Arkansas HVACR NewsMagazine March 2019

S tate, National, Chapter News Tech News

importance on equipment development, shortcuts on materials and installation methodology again took over the industry. As a result questions were asked; • Manufacturers questioned warranty part returns that fail prematurely with little reason. • Green Energy gurus scratched their heads when efficiently built homes fail to perform at acceptable comfort levels. • Contractors ponder why some systems just operate poorly for no apparent reason. For rightly deduced reasons and solid concerns above, industry leaders as far back as 2005 have been advocates for more study of delivered air efficiency at the interior of the home.

HVAC is All About Air Tom Turner

Remember our industry began in hot humid climates only in the mid 1960’s in great numbers. The HVAC industry suffers the stigma, not from intentional wrong doing, but rather adoption of rules of thumb that have little basis in fact for the industry. The “Home Performance” or “House as a System” model is the only way to correct old habits. The path the industry took in past years is understandable. While meeting housing demand for the great numbers of “Baby Boomers” and a higher standard of living, engineering values were sidestepped with shortcuts. With cheap energy prices no one was the wiser. As energy prices began to rise and with the oil embargo of the late 1970’s it became apparent a more efficient housing stock had to be developed. Once a path was established to improve construction methods the emphasis would shift to higher performance HVAC equipment. In the wake of this rapid demand and an

Contractors ponder why some systems just operate poorly for no apparent reason.

As a result, in 2011 a segmented contracting sample and a leading Texas utility began a systematic search for homes where a group of contractors might be able to impact air delivery systems with minimal expense and maximized performance. With over 17 homes tested in, modifications made to the duct system only, and a test out for system efficiency, equivalent savings were comparable to a