Arkansas HVACR NewsMagazine March 2026

HVACR NewsMagazine March 2026

Tech News

Oil embargo Energy prices were cheap in the 1960’s with gasoline prices between 21 and 29 cents per gallon in the south. The 1973 OPEC oil embargo sent oil prices up over 400%, from $3.00 a barrel to $12.00 a barrel. Imagine a price increase like that in today ’ s dollars. A barrel would cost $300 a barrel. It would set the stage for the United States and other concerned nations to find ways to limit wasting energy unnecessarily.

We need not forget how we arrived with homes performing as efficiently as we have so far. The journey has been slow simply because of foundational building science that was new to the industry as we tried to reign in energy costs and environmental impacts. Keeping folks from freezing to death had been achieved. Now we are moving to keep people comfortable, which is a much more complex challenge. Vanishing pier and beam construction In the mid 1950’s construction practices moved to slab construction due to costs savings. Between two and three decades later it was realized moving to slab construction cut energy usage by over 30 percent limiting envelope leakage. Even today you sometimes find a combination of slab and pier and beam construction. If you do, be sure to measure temperature and humidity on both sides of the equation. If there are differences of more than 15% humidity with no visible means of slowing movement (applied barriers) you can be sure damage will occur when moisture migrates. Moisture moves through concrete, will lift finishes on floors and trim, and cause wood floors to cup. Like heat moving to cool, moisture migrates to dry.

Imagine $300 per barrel oil

During the embargo, many ideas for energy saving fell upon the HVAC industry. Since HVAC loads were a sizable portion of the utility bill just as they are now, many of the ideas were reactionary. An example of one way to drive down the cost of cooling was direct misting of the condenser coil. Stainless steel wires held nozzles about 12 inches off the face of the condenser and quarter inch lines supplied the coolant. In short order the mineral content would foul the coils and require cleaning that sometime destroyed the aluminum fins. This was just one example of the measures used to try to reduce consumption. Most often the remedy for the high consumption resulted in less than favorable results. As recently as last (2025) summer, qualityhomeaircare.com, a consumer / contractor HVAC education web site, had a discussion paper on the same