While I was attending this year’s AHR Expo at the McCormick Convention Center in Chicago (January 26-28), I was collared by an old friend, PR agent extraordinaire John Vastyan of Common Ground (www.seekcg.com/experience.htm). And he insisted that I at least go by and talk to the people at one of the companies he represents, Climate Master, a water-source heat pump manufacturer out of Oklahoma City (www.climatemaster.com).
Well admittedly I wasn’t too thrilled, because I think of such products as mostly regional - to states like Oklahoma and Indiana, where progressive electrical co-op companies offer financial incentives and support to install these systems. And when I got there, they didn’t even have a new product offering - oh boy!
I like the whole concept of water-source heat pumps, because they are extremely efficient (SEERs to 25), and they usually don’t require any supplemental resistance heaters. However, the experience that I had with them back in the early 1980s was a bit spotty, because people were experimenting with some ideas that just didn’t work well. But as I was told, all of this experimenting has finally resulted in a very good collection of information on what works well and what doesn’t.
The other problem that I had with water-source heat pumps is that I thought of them as more of a product that well drillers would be interested in. However, as Bailey pointed out, a large percentage of the equipment they sell today is used with buried closed-loop pipes (under parking lots and the like). So perhaps picking up and promoting such a line of products (both residential and commercial) would be something for you to consider, if you’re not already in that market.
As I said in last month’s column, this year’s Expo was a bit light on new technology, but I wanted to add these two items for your consideration as:
1. A possible new type of product line for your company,
2. And some new technology to look forward to.