Ask Congressmen to visit

This election year, during the August summer recess, as members of the U.S. Congress return to their home districts, the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute is urging its members to invite their local representatives to tour their manufacturing facilities.

"With all of the U.S. House of Representatives and a third of the Senate up for election, your elected representatives look for this type of opportunity to visit voters," said Don Davis, ARI director of legislative affairs.

ARI also announced a new Web site, www.ari.org/cert, which contains several hundred pages about its certification programs, including product descriptions and free performance standard downloads, utility rebate tips, information on bid solicitations, and details of ARI's certification programs. ARl also announced a revision of its Standard 700-2004, "Specification for Fluorocarbon Refrigerants."

ASSE adds Ecuador units

Expanding its membership to South America, the American Society of Safety Engineers formed an Ecuador section at its House of Delegates meeting june 7 in Las Vegas, but safety issues in South America "are still viewed as an expenditure, not as an investment, by many local corporations," according to Fernando L. Benalcazar, a health and safety manager for EnCanEcuador, Quito, Ecuador.

"Recent legislation in Ecuador is calling for a larger commitment from the private sector," Benalcazar said. "Through the new ASSE Ecuador section, safety, health, and engineering professionals in Ecuador will be able to gain the latest safety information and technology, enhance awareness, help regulatory compliance, and share lessons, learning instead of reinventing the wheel on safety, health, and engineering issues."

ASSE applauded the enactment of the U.S. "Standards Development Organization Advancement Act."

Phasing out refrigerants

An educational session on U.S.-Canadian regulatory and phase -out guidelines for R-22 refrigerants is to be the major topic of the annual conference of the Refrigeration Service Engineers Society in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Sept. 30-Oct. 2. Ted Gartland and Ron Vogel of Honeywell Refrigerants will highlight regulatory guidelines for R-22 in the U.S. and Canada. Technical sessions will be held on refrigerants 407C and 410A.

The conference will also offer an educational session on brazed plate heat exchanger, led by James E. Bogart of Flat/Plate, Inc., including a brief history of exchangers, construction, installation tips covering evaporators, condensers, subcoolers, desuperheaters, fluidto-fluid units, steam-to-fluid units, and swimming pools.

Conference attendees can take exams for certificates during the conference. Information on fees and registration is available from (800) 310 -6853 and (317)718 -5910 and by fax at (317) 718 -5912.

Distributors optimistic

More than 80% of electrical distributors responding to a National Association of Electrical Distributors survey estimated sales increases for the first half of 2004. The survey was distributed in early April to 30 ,0 700 distributors. NAED did not report the response percentage, but said that second -quarter expectations were "bright, although a little more cautious in the volume of sales expected."

NAED's Western Region, which had been the least optimistic in the first quarter, had the largest percentage of distributors experiencing increased sales. The Southern Region was second, followed by the Midwestern and Northeastern distributors.