2013 AHR Expo Report
With over 51,000 attendees, the 65th AHR Expo broke all previously attendance records for Southwest shows. The show, held January 28-30 in Dallas, Texas, allowed 1,951 exhibiting companies to show off their latest products and innovations at the Dallas Convention Center, spanning 397,000 square feet.
The world’s largest HVACR exposition featured more than 100 educational sessions as well as New Product and Technology Theaters, where over 70 exhibitors presented their offerings as well as a Building Automation and Control Showcase and a Software Center with over 40 software vendors.
Rheem Manufacturing Company was selected as the 2013 AHR Expo Product of the Year Award winner for its innovative H2AC Rooftop Unit, a restaurant integrated AC and water heating system. Rheem entered was selected from among the 10 AHR Expo Innovation Award winners. The innovative new product features refrigerant-to-water heat recovery that can reduce the water heater’s energy consumption by an estimated 50 percent. Rheem was an Innovation Award winner in the Cooling category.
Created by ASHRAE, AHRI and AHR Expo, the awards program was designed to recognize the most innovative and useful products among the thousands on display at the AHR Expo. Entries submitted by exhibitors each year are judged on the basis of innovative design, application, market impact and value to the HVACR industry. The Awards are also meant to promote and encourage new product development in ten major categories.
The entry fees from the AHR Expo Innovation Awards are donated to a local charity in the city where the expo is being held. This year’s total of $10,350 was donated to Family Gateway, a Dallas-based organization dedicated to helping homeless children and their families achieve independence. Family Gateway will use the donation to upgrade outdated and inefficient HVAC equipment in 28 of their family units.
Other announcements at the show included Taco’s purchase of Hydroflo Pumps of Fairview, Tennessee. Hydroflo is a manufacturer of vertical and submersible turbine driven pumps for use in a range of industries, including agricultural irrigation, mining operations, municipal water systems and HVAC. Like Taco, Hydroflo is a privately owned and operated company. It was started in 1998 by Brian Daschner, who will stay on as CEO. Under the terms of the sale, Hydroflo becomes a wholly owned division of Taco, Inc.
Also taking place in conjunction with the Expo was the ASHRAE Winter Conference. Some 2,840 people attended the conference, held Jan. 26-Jan. 30, in Dallas, Texas. New to the conference was the ASHRAE Event App. Some 2,000 Conference attendees accessed education courses and social events with the touch of a button; had maps and floorplans in hand to find their way around; added sessions to their personal schedules and created one-touch custom agendas of events from their smartphones and tablets.
The Winter Conference technical program featured nearly 200 presentations, with the top attended session in the systems and equipment, facility management, energy conservation and fundamentals and applications tracks. The top-attended sessions were Introduction to the ASHRAE/REHVA Chilled Beam Design Guide; Desiccant Enhanced Air Conditioning; The FM Perspective: Reducing Energy Consumption and the True Cost of Maintenance; Innovative Energy Efficiency Strategies for Commercial Buildings; and Decoupling the Latent Load Through Psychrometrics.
‘We were very pleased with the attendance and the enthusiasm on the Show floor,” said Clay Stevens, President of the International Exposition Company that produces and manages the AHR Expo. ‘We believe the enthusiasm on the Show floor bodes well for the economic outlook of the HVACR industry overall, and AHR Expo 2014 next January in New York.”
