Go Green

Green technologies must be money-saving technologies for them to become widespread. Green systems may cost more initially, but because they are more efficient and less expensive to operate, their life-cycle costs are lower. Cost recovery for these systems can be calculated by using energy rating systems such as the energy efficiency rating (EER). New, “green” products such as high-efficiency air conditioners, heat reclaiming hot water heat exchangers, light fixtures, and appliances must bear research and development costs and therefore do not currently have the economies of scale of their more predominant competitors. As a green certified technician, if you can demonstrate a financial and environmental justification, few consumers will not make the right, the green, choice.

The goal of this program is to train the HVAC/R technician to support the building owner, with proven green money-saving techniques, thereby increasing Green Building implementations.

In the context of the HVAC industry, “green” means systems that are healthful to building occupants, that are energy efficient, that reduce environmental pollution and global warming, and that reduce long-term costs.

Home and business owners may feel that one person can make little difference by installing a green HVAC system. For example, someone might think it is okay to change the oil in their car and pour it down the storm drain because it will not affect the vast amount of water in the world. The reality, however, is that over 30 times more motor oil is dumped by oil changes and road runoff annually than was spilled by the Exxon Valdez supertanker (source: Valerie Harms.

The National Audubon Society Almanac of the Environment: The Ecology of Everyday Life, New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1994, p. 93). Leading scientists, including about 2,500 scientists from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, agree that human activity causes pollution, vanquishes species, and is linked to global warming.