Heating, Cooling and HVAC

The ongoing HVAC industry trend toward designing products that both provide cleaner air and do so more efficiently is trickling into the consumer consciousness. “There’s a growing awareness by homeowners about indoor air quality issues and the impact indoor air has on allergies,” says Steve Brown, vice president of marketing at Beutler Corp., a Sacramento, Calif.-based residential and commercial HVAC contracting, engineering and sheet metal manufacturing company.

As a result, you’ll want to know which HVAC products will help you provide homeowners with improved indoor air quality and energy efficiency. Here are three trends to watch for:

Higher-efficiency air conditioners: Federal regulations will soon phase out air conditioners and heat pumps rated below 13 SEER (seasonal energy efficiency ratio), eliminating their use beyond January 2006. “The new standard will increase energy efficiency by 23 percent over current standard SEER ratings,” says Steve. “It’s all part of a big push nationally, and specifically in California, to reduce energy demands placed on power plants.”

Whole-house ventilation systems: “Builders are incorporating a number of methods to render whole-house ventilation because today’s tightly sealed, insulated homes demand it,” Steve says. When homes are tightly sealed, thereby reducing natural ventilation, mechanical ventilation of fresh outside air is essential to prevent the buildup of common pollutants from furnishings, building materials and household chemicals inside the home. In fact, mechanical ventilation is a requirement in many states’ building codes for bathrooms and kitchens, and some states require mechanical ventilation systems for the entire house.

Steve cites three possible components of whole-house ventilation systems that improve indoor air quality in slightly different ways:

Continuous ventilation systems. These systems are designed to operate continuously while occupants are home, distributing a low volume of fresh air throughout the house and/or moving stale air out. Depending on climate, they can be configured as exhaust-only, supply-only or balanced systems combining supply and exhaust air.

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Energy recovery ventilator (ERVs). Recommended for high-humidity climates, ERVs exchange heat from warm air going out with cooler air coming in from outside the home. ERVs can be separate from the home’s forced air system or integrated directly into it and can help control humidity levels by lowering the moisture content of fresh air coming in and reducing the load on air conditioners.

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Heat recovery ventilators (HRVs). Also known as air-to-air heat exchangers, HRVs are similar to ERVs, minus the moisture control. HRVs and ERVs are balanced systems, using both intake and exhaust fans, and both adjust the temperature of the incoming air by transferring heat energy from one air stream to the other. Additionally, HRVs use inside air to pre-heat or pre-cool incoming outside air.

Electronic air cleaners: A range of manufacturers offer electronic air cleaners that can be incorporated into a home’s forced air system. “These air cleaners place an electric charge on airborne particles and the filter strands, magnetically capturing microscopic impurities like dust and smog particles–and even larger particles like mold spores and cat dander–as they pass through,” Steve says. As just one example, Honeywell makes an electronic air cleaner that traps and filters as much as 98 percent of pollutants from the air passing through the heating and cooling system.

Offer Customers a Range of Options
Steve points to a pair of 2003 surveys of builders and home buyers by two industry magazines. One, which was done with consumer research firm Eliant of Irvine, Calif., found significant gaps between what builders think their customers want and what they actually want: Buyers ranked options and upgrades second only to workmanship, while builders ranked them sixth in importance.

The second survey showed that home buyers rank energy-efficient features and indoor air quality as two of the top three most important upgrades. “One of the findings from the surveys was that consumers want flexibility in their HVAC choices. Consumers want the option to select from a range of suitable products to fit their lifestyle, climate expectations and budget,” Steve says.

Bottom line: Be prepared to offer your clients numerous options to improve the indoor air quality and energy efficiency of their HVAC systems. Then make sure you take the time to ask customers whether they want an air filtering system or to upgrade to a high-end air conditioner with a whisper-quiet outdoor air condenser.

Source:HGTVpro.com