During the Annual Meeting of the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA), in Tampa FL last month, officials from Carrier Corp. announced the launch of the Toshiba-Carrier brand in North America. Under this brand, Carrier will sell high efficiency duct-free inverter heat pumps, efficiency rated up to 23 SEER, via its distribution channel. The brand will also include Energy Star®-compliant and tax-credit eligible duct-free products.
Bob McDonough, president of Carrier Residential and Light Commercial Systems, and Akira Inoue, executive vice president of Toshiba-Carrier Corp., presented the product lines and distribution strategy at a press conference held during the ACCA event. McDonough told attendees that with the addition of the Toshiba-Carrier brand to Carrier’s existing line of inverter and fixed speed duct-free products, the company now has the broadest capacity range of duct-free split products in North America.
He said that these new products became available to distributors in mid-March 2010 and consist of two families: a residential tax-credit eligible and Energy Star®-compliant inverter high wall system line that ranges from .75 to 2 tons on size with efficiency ratings up to 23 SEER and 10 HSPF; and light commercial “Super Digital” inverter under-ceiling, cassette, and high wall systems ranging in size from 1.5 to 2 or 3.5 tons with the North American industry’s highest efficiencies among duct-free cassette and underceiling units, up to 21 SEER and 11.9 HSPF.
The super digital inverter line also features the longest refrigerant line lengths (245’) and wired controllers for increased installation flexibility.
Time Was Right for Expanded Venture
Greg Alcorn, Carrier’s vice president of Light Commercial and Duct Free Sales and Marketing explained in an exclusive interview with Contracting Business.com, that the joint venture with Toshiba was formed in 1999 to combine Toshiba’s innovation strengths with Carrier’s global distribution. He pointed out that for the ensuing 10 years, Toshiba-Carrier produced and sold products for the global markets which were much more duct-free centric than the North American market.
“But, with the emergence of inverter technology in duct-free split systems, along with tax incentives, and energy initiatives in the U.S., the timing was right this year to bring these efficient and compliant products here,” Alcorn said. “They complement our existing line and create the broadest capacity range of duct-free products that fit into the current tax-credit and Energy Star programs available to consumers today.”
Alcorn said that, from a contractors’ standpoint, the installation of these products is easy, because they’re not unlike traditional non-ducted equipment that contractors have been installing for years. Alcorn has been with Carrier nine years, and with parent company United Technologies for 15. He said they’re in the process of delivering training programs to Carrier’s distribution.
“Our Carrier distributors will provide service training to contractors locally,” he added. “Training isn’t just on the technology. Because the duct-free inverter products are new, Carrier has added sales training to the mix to help contractors be well-equipped to sell the benefits of these products in concert with the rest of our product lines,” he concluded.
For more information on the Toshiba-Carrier brand of duct-free inverter products, please visit the Toshiba-Carrier website at http://bit.ly/b3Sm8y