The Hotline Newsletter

Summer 2002

From the President - How do you specify energy efficiency?

This is the question of the decade for our industry. There is now a relatively limited supply and distribution of natural gas in proportion to the surging demand for electric generation and due to the general economic recovery.

We had the wake-up call a year ago when gas at the wellhead hit $10 per MCF. Today's relatively higher cost of natural gas and the uncertainties that lie ahead means energy efficient heating equipment - if it's available - should not be overlooked.

To the end user who wants to expand or build a new facility, an energy efficient heating system all too often falls to the bottom of the pecking order when considering all of the other decisions that have to be made in the process. General contractors and mechanical contractors know that if they aren't the lowest bidder, they often don't get the job. Thus, the lowest initial cost wins out over everything else. This means the end user pays the ultimate price of higher fuel bills, year, after year, after year....

Maybe the answer begins with questions:

Is energy efficiency important?
Is there a difference between heating systems?
Is the difference worth it?
Does it necessary cost more for a more energy efficient system?
How do you know if one system is more efficient than the next?
How do you know who is telling the truth?

These are questions Cambridge is prepared to answer. We have spent a lot of time and money doing field research, including project studies of various types of heating systems. We have paid our dues in the area of product R&D in order to come up with solutions and answers to these questions. Cambridge has the facts (proof), not just conjecture and half-truths, about what one can expect as far as providing the highest energy efficiency in space heating while being competitively priced in the market.

Anybody involved in industrial space heating should ask, or be asked, these questions before the final equipment selection is made.