by George Lanthier I would like to personally thank all of you that have written, sent e-mails and approached me at seminars about how great it would be to see the boys at B&B Mechanical again. These guys have reached a point where they have become legends and to see the boys back at work again would be nice. I ...

Since about 2005 I have been following the ductless mini split system market, although I’ve heard that they have been around since the mid-60s. I must say over the past several years, Mini’s have become the rage—I continually hear how popular these systems have become. As far as what brand is the best, in the interest of not offending any ...

By Andrew Hoog Use of mobile devices in the energy industry is on the rise. General Electric recently distributed 2,000 iPads internally and has developed a series of applications for its employees and customers. Noveda Technologies, a supplier of web-based, real-time energy and water monitoring, launched an energy and water saving iPad app, for managing renewable energy production, energy consumption ...

In the past decade, natural gas utilities have added 300,000 miles of distribution mains to serve 17 million more customers.” —American Gas Association The above was the opening slide from a presentation I attended at Propane Days in Washington in June. Jeff Petrash, VP and general counsel of the National Propane Gas Association spoke on the expansion efforts of the ...

Many of you may wonder about the person referred to as the Rep.—what his or her job really is. In this column I will try my best to offer the answers to the above title. First of all, no matter what profession we are in, we are all representatives of something. If you are a service technician, you too are ...

We now operate in a world where the best laid plans designed by very smart managers are inevitably disrupted by price volatility, weather, demanding customers, skyrocketing costs and employee productivity issues to name a small handful. Gone are the days when retail prices changed six times per year, customers never left, workflow perceived as fairly easy to manage and margins ...

A Successful Change in Venue Produces a Fine Show By Keith Reid This year’s NEFI Expo moved to the DCU Center in Worcester, Mass. With any such change, the results have to be experienced to gauge success and subjectively the halls saw solid traffic and the educational sessions matched or exceeded similar events in the industry in attendance and quality. ...

Are your employees propane-proficient? By Stephen Bennett Lyndon Rickards recalls that way back when he received propane training he and his peers would put in a day’s work before driving for an hour to take a three-hour class, twice a week. “That’s how I got my CTEP training,” Rickards said, referring to the Certified Employee Training Program provided by the ...

The National Oilheat Research Alliance gives its Gold certification for technicians a major makeover. By Stephen Bennett NORA wants to teach technicians a lesson. Make that many lessons. NORA is revamping its advanced or “Gold’ certification for technicians, and creating new courses to recognize specialized areas of expertise. “The problem in the past was that the old Gold program didn’t ...

Some of my best friends in this industry on both the heating fuels and motor fuels sides are lobbyists. I work with them closely on a range of editorial projects, supporting the industry as best I can and we can as a magazine. And, I do so willingly at both a professional and personal level. That’s quite an admission from ...