If you looked at the cover of this month’s issue, then you know it’s time for the AHR Expo, the annual trade show where everything that has to do with the HVAC market is on display.

Despite the expo having a penchant for cold-weather cities such as Chicago and New York, this year’s show is in sunny Orlando, Florida, where the average January high temperature is 71°F — almost 40 degrees warmer than Chicago at this time of year. Sounds pretty good to me.

The city’s Orange County Convention Center is massive, and the AHR Expo is one of the few shows that can fill a big chunk of it. We’ll be doing our best to cover it all, searching for all the newest sheet metal products and machinery for ductwork fabrication.

And this year, I’ll have a new assistant helping me travel the floor of the cavernous Orlando convention center. Those of you who receive our weekly e-newsletter — and you should sign up for it if you don’t — may have noticed a new name and face included in recent editions.

That’s Emma Klug, our new associate editor. A recent graduate of Columbia College Chicago, she has been a contributor to a number of Detroit-area publications and blogs, most recently at DBusiness, a magazine covering the region’s companies.

She brings a variety of experiences with social media platforms, as well as experience in search engine optimization, ensuring that Snips’ content is easy to find anywhere on the Web. I think she’ll be a great addition to our staff. If you’d like to say hello, you can email her at kluge@bnpmedia.com.

Letter: 

Duct covers do work

The column on plastic duct covers (“Plastic duct covers not all they’re wrapped up to be,” July 2015 Snips) has sparked lively conversation on the need to keep ductwork clean and free of debris.

Most people support the regulation requiring ductwork to be covered during transport and construction.  Michael Kotebey’s October 2015 letter to the editor addressed some of the issues involved and offered some valid points. He also indicates an interest in finding alternative methods to protect ductwork. There is a way to keep ductwork covered in an environmentally friendly manner while saving money on labor costs and eliminating the waste involved with single-use products.  The answer is reusable, elasticized Ductcap covers.

Steve Vossen, owner

Ductcap Products Inc.

Willmar, Minnesota