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The rush to a carbon-free future is in full swing. The effort has slowly been gaining traction, and funding from the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will significantly advance the pace. Everyone is talking about electrification, but we need to be “smart” and do more than make everything electric. How does energy efficiency fit into the decarbonization effort?

The Institute of Heating and Air Conditioning Industries (IHACI) is a nonprofit trade organization representing the Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) industry. Once a year, IHACI hosts a tradeshow to showcase the latest products in the industry and provide educational sessions for its members.

I attend the conference to keep current on trends and new products. One of my objectives is to see if manufacturers and suppliers are keeping up with policy changes in the state. The last IHACI conference I attended was in 2019. One of my primary goals then was to see if heat pumps were making headway and what new products were available.

When a building owner or homeowner contacts a heating and cooling professional, their primary concerns may not always be in their best interest. The restoration of service and price frequently take priority over quality.

The Heating and Cooling industry has some real issues with quality. Some contractors do high-quality work, and the performance of their installations is impressive. Unfortunately, most of the industry struggles to produce consistent, high-quality results.

Why is installation quality an issue? Can we regulate quality in the HVAC industry? Are there better options?

What’s the deal with California and natural gas in buildings? It started with cities and counties requiring new construction projects to be all-electric. On Sept. 22, 2022, California policymakers voted unanimously to ban the sale of gas furnaces and water heaters after 2030. What’s with all these restrictions, and why now?

The Biden administration has taken a significant step to address climate change. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has been signed into legislation. Over half of the $737B in the legislation address mitigating the impacts of climate change.

There is no question that this legislation will significantly impact the clean energy industry and many others. Many in the industry are excited and perhaps overwhelmed at the same time. The goals outlined in the IRA will take some heavy lifting. Are we ready? And what does this mean for the clean energy industry?

We spend a great deal of time talking to contractors. Understanding their challenges helps us focus our efforts as a trade organization. We continue to hear the same two concerns from contractors. One seems to be slowly improving, and the other is much more difficult.

The first is supply chain issues, which are becoming less of a problem in most cases. The other is the lack of an available workforce, a much more significant and daunting challenge.

Why is it so hard to hire new workers, and what can we, as an industry, do to solve the problem?

The Continued Value of Efficiency in a Decarbonization World It’s human nature — everyone wants to find that magic “silver bullet” that will solve all their problems. It’s no different in the energy efficiency space, where the industry is constantly looking to find the latest and greatest technology or product that will fix everything. But…