities at the facility.
Cool tech from the Expo
Some of the coolest new tools were featured at the Expo with the coolest going to Emerson Climate Technologies. They won an innovation award in the software category for their HVACR Mobile Toolbox for Contractors. This software features a set of six mobile apps designed to help contractors do their jobs more quickly and more efficiently.
Melink’s Intelli-Hood kitchen ventilation control really measured up to the efficiency and environmentally conscious theme of this year’s AHR Expo. According to the company, this smart vent control reduces exhaust (green!) and helps companies save up to 50 percent on air conditioning costs (efficient!). It won the overall Innovation Award and sealed the deal on where our industry is heading – in a good, clean direction.
Next steps:
The expo photos were not live on the Expo website at the time of this post, but you can still visit the virtual show and find insights from attendees and exhibitors on Twitter. Be sure to share your thoughts on the show in the comments, and don’t forget to check out our events page to see where we’ll be next.
- Sign up to receive a preview of the next AHR show just prior to the event.
- Check out Goodway’s great products at the show.
- Check out our learning center on Industrial Maintenance Cleaning Equipment.
- Stay up to date on facility maintenance tools such as chiller tube cleaners,boiler tube cleaners andhose/pipe cleaners,descaler systems,test instruments,industrial vacuums,commercial pressure washers, and drain cleaners.
Download our 2012 HVAC Career Development Map or visit our Learning Center.
It’s Superbowl Monday as AHR Expo Tackles Chicago Today
The New England Patriots and New York Giants have been crowned NFL conference champions and are now preparing for the Superbowl. The next two weeks will be filled with team meetings, breaking down of game tapes, practices, traveling, and much more. Yup, that’s alot of work that needs to be done prior to the big game.
Now consider the amount of time and resources needed to design, construct, manage and pull off our industries Superbowl, the 2012 AHR Expo. Starting today, McCormick Place will be packed with tens of thousands of professionals looking to boost their knowledge and push the HVAC industry past the goal line and on to new heights.
This show is predicted to be the largest and most impressive trade show in history. There is a reason why the show is three-days long—I’m quite certain it is impossible to absorb what the show has to offer, especially with thousands of exhibits from all around the world.
Sunday night it was lights out early, as I prepare for this historical couple of days. My free time has been filled with plans for the journey that will start Monday, January 23. To some, this may be just another day out of the office. To me and the rest of the HVAC enthusiasts, this is our championship game. Instead of rooting for our football team, we’re rooting for our peers. Day after day we have had to endure the ups, the downs, and the heartaches of the business. And that has brought us this year to Chicago in hopes that the new products soon available will make us champions of the industry.
Going green has proven to be not just another fad. Most of the show seems to be heading in the direction of green energy. Leaders in geothermal, solar heat, and zoning will most likely take the spotlight. On my drive to the show, I have one question that needs to be answered. How can I save myself as well as my customers money? In fact, that same question will be replaying itself in my mind as I walk from exhibit to exhibit. I’m sure that same question will be on the minds of most visitors throughout the show. I’m hoping Wednesday night I will have many answers to this question.
The expectations have been set. Will they live up to all the hype? Having attended the shows in years past I would say they will. AHR has never let me down and hopefully never will. As my knowledge and passion grows for the industry so does everyone else’s, which should be reflected this week. The day is finally here and nothing will stop me and thousands of others from attending but don’t expect any wardrobe malfunctions from Janet Jackson during the halftime show.
Next Steps:
- Sign up to receive a review of the show in your inbox later this week.
- Check out Goodway’s great products at the show.
- Check out our learning center on Industrial Maintenance Cleaning Equipment.
- Stay up to date on facility maintenance tools such as chiller tube cleaners,boiler tube cleaners andhose/pipe cleaners,descaler systems,test instruments,industrial vacuums,commercial pressure washers, and drain cleaners.
Download our 2012 HVAC Career Development Map or visit our Learning Center.
HVAC Maintenance: A Key Component In Energy Saving Programs
Here’s a real-life ” benefits of HVAC maintenance ” scenario for ya. Recently, I was asked to assist in a control point-to-point checkout for a manufacturing facility. The complex had 36 rooftop units and our task was to go through and verify that the control points were what the program said they were.
The facility was upgrading their Building Management System (BMS) as part of a larger energy initiative. A three year long replacement process had been completed and every unit was now a new, more energy efficient model. We had to make sure that the mechanical contractor had carried all the wiring over to the new units correctly.
Download our 2012 HVAC Career Development Map or visit our Learning Center.
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Cooling Tower Cleaning: A Roundup of Reasons
If you’re a regular reader of Just Venting, and/or if you’re involved in any aspect of commercial and industrial HVAC cleaning and maintenance, then it’s no secret to you that cooler tower cleaning is one of Goodway’s specialties. After all, we have a whole line of equipment — our CTV-1501 Cooling Tower Vacuum, our TFC-100 TowerWash Cooling Tower Fill Cleaner, our CTV-F2 Cooling Tower Filter System — dedicated to it.
The current spring season is prime-time for directing attention to this necessary task, and so for your convenience and edification we thought it would be a great time to review and emphasize the basic reasons you need to focus on system cleaning and maintenance. We’ve mined not only our own blog archives but also some other Internet resources to summarize the reasons for keeping current with your cooling tower cleaning schedule.
Download our 2012 HVAC Career Development Map or visit our Learning Center.
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Goodway Presents: Innovation Poised To Positively Impact Our Industry
Once again, Goodway and Just Venting are pleased to present information which will help to educate and inform our valued readers. According to the consulting firm Pike Research, in the next 5 years, the HVAC industry will see a significant and continuing emphasis on energy management. As noted in an executive summary of the report, rising energy prices and increasing pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are driving many building owners to manage energy as an asset rather than treating it as a fixed cost.
According to Pike, until recently, the largest single energy cost in most buildings had been lighting. But a concerted focus on reducing lighting costs, coupled with technological innovations, has driven down lighting costs to the point where HVAC has replaced it as the largest building management cost item.
Download our 2012 HVAC Career Development Map or visit our Learning Center.
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Goodway Presents: EPA’s Wise Rules Help Save Energy and Reduce Pollution
In a recent post we here at Goodway Just Venting talked about the Operations and Maintenance guide published by the Department of Energy (DOE). It turns out that this is not the only resource available to you from our friends in this nation’s capital.
The DOE’s Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) visits plants around the country and makes recommendations about how to reduce energy costs and improve efficiency. It is a service available at no cost to many small- and medium-sized businesses.
Download our 2012 HVAC Career Development Map or visit our Learning Center.
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Goodway Analyzer: Flue Gases Are Window to Energy Efficiency
As you are probably aware, Goodway is a huge advocate of a regular maintenance program for your equipment. Cleaning of tube bundles and heat-transfer surfaces is critical to operating your equipment in a safe, efficient and cost-effective manner. While those maintenance functions are critical for improving safety and efficiency, by their nature, they don’t address the money and energy that is literally and figuratively going up your chimneys.
Taking the measurements you need to evaluate the efficiency of your boiler or other combustion-based equipment doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. Truth is, measuring stack efficiency could be one of the easiest and smartest things you do this year ensure performance improvement.
Download our 2012 HVAC Career Development Map or visit our Learning Center.
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Winterizing Tips From The Big Apple Courtesy of Just Venting
Welcome to winter 2010! Sure, it’s only October, but the leaves are changing, the temperature is dropping and you can be sure that snow is on the way. In honor of the coming season, Just Venting brings you this advice on how to winterize your buildings, courtesy of a group that probably knows more about buildings than anyone else – the government of the City of New York.
Download our 2012 HVAC Career Development Map or visit our Learning Center.
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Coil Cleaning Equipment: Dirty Coils Cost Power and Efficiency
We’ve been telling you for years that dirty coils are detrimental to your HVAC system’s operational efficiency. Simply put, dirty coils practically reach into your pockets, take out your wallets and go on a spending spree using your money. Goodway offers top of the line CoilPro coil cleaning equipment because they know these statistics. But now another organization has systematically studied the effects and costs of dirty coils, and the results are pretty clear.
Download our 2012 HVAC Career Development Map or visit our Learning Center.
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Book Review: Boiler Operators Manual Has Great Tips On Boiler Cleaning and Maintenance
“Boiler tube failures have been the number one availability problem for utilities with fossil plants for as long as reliable statistics have been kept in individual utilities and by nations.” That juicy little quote comes courtesy of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) as part of an article about power plant downtime in Powermag.com. It’s yet another confirmation that boiler cleaning is key to continual, efficient operation.
Download our 2012 HVAC Career Development Map or visit our Learning Center.
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