It's going to get colder-

Whether we want it to or not. With fuel prices going through the roof, your customers' building energy maintenance is more essential than ever. The fastest way to save fuel (money) for your customer is to perform combustion tests on their burners. Electronic kits are getting more compact and affordable than ever. Just fine tuning the combustion efficiency by a few percentage points can save your customers thousands of dollars in the heating season. Additionally, combustion testing provides a great way to enhance your service offering and gain higher revenues. For further questions call us (800-227-9800) or click this picture:

Pictured is Bacharach's PCA^®2 combustion and emissions analyzer. The PCA^®2 is the perfect tool for service technicians and boiler contractors who need to ensure safe operating conditions, determine combustion efficiency or perform emissions testing in combustion applications.

Also - check and calibrate your customers' thermostats, pneumatic air stations, steam traps, locking thermostat guards, dummy thermostats (click to know more) and USB data loggers to validate temperatures. But if you really want to get serious, contact our Building Automation Systems department and talk to one of our systems engineers.

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Word Definitions
Arbitrator ar'-bi-tray-ter: A cook that leaves Arby's to work at McDonald's.
Avoidable uh-voy'-duh-buhl: What a bullfighter tries to do.
Baloney buh-lo'-nee: Where some hemlines fall
Bernadette burn'-a-det: The act of torching a mortgage
Burglarize bur'-gler-ize: What a crook sees with
Control kon-trol': A short, ugly inmate
more
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GREEN NEWS

Green Tools Available for Your Green Toolkit

New guidance to help engineers and others design, build and operate more sustainable buildings is available in Dallas. Visit the ASHRAE Bookstores at Adam's Mark or the Expo to learn more about the new Advanced Energy Design Guide for Small Retail Buildings, the ASHRAE GreenGuide: The Design, Construction and Operation of Sustainable Buildings and the new eLearning course on ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1.

Introduction to LEED and Green Buildings for Existing Buildings Seminar to be presented October 11, 2008 by N.A.P.E.-Philadelphia 76

This is an introduction to Green Building and the LEED for existing building program. Attendees will gain an understanding of what makes a non-residential commercial building "green." Low and no-cost ideas for your buildings will be discussed.

The presenter, Richard Neal, is the Chief Engineer of the National Geographic Society's headquarters building in Washington D.C. Richard has been certified by the U.S. Green Buildings Council as an LEED Accredited Professional. He is a past national president of the National Association of Power Engineers. He has been integrally involved in attaining his buildings' LEED EB Silver certification. Richard's real-world, hands-on experience coupled with his easy style of presenting will make for an enjoyable and informative day.

Read more, Click here.

GREEN BEER?
Anheuser-Busch Turns to Renewable Energy

ST. LOUIS - Anheuser-Busch plans for its U.S. breweries to use renewable fuels for more than 15% of combined energy needs by 2010. The company's breweries in Houston and Fairfield, Calif., are installing alternative energy technology that will be operational by the end of the year. The Houston brewery will use biogas, mostly methane from the decomposition of waste piped from a landfill. The Fairfield brewery will receive a small portion of its electricity from onsite solar panels. The facility also will get a bio-energy recovery system (BERS), which use bacteria to eat particles of waste in brewing wastewater. The resulting methane created by the bacteria helps fire boilers.Read more, Click here.

Taking the Energy Challenge
Cutting energy use by 10 percent would aid environment, bottom line

By BOM Editorial Staff

It amounts to a $10 billion challenge. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) ENERGY STAR program has challenged facilities executives to reduce energy consumption by 10 percent or more using proven methods like low-cost building tuneups, lighting upgrades and replacement of old equipment. By EPA's estimates, if all facilities executives participated in the Challenge, by 2015 greenhouse gas emissions from buildings would be reduced by the equivalent of 15 million vehicles, while facilities executives would save $10 billion in energy costs, says Jean Lupinacci, director of ENERGY Star's Commercial and Industrial Branch.

Read more, Click here.

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Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? He's all right now.
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EDUCATIONAL AND TRAINING

Our Fall '08 Training Schedule
...is now posted. "Our course offering is aimed at assisting contractors and maintenance providers to meet the ever-expanding challenges they face" says Kerk Farrell, NECC's President. You can attend the scheduled classes at our training center, or contact us to find out about bringing the training to your facility or site. For course information or to register, go to Our Training Page.

New On-line Educational Materials Available From N.A.P.E.
The National Association of Power Engineers has expanded its available course offerings to include many DVD/Videotape, CD-rom and on-line courses. For more information or to register, visit their Educational Offerings page.

ONLINE LEARNING CENTER
In cooperation with HVACReducation.net, this resource provides contractors and techs with convenient and cost-effective online training leading to NATE certification. NEWS magazine subscribers earn a 15 percent discount on every course.
Visit the Learning Center

ASHRAE Publishes New Guidance on Commissioning Process
A new ASHRAE guideline covers specific tasks to successfully implement the commissioning process for HVAC&R systems and assemblies. ASHRAE Guideline 1.1, HVAC&R Technical Requirements for the Commissioning Process, describes the technical requirements for the application of the commissioning process described in ASHRAE Guideline 0-2005, The Commissioning Process. Sample forms, documents and checklists are included.
Read more, click here.

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A will is a dead giveaway.
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Customer Service Rant

Recently I came home from a vacation. Sunday morning I went to check my email and my internet was down. I got a recording telling me that there was a 20 minute wait for service. On a SUNDAY! AT 7:30 AM! In the EASTERN TIME ZONE ! Then they will insult you by saying: "your call is very important to us"

It seems that large companies don't understand that customer service personnel ARE the company! The just want us to punch through a series of electronic choices to force us to solve problems ourselves. Many years ago, when we got our first voice mail system, we directed our 800 number to the voice prompt system. We listened to our customers and dropped the idea after only one week. During regular business hours, all 800 calls are answered by a human, not a recording. When I'm the customer, I can't stand bad customer service and won't tolerate it here at NECC . As a consequence, we won't let that happen here! We will email you with an order confirmation which includes delivery tracking numbers, or we'll expedite your order for you.

Here is a Saturday Night Live parody clip you might enjoy: (No worms or spam's)

Picture Of The Month

Ductwork support genius:

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