HVACR Distribution Business Hot Topics
Sales and Marketing Optimization
Texas A&M's School of Industrial Distribution is renowned for its research capabilities on the practical aspects of the business of wholesaling. HARDI...
Strong Arguments Crash into Fiscal Reality
Whew. A total of 161 meetings in about eight hours. Sounds like a speed dating event at an A.D.D. conference, doesn't it? HARDI members held 161 meetings...
Building a Strong Case for Success
When I first saw the outline for the State Energy-Efficient Appliance Rebate Program (SEEARP) issued by the U.S. Department of Energy, I thought "retail white goods," and largely put the program out of mind....
The Future of EER?
Most in the HVACR industry would agree that legislative practices and emergency technology have a direct impact on the established guidelines or common practices throughout the country....
HFCs To Be Addressed In International Treaties This Year
The international treaties that address stratospheric ozone depletion and global climate change may both have a role to play this year in paving the way...
Fretting Over Freight?
It was a cold, wintry late December night in 1987. I had a part-time job working for a trucking company and had just arrived back at the freight terminal...
Workforce Issues: A View from Wholesalers
The danger of producing any article or special issue is that, as an editor or writer, you presume to know what your audience is thinking. Because this special issue focuses on workforce matters, we wondered what was important to HARDI members....
The New Workforce Will Job-Hop. AND THAT'S GOOD
For the last 20 years, regardless of the economic situation, people have spent fewer and fewer years in a given job. Today, the average time someone in their twenties spends in a given job is 18 months, and this number has been steady for the past five years....
Making Lemonade from a Business Lemon
On Oct. 13, 2009, the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) signed an agreement with environmental advocates led by the American...
RAE Coils Announces Price Increase for 2010
RAE Coils, a division of RAE Corporation, is announcing a price increase on all new quotations due to the significant rising costs of copper and aluminum...
HCFC Phaseout Rules Begin Year on Note of Relief
We talk to two members of HARDI's Refrigeration Council and try to assess the impact and the preparedness of wholesalers in this transition from R-22 to other refrigerants...
The R-22 Phaseout: The Manufacturers Speak Out
In a broad survey of top manufacturers throughout the country, we asked three questions about their own view and response to the R-22 replacement issue. Here are their answers...
Consumers, Contractors and Coping with the R-22 Phaseout
Remove all the hand wringing about the ultimate replacement of R-22 from the marketplace, and it is the contractor who is the last connection before the industry and the end user: the consumer. We interviewed leaders at ACCA and RSES for their assessment and spoke with a nationally recognized contractor...
The EPA: The Final Ruling
Whatever your feelings about the R-22 replacement question, it is the EPA that has taken the lead in dealing with the issue. We provide background about the phaseout and timeline leading to the impending final ruling...
HARDI Teleconference Adds Clarity to HCFC Issue
HARDI Vice President Talbot Gee hosted a teleseminar Dec. 14 that helped clarify issues resulting from the EPA's HCFC Phaseout Rules. Important aspects of the rulings include: ...
The Tone Deaf House of Representatives
Our U.S. House of Representatives had the audacity to pass a massive, game-changing healthcare reform bill that most of America doesn't want, according to a recent Rasmussen poll....
What Does HARDI Have to Do with Health Care Reform?
In August, HARDI announced its opposition to HR 3200, America's Affordable Health care Choices Act, the 1,000+-page House health care reform bill. HARDI distributed a survey to our distributor member companies that returned extremely clear and overwhelming messages on health care reform. ...
Delisted and Confused
Much like the star of the 1993 movie, Dazed and Confused, many HARDI distributors are uncertain to what and to whom they should commit because they can't...
Tax Rebates: How One Distributor Turned the Stimulus Bill into a Profit
When APR Supply heard about President Obama's stimulus bill in February, it had the knock-knock sound of opportunity. Recognizing that distributors could...
Weatherization, State Energy Efficiency and Utility Funding Could be Our Best Stimulus
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), or stimulus bill, raised the bar of energy efficiency incentive funding to unprecedented levels. I...
Efficiency and Emissions Are Inexorably Linked
The deadline for this column was the day after HARDI's second Congressional Fly-In was completed. HARDI members who did not attend should be sure to thank...
Buggy-Whip Marketing 101:The R-22 Phaseout
A buggy whip is a horsewhip that buggy drivers once used. When cars replaced buggies, the buggy whip became a symbol for anything that is hopelessly outmoded....
Turning Political Action into Business Action
From the new-look federal regulatory agencies to the newly aggressive Congress to the everything's-going-to-be-new Administration, there can be no doubt...
The Trials and Tribulations of the HCFC Phaseout
HARDI's HCFC Rulemaking Task Force timeline for the phaseout of HCFCs...
Regional Standards: What Do the Experts Say?
At the HVAC Systems & Equipment Council meeting at last year's Annual Conference, the issue of regional standards related to HVACR equipment arose and raised some interesting comments. ...
